Heart rate worry « Singletrack Forum

Bike Forum

Heart rate worry

54 posts & 40 voices | Started 6 months ago by Smarticus | Latest reply from rkk01

Tags:

Heart rate

Pages: « Previous 12

Radioman - Member

Heres my little story on my heart ... Im 49years old and after a recent ECG at a company medical I had a "worried urgent" call from the doctor. He said he was about to go away for the weekend but felt he should warn me as they were worried about my test. The electrical heart signals were peaky and indicative of some potential problem.

He told me not to get my heart above 120bpm and walk but not run anywhere!! He knew I was a keen cyclist ....I said that wld be hard as I had a 1hr ride home from work and an approx. 3hr XC ride the next day. Anyway it worried me and I saw a cardiologist the next week. They did an ECG as well as an ultrasound scan to check to see if there was any thickening of the heart muscle which could be indicated by my peaky ECG. The cardiologist said the my heart was in great shape and all fine and nothing to worry about.

I would have been even more worried if a non medical mate hadn't already warned me that its quite common in people who do a lot of endurance sport to have the peaky electrical signal. My resting in daytime is about 57BPM but flat out about 188bpm. As said above it seems to vary widely with different individuals .

Posted 6 months ago #
Andyhilton - Member

If you're worried I'd get it checked. It'll probably be nothing but better safe than sorry.

Having said that I've been putting off getting an ECG done.

Posted 6 months ago #
allmountainventure - Member

MHRs are just theory used to calculate an aerobic training zone. Everyone is different, some beat high some beat low. And yes you can beat over your "max" without exploding. As long as you are not getting chest pains or dizzyness etc. High exercising rate can be a sign of an iron deficiency though so you might want to look into that.

If you want to estimate aerobic training zones IMO this is a better method.

Maffetone Method (in a nutshell).

180 minus your age.

Place yourself in one of the following.

A) Never trained, recovering from major illness, injury, surgery or taking meds subtract 10

B) Training but falling short of goals or workout routine is inconsistent; if you have suffered injury or had 2 or more colds or flu in past 12 months subtract 5

C) Been training consistently for 12 months and have measured progression and achieved goals; not had injuries or more than 2 colds subtract 0.

D) "Competing", sustained improvements over 2 years, no injuries or more than 2 colds add 5.

The theory is that if you mostly stick to these zones you steadily progress while minimising the risk of injury, exhaustion or illness.

Do a MAF test every three to four weeks. Basically a time trial maintaining your HR as above. As you progress HR stays the same but the time trial gets faster. Graph it. When you plateau its time to do speed work.

Posted 6 months ago #
lazybike - Member

I had a conversation about heart rates with a friend who time trials, he did a sub 50 25 in his early 50's.....so steve do you use a hrm, I tried one, don't bother now...why's that..I don't care what its reading I'm not slowing down.

Posted 6 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

44 - Have been gradually increasing my max HR over the last 18 months, as I increase my bike fitness. Up from high 160s / low 170s to mid 180s.

I use a Garmin 500, and gradually tweak the HR zones based on what the unit reports back to me. eg, have recently dropped resting HR from 60 to 55.

Have always wondered about getting a max HR test done. Is this something the mediacal profession need to do, or would a well fitted out gym have the kit (and expertise)??

Posted 6 months ago #
lazybike - Member

for max hr, can you not just ride hard uphill till you blow up, see what it reads.....

Posted 6 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

for max hr, can you not just ride hard uphill till you blow up, see what it reads.....

That's always what I've based my training zones on - hence the comment about tweaking the settings based on what the unit reports back...

But I've always assumed that there'd be a little extra left in the tank compared to a properly conducted test...

Posted 6 months ago #
lazybike - Member

yeah, I suppose you might be able to go a bit harder in the gym, wouldn't have thought it would be much though...when you calculate your zones do you show it as %, or bpm?

Posted 6 months ago #
honourablegeorge - Member

I'd start worrying if the Garmin shows 0.

Posted 6 months ago #
lazybike - Member

your worries are over by then....

