Campag4life

I find myself when riding higher speed to be spending a lot of time in the 170-180 HR range. A guestimate of my max HR is 190. I am 60 y.o. Not sure if I can sustain 175 bpm for 1 hour...possibly not...but can for 30 minutes if motivated enough. I am not anaerobic at 175 bpm though my breathing is elevated a bit but may run out of gas after 30 minutes at this HR.

I am wondering about you guys? I don't ride that way all the time...trying to make a point of doing more rides at lower HR this year and more rest days off the bike between rides. But my HR gets up on fast group rides and taking pulls off the front or hammering solo or exchanging pulls with another rider and was curious if you guys sustain a higher HR throughout your ride?

kingfishr

I have the same problem, frequently running at 90% of my max heartrate for extended periods during some club rides. Recent research also suggests that this can cause damage to the heart, so I am personally changing my training habits to ride more at lower heart rates and add more short high intensity intervals to build up more leg strength. There is little benefit to one's health to be in the red for so long...

MikeyBoyAz

1. My HR goes up after a dose of caffeine, at high altitude and after I take a pseudoephed. [I haven't tried all three!]

2. I find when I skip a meal and ride in the morning [forget, not intentional] I end up with a higher HR.

3. My HR is the lowest on mid-morning rides with a tasty breakfast 3-4 hrs before. Not sure if that helps.

*All 3 of the above can average the same speed sadly enough.



Riding slow also gives me a low HR, but I don't think that is the question.

wphamilton

Same for me, if you drop all of the numbers down about 10 beats. I don't believe that it's dangerous for our long-term health but I gather that it's not recommended for training. I'll ditto the question.

Willbird

I'm curious about how accurate the heart rate monitor itself is at measuring your heart rate?? I just used my Wahoo TICKR for the first time yesterday on a 30 mile ride, (did 30 riding hard and 1.5 cool down), it says I was at 164 average for 74 minutes of that ride. 150 average for 28 minutes of it, 174 plus for 7 minutes.

Walking at a brisk pace for 40 minutes/2.54 miles gave me an average of 115 and a max of 126. I walk a few days here and there when the weather forecast is not calling for a dry 2 hour ride.

49 years young here.

Bill

cafzali

The "rules" have changed for heart-rate training to the point that you need to do a bit of self-testing to see what your max actually is. The old axioms like 220-your age, etc. are not appropriate for most people and have led many to believe they're pushing themselves to the limit when they're actually not.

If you truly ever get close to your max heart rate, you'll notice a big increase in your oxygen demand that, if not met, will cause you to faint. If you haven't reached conditions approaching those, I wouldn't worry about max.

StanSeven

HR monitors are accurate. The only thing that throws them off is static and dry conditions - not enough moisture on the contacts. Starting out without warming up/sweating and especially with low humidity can make for some crazy high numbers. But once you start sweating, they are right on. the one exception is you can quickly dry out riding downhill.

Reynolds 

Nearly the same here, I'm 63 and my tested MHR is 191. These days I'm not training as much as 2 or 3 yrs ago, but then I could sustain 3 20 min intervals at 175/178. At a race I made the mistake of wearing my HRM and backed off a bit when I saw 180+ all the time. My Dr. says it's a personal thing and I shouldn't worry.

Willbird

I did some google on that, the chest type are fairly accurate, maybe not so much for the light based wrist or arm ones ??

Bill

kingfishr

Can too much exercise harm the heart and shorten your life? - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe

While exercise researchers haven’t determined the exact toll this takes on the heart muscle, evidence suggests that too much prolonged exertion over time can do irreversible damage. In a 2012 review of more than 50 studies published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, O’Keefe and his colleagues concluded that endurance athletes who participate in marathon-style running, biking, and swimming races have five times the risk of developing an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation because of an enlargement of their heart muscle. Some also have more scarring on heart tissue and higher levels of a protein called troponin, which is involved in inflammation and atherosclerosis, a chronic condition that damages blood vessels

wphamilton

I don't know how accurate it is. My assumption is there's going to be some noise, but most of the time it's right at the moment you look at it.

I don't even download the data, I just look at the numbers while riding. So, it's probably the exact same situation as looking at your speedometer and guessing your average from the numbers you see most often, and the actual average speed is a couple mph slower. My actual average HR would probably be 10% or so lower than the typical cruising HR that I see, and not really 90% for the whole ride.

Willbird

Cyclemeter gathers up the data so I can look at it after the ride, the Whahoo ap with my limited playing with it so far does not save up nearly as much stuff that I can look at later.

Bill

on the path

I had this problem with a previous HRM strap. Then I got the new version of the Garmin. No more issues. My Garmin Edge recognizes the strap, and hence my HR, before I even have it securely attached to my torso. Strap is very comfortable too. I'm very impressed.

wphamilton

True. I've only estimated mine from the highest numbers I've seen, and reaching 98% a few times on hills a few weeks ago the symptoms felt like it was pretty accurate.

