High heart rate whilst riding – dangerous or not?

Less than 85% wouldn’t be “training” it’d be recovery, or commuting, possibly sightseeing.

Sightseeing somewhere flat.

first I’ve heard of 220-age having an error of plus/minus 20.

Pretty much makes it even less useful than it was before…….
(I’m at more than +20. Nearer +30 actually….)

There’s a little info at the top of this page:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/maxhr.htm

Not so much an error, just defining a range. Usefulness depends what you want to do with the info. Training – yeah, useless. To see if you fit in with a range that is considered normal within a population then very useful. You obviously don’t. Whether that is a cause for concern or just that you’re in the 5% outside that range is another matter 😉

I got a HRM when I was about 34/35. I used it a couple of times and my HR went up to 200. I read this might be a problem so I sold the HRM and din’t worry about it after that. 🙂

I’d love to know my VO2 max and max heart rate – are there places where you can book in to get this stuff professionally measured? Not for any sort of training program, just out of interest really

Max HR is easy. Just push till you can’t any more.

I did a lab test at my local uni last year to establish my LT and Vo2max – ramp test on a bike (excalibre I think) with a mask tracking breathe consistency and blood samples taken from your finger every minute. Interesting reading, but not really needed for an amateur. Cost around £120 if I remember right.

Trained based on HR for many years. I’m 37, Max is 202, regularly see 195-196, hour pace is somewhere between 178-83 all day pace is 156. Caffeine, illness, fatigue all make a difference so I’m just in the process of converting over to power

It’s physically impossible to sustain your max heart rate for more than a number of seconds, therefore you have not attained it – if you are comfortable holding the high heart rate then it’s not a problem

As mentioned really. You should do the LTHR test (have a look in Joe Friels Cycling Bible) for a good test about the HR.

If you want a good and true test, then you need to look at Power, as HR is dependable on too many variables. (heat, tiredness, hungover, stress etc)

Heart rate drifts upwards for the same effort over the course of a long ride so you can’t rely on it.

BTW a low resting HR is Bradycardia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia (usual Wikipedia caveats apply)

I’ve no idea what my max HR is.
On a typical all day ride (say 6 hours in the Lakes) I up to about 178 tops.
The average throughout the ride is typically about 151 but I can happily carry on all day at that rate.
Does this go some way to explaining why a sweat like a pig but don’t feel out of breath?

No, not really. Lots of things determine how fast your heart goes, afaik.

55 is not a high resting rate.

Isn’t it? Mine is 46 😯

@rocketdog I suspect you are being slightly mischievous 😀

I worked out in the middle east (oil industry not military) for a while and the crew were subject to having their heart rates monitored for a couple of weeks as part of some health and safety drive. One guy had a resting heart rate of 120!!

Measured at morning wake up, day time it’s 55 normally

Ummmm after my recent research study using a watt bike in the heat I regularly topped out at 239/240 I’m now off to see a cardiologist! I’m 33 so closer to 220 plus my age!!

Interesting reading so far, thanks all.

From the NHS website:

What’s a normal heart rate?

Most adults have a resting heart rate of 60-100 beats per minute (bpm).

The fitter you are, the lower your resting heart rate is likely to be. For example, athletes may have a resting heart rate of 40-60 bpm or lower.

You should contact your GP if you think your heart rate is continuously above 120 bpm or below 40 bpm, although this could just be normal for you.

Chap I ride with is of similar age to me, similar fitness, yet I can sustain a heart of around 150, he sustains about 180. If pushing it I’ll max at about 170, he will top 200. We are very different build though with very different resting heart rate. I’m low 30’s he is low 50’s
I’m a solid 15 stone, he’s about 11.

I haven’t read most of the replies, however the 220 minus your age is complete gubbins! Would put my max HR at 184. I’ve recently been racing CX and for a 40 min race I average 188. My max is probably about 195 now (previously got it up to 201 when running).

I can also generally pedal along at say 180HR and hold a normal conversation with MR MC, however if he was at 180 he’d be dying!! I seem to always run a “high” HR.

If you are serious about improving your cycling or running performance then understanding and using heart rate zones (and even better power) is a must.

Start by googling, GCN and Vegan cyclist to get some user freindly videos then reading something like Joe Friels Cycling bible.

Had my max hrm done about 6 years ago. I could not go on. The world was greying out and vision tunneled. It was 204.

At the moment resting is in the 50s but putting my leg over a bike takes it to 90ish. With no exertion. If I sit still and breath to bring it down I can get it to 80 easily but not below. Guess I like riding my bike.

FWIW, last night I dug out an old notebook from when I used to care.