Posted 6 months ago #
allmountainventure - Member

Read this article

The formulae method of % of 220 minus your age is probably the most established, and worse, method because it doesnt take into account your physical conditioning at the time. Unlike the Maffs method.

You could also use this Karvonen equasion which at least takes into account your current resting heart rate. Just ignore the "fat burning zone" BS on that page.

Like rkk01 says^^^^ its about tweaking the results.

Posted 6 months ago #
messiah - Member

I used to run in the desert with a chap who's heart rate would jump from 160-170 up to a scary bounding 230-250. When you took his pulse when it was like this it was amazing and so was the boom-boom-boom in his chest. After a few seconds it would calm back down to a normal excersing 150 odd and he would go back to his running... not sure if it was heat related or what but scared the sh!t out of me. When I suggested he got it checked he told me it had been like that for 20+ years and he wasn't worried about it

He used the HRM to try to keep himself away from that zone though... nutter

Posted 6 months ago #
rootes1 - Member

main thing is to update your garmin to actuals i.e. actual resting and actual max HR.. these will be different from the defaults set in the Edge

when yo have done this all the zones and alarms will change.. you need todo this through Garmin Training Centre software

Posted 6 months ago #
The Swedish Chef - Member

As an aside, your max and threshold heart rates are sport specific, so your running and cycling numbers will be different for instance.

The only way to really know your zones is to get your lactate tested on a bike by a specialist. Very interesting, and certainly worth it if you compete.

Posted 6 months ago #
IanMunro - Member

Smarticus,
Just to check when you said your resting HR was 80, was that taken at proper rest (e.g. just after waking up)?

Posted 6 months ago #
Pawsy_Bear - Member

53 years young HR max 174 resting average 45 it goes lower but this is the average and checked by the hospital each year as I have a pacemaker for low heart rate I train 10+ hours a week and HRM is ideal. Maximum heart rate is easy enough. Best attained after a very good warm up maybe 20 - 30 mins or more because the fitter you are the more difficult it is to get the right amount of stress built up. I hit maybe 40 - 50 mins in zone 5 every week but rarely see a maximum 100%. You might see it during a MTB ride where your really going for it up a steep incline.

You dont need really need to worry about how high the maximum is but get worried when your HR drops below 30 Talking from experience ha ha

Posted 6 months ago #
Smarticus - Member

Thanks all - mainly very comforting.

The 80bpm is what the garmin reads when I switch it on at the start of the ride (before pedaling but after faffing about getting ready). So maybe 80 isn't too big a worry ?

I confess to being very spooked by a collegue at work who died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 52. He was fit, sensible and no symptoms. But had a heart attack in the gym after only having been there a few minutes so not pushing it. He got an annual health check at work including exercise ECG and it picked nothing up. Autopsy showed chronic heart disease with 2 major arteries blocked. How can someone live with chronic heart disease and not know about it until its too late ? Mind you his father died of a heart attack at the age of 60 so clearly suspicion of genetic weakness.

I think I'll ditch the monitor and just enjoy the ride !

Posted 6 months ago #
molgrips - Member

So maybe 80 isn't too big a worry ?

In that situation, no way. It's standing heart rate, presumably being active, bending over to check your bike/getting it out of the garage/car etc ec, sounds spot on.

RESTING heart rate is when you are lying down fully relaxed, pref late at night but not having recently eaten, drunk booze, coffee tea etc.

Heart rate has nothing to do with heart disease anyway. You might think there is because very unfit people might get their heart rate up doing slight exercise, and they might also have heart disease.

HRMs are a training tool, if you want to train then learn how to use it and what it can tell you. Otherwise, wtf did you buy it for?

Posted 6 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

Agree with molgrips comment - up and about my HR is anything between 80-100, depending on what I am doing. Sit down and rest and it will drop to 60s.

Lie down, close eyes, take slow and deep breaths, imagine lying on a beach and listenting to the waves lapping....zzzzz....zzzzz that's close to 50 - that's your resting HR.

BTW - has anyone used a Garmin 500 or similar GPS enabled HRM in a gym setting?

Have been trying a few early am X-Biking sessions to see if it would be good fill in for wet dark winter commutes. It feels like it pushes my HR way more than my commute.

Posted 6 months ago #