I'm a little skeptical about actual fainting though, if you're in reasonable shape. If you stop and overheat maybe, but just backing off and getting your breath back it's not going to happen.

RollCNY

I haven't used my HR monitor in two years, but your number (175bpm for 30 minutes) seems crazy high. My max HR ever seen on my Garmin was 192, on the trainer, followed by me laying on the floor dry heaving. So I always use that as my theoretical max.

On a typical group ride:
Cruising in the pack, 20-22mph: 125-130 BPM
Pulling the pack, same speed: 140-145 BPM
Solo breakaway: 150-155BPM, could hold it for 30-45 minutes.
Hill climb, with the group: 150-170 BPM, really pace dependant
Aggressive Climb:175-182 BPM, maybe 7 -8 minutes max duration.

I am going from memory, so I may be off +- 5 BPM on the lower sides, but I can say with certainty I could not hold 175 for long. At that rate, my HR is either climbing to failure or on the way back down.

Also, as a for what its worth, a sports doc acquaintance has told me that HR meters are not overtly accurate, but they are amazingly repeatable on an individual. His comment was to use them against your own ranges, as measured by the device, but good luck comparing them to other's data or an EKG. I say this not from personal expertise, but from one guy's comments, so just a food for thought.

kingfishr

My HR monitor is spot on I've even worn two different to check; a tacx and a garmin with two belts and two sensors and they gave identical reading, any errors would show spikes in the data on wko+, and I never see that. I did a 30km race in May with a 30minute avg of 179 with a max pulse of 186 (96%) and another race the week before with a 60 min average of 175bpm for 94% of max, but it's probably time to take it a little easier...

Campag4life

Thanks guys. Believe my HRM...a Garmin 500 is accurate. I will add, my HR being up a bit may have something to do with the heat I am riding in this time of year in FL. Its been hot and humid, even in morning riding and big time perspiration...going through 3-4 water bottles in my std. 32 mile ride.
Appreciate all the responses.

merlinextraligh

I don't think so. There's a big individual variability here.

I don't wear a HRM, but I went back and looked up a recent file where I did ( my power numbers were lagging and I wanted to see if I was dogging it by correlating with HR)

The attached file was 30 minutes of tempo (6-7/10ths perceived effort) into 8 minutes of steady state ( 8/10ths perceved effort, but still below TT pace).

For the 8 minute steady state my average HR was 176, and the high 30 minutes was 169.

That would indicate that I should be able to do a 40k TT averaging at or above 175, which is consistent with my experience, back when I used to pace TTs off HR.

Activity | TrainingPeaks

Campag4life

What you report is what I thought. Figured my HR numbers reflected a healthy heart.
Again, I rarely keep my heart rate in the 170 bpm zone for say more than 20 minutes however was curious what others experienced.
Thanks Merlin.

Bathwater

At my age my max HR should be around 190. Obviously, the age based formula is not the most accurate one out there, but I've toyed with a couple other formulas and an aggregate method which got me a similar figures so it might be in the ballpark. On most rides I usually peak around 185-187. I've hit 190 once, but that was with a decent amount of caffeine in my system. Most rides, even the 2-3 hour long ones I average in the low 170's. I honestly have no idea what to make of my numbers, except my HR seems a bit high. My max number is just probably off I guess.

Gramercy

Over time your heart rate should go down as you get fit, or you should be putting out more power with the same heart rate as your fitness improves. Have you seen the strava profiles of the TDF guys? Their heart rates are in the 110's to 120's for the most part. It's absurdly low.

TrojanHorse

Your HR is very very individual. Those formulas are OK for a population but some people are just rabbits I guess. A fella I used to ride with (we're both in our 40s) would average over 200 and the highest number I've ever seen on my HRM EVER in the last 3 years is 178, so I call that my max.

For me personally, I need to keep my HR between 160 and 165 if I want to go hard on a hill but not blow up (sustained climbing of 30 min. +). The biggest variable I've noticed for my HR and sustained climbs is the temperature (and by association, how hydrated I am). If it's really hot, my HR will climb and my speed will drop. If I let my HR get over 165 for much more than a hairpin I'll pay for it and soon.

merlinextraligh

The formulas may have some, limited, validity applied to a population.

They're pretty much worthless for any one individual. On the file I linked my max HR, for a workout that didn't have any all out efforts was 181, 16 beats higher than the formula says I'm capable of in an all out effort.

StanSeven

Rather than just guessing or using a formula which may be way off, find out for certain. Ride up a long hill after a good warmup. Keep increasing the effort as your climb and shift to harder gears as you go. As it gets more difficult as cadence drops, stand and keep pushing. Finally when you feel really beat and cadence drops to 40-45, do an all out sprint for 20 seconds or so. That will be your max or very close to it.

dleccord

How old are you and how long have you been riding? I have a little over 2000 miles over the past 4 years of road riding and I cannot hang in a group 20-22mph at your HR range. Granted, I started out low 180s (always getting dropped), and now I can hang back and ride with HR in the 160s.