Averaged 191 over the 2 and a bit hours of an NPS, highest average on the second lap (193, also my fastest lap) lowest on the 5th (186, surprisingly enough, my slowest lap) Max on the race of 211, about 2 minutes after the start, topped 200 a couple of times every lap, pretty much at the same points.

Measured max back in those days was 213. Resting between 40 and 55, depending on various things.

Didn’t get on the podium. 🙁

And I found the most important tool for doing MHR tests was a bucket.

GM, you should work out your average 191 in that race compared to a 213 max, and what you said about 85% being sightseeing pace. No wonder you didn’t podium, you’re only about 10 bpm over sightseeing for the whole race ; )

Mine is high as well

39 & overweight

Hows this 😯 (Was a race to be fair)

Distance 17.3km
Time 1:09:55
Elevation 314m
Max HR 211 😯
Avg 176 😯

I’d love to know how this compares as it does niggle me it’s too high

Less than 85% wouldn’t be “training” it’d be recovery, or commuting, possibly sightseeing.

most of my training is done at 75% of MHR, for me about 130bpm, I can stimulate a training load, without killing myself, and having to take longer rest periods. Lots of folk “train” way too hard.

tiger, if I’m running (racing) my HR will average in the high 160-170 something, so it’s not that unusual. don’t think I’d ever get to 211, but everyone’s different.

That’s the average. MTB races tend to have bits you can recover in, bits you go hard in and bits you feel like puking in. (FWIW, I was inside the top 10, and only a handful of minutes off the pace.)

And it was a slightly tongue in cheek comment.

And lots of people spend far too much time bimbling around not training.

Most of my training BITD was fast road work/chaingangs/intervals over about 8-10 hours a week. Not much LSD. It suited what I was doing.

So dangerous ?

or

Ride on without worry?

Tiger6791 – Member

I’d love to know how this compares as it does niggle me it’s too high

as a rough guide: if you reach your maximum heart rate, you’ve got a few seconds before you fall over, puke, and really don’t want to stand up for a few minutes.

i’m 37, and this happens to me when i get to about… 187 (low 180’s i can recover from while still running, high 180’s require a bloody good sit down)

maximum heart rate is as individual as shoe size*, if it feels ok it probably is.

(*size 8.5 feet, 187 max heart rate. My equation for calculating MHR is shoe size x 10, plus 102. This is just as accurate as the good ol’fashioned 220-age)

I can easily be mid 170s during a strenuous ride. I have a mate who is a little quicker than me, and he”ll average about 150 on the same ride. He might see 160 during maximum effort. In contrast, I’ll be at 160 if I go much above bimbling pace.

GM, it’s still an average of 5% or so over almost sightseeing : ) but was meant as a comment on how averages and HR % levels are misread etc, comparisons to others fairly meaningless also. Averaging 85-90% for a while isn’t going easy in any way and ~5% under that is still hard work.

Today I hit 198 doing hill reps (running)!!!

Does heart rate actually relate to performance?

I recently started using an HRM, I am pretty slow on the bike, may max was 195 and my resting pulse is 40-45 (I am 36). Theoretically these are pretty good figures and I do most of my riding at zone 4+, still not very fast!

Physiologically my heart must have quite good stroke, and my blood must be carrying sufficient oxygen, otherwise my resting HR would be high. This combined with the relatively high max I should be awesome………..unfortunately this doesn’t seem to translate to reality 😥

It doesn’t make much difference. There are sooo many variables. Your heart rate responds to what your muscles are doing, it doesn’t drive them. So it depends on what your muscles are able to do; and how good they are is measured by the clock 🙂

What people still don’t seem to understand is that you max heart rate is just a facet of your physiology. It is what it is. This isn’t like you blood pressure where high = bad. Some people have a high max, some low. It has nothing to do with your fitness or health.

Does heart rate actually relate to performance?

Yup. If you have a power meter, note your HR at a given wattage, Train hard and after a (variable) period of time you will note you achieve the same power at a lower heart rate. This assumes power is related to performance.

I put this together for a friend. Those interested in HR training might find it useful

I do most of my riding at zone 4+, still not very fast!

I used to do that, I got a fair bit quicker when I started to slow down most of the time. The image above backs it up. Just riding fast al the time is ok for fun but not good for building your fitness, since riding fast is the stress you need, but the recovery period is where you get stronger. Riding fast all the time means you may not be getting enough recovery, and are rarely fresh enough to ride really hard. That’s an often-missed link, I certainly missed it until taking some good advice on training methods.

^^Love the infographic.

this thread is the polar opposite to the other thread on training here today….. its like reading the daily mail round here…..

IMO this is the thread with the correct advice for getting faster…..