HR way above theoretical max

In my late 20s this happened a couple of times, but haven’t noticed it since.
Recently – about 4 times so far, I’ve felt my heart rate go sky high. I’m 43.

– I can’t work as hard while it occurs.
– It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it does feel odd
– It seems independent of effort
– Breathing is more difficult

Sometimes it doesn’t happen while at max effort – it can occur on the flat but lasts a few minutes (up to 20mins) before it calms down.

Once it calms down, It hasn’t reoccurred on the same ride.

Since I started to take note, I realised that I had a caffeine gel on both the last two rides where this occurred. Although not sure of the timing on the previous ride, yesterday it was immediately after.

I don’t normally wear a HR monitor, but did last week.
Recorded max is 229
You can see the area near the end of the ride in this graph.
I expected it to be much more constantly high from what it felt like.

Any thoughts?

Go and see a cardiologist and see about an exercise stress test. 229 is a lot

EDIT : and looking at that curve it does seem somewhat erratic, which is also a cause for concern. Difficult to tell just from that image, though.

Yes you need to see a specialist and I would suggest a proper ecg with you on an excersize bike. Take care and please don’t ignore this.

You need to get checked out. My Mum had something similar in that her heart rate would for no apparent reason rise to the levels you are getting (arrhythmia I think it was called). She ended up having an ablation op.

You may not need this, may need something else or may be just fine as you are but if I were you I’d be getting it checked out as soon as I could get an appointment just so I knew what was going on

I read somewhere about Lennard Zinn suffering from something like this as his heart rate would go to over 220bpm for no apparent reason

Yes you need to see a specialist and I would suggest a proper ECG with you on an exercise bike. Take care and please don’t ignore this.

+1

My sister is only alive because she pushed for a proper test,(after being brushed off several times by her GP) and was discover to have an abnormal heart. Short version of the story is, she had a pace maker fitted at 35, and is now back to a (relatively) normal life.

The consequences of ignoring it ? Well… lets just say it could have been bad.

Not trying to sound alarmist, and this was a very extreme example, however, the point is, it could be something, it could be nothing, but DO NOT IGNORE THIS !! Go and see the doc would you old chap. Thanks.

“arrhythmia I think it was called”

which is a general term for many many heart related beat issues.

Go to your doctor with the print out above and get tested proper.

this is something you dont want to ignore – especially as its lasting for up to 20 minutes.

+1 to everyone above, get it checked out. Difficult to tell from that graph, but it doesn’t look like a one off spike in HR caused by interference at the HR monitor.

If it happens again, it helps if you are able to take your own pulse (feeling at the neck is probably easiest) and note the heart rate (count beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4) but, more importantly, whether it feels regular or irregular/erratic. If you are near a place that can do an ECG whilst it is happening, that’s helpful too.

Noting down when it happens, how long it lasts and what seems to trigger it is useful for the doc – it’s amazing how quickly people forget the details of these kind of intermittent episodes and, without being able to see what’s happening on a monitor at the time, the description is all we’ve got to go on.

Hope you get it sorted soon,
Hannah (cardiology registrar)

Check your batteries. On my old polar >220 readings coincided with batteries dying

– I can’t work as hard while it occurs.
– It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it does feel odd
– It seems independent of effort
– Breathing is more difficult

Check your batteries. On my old polar >220 readings coincided with batteries dying

Think that he should check more than just the batteries 😕

Ooops – note to self, read OP more carefully… 😳

Thanks all – the monitor readings only confirm what I was feeling anyway. I haven’t done a proper count, but it’s a sustained unnatural feeling of heart rate out of control and becoming independent of effort.

I’ve just made a GP appointment and will avoid caffeine gels in the meantime.

legolam – point taken about noting the conditions/times/etc for providing info to the docs. I wasn’t too concerned when it was only once so didn’t really note it all, but I am switched on to it now.

BTW – I have low hopes of being able to repeat this actual effect during testing (as it has only happened 4 times in 20 rides), but presumably this wont be necessary for a fault to be picked up?

If you are near a place that can do an ECG whilst it is happening, that’s helpful too.

How would I go about this legolam?

The only way is to pop into the nearest GP surgery/walk in centre/A+E and say you have palpitations and need an ECG. It’s not ideal. But it solves this problem:

BTW – I have low hopes of being able to repeat this actual effect during testing (as it has only happened 4 times in 20 rides), but presumably this wont be necessary for a fault to be picked up?

Unfortunately, intermittent arrhythmias often don’t show anything at all on a resting ECG. 24 hour heart rate monitoring is the first test that we would do, and often we have to monitor for a week or more (or, in some cases, implant a little recorder under the skin that can stay there for several years) to catch the disturbance.

To be fair, your graph doesn’t show the typical sudden switching on and off that I would expect of most of the common arrhythmias so it is possible that it is due to interference/low battery etc. But, given that you have symptoms as well, I would definitely get it checked out by an actual non-internet doctor.

Booked in for an ECG and bloods tomorrow with a follow-up appt on Fri.
Likely a 24h test after that.

I’ve had similar whilst riding under power lines. However I was not affected – I did not have any weird feelings or difficulty breathing. However, that could be psychosomatic when you notice the reading… Check your route for power lines first. Maybe post up the trail that it was on?

Also – try and correlate with both tea/coffee intake and also artificial sweeteners (ie drinking lots of diet drink) as those things seem to interfere with my ticker.

Docs.

No artificial sweeteners afaik – one of my pet hates.
The doctor was very interested in the caffine gel on the phone and advised that I don’t take another one (not that I was going to anyway).
I was just cycling past the David Mellor factory in Hathersage when it happened yesterday after having gone along the river Derwent for a while. No powerlines visible on Google Earth.

I had to be going right underneath the big powerlines to get an effect, so you’d have noticed.

i get HR spikes on my garmin when outside bucksburn police station…..how ever i dont get difficulty breathing or a noticable “oh shit im doing mega HR”

im not sure either of those things come from riding underpower lines.

lets just let the docs sort him.

EDIT : and looking at that curve it does seem somewhat erratic,

comparing with my own HRM traces (wahoo tickR / strava / iphone) and you’re right. this is very all over place.

I’m 40, not far off the OPs age. My peak rate is ‘supposed’ to be around 180. i’m not super fit. i ride for fun, thrills and i like exploring and see riding like the gym (justifying parts costs :)).

the HRM was a way for me to help see improvements in fitness. I also sometimes ride with a group of guys 10+ years older than me, and whilst with my own peers i’m fast/fit these guys who have been riding regularly twice a week for 5+ years leave me lagging behind, especally on the the ups

I notice obvious patterns with mine. a steady 130-150 depending on effort, and a very steady ramped (not fast) climb when the rate is heading upwards due to effort (usually a tough climb).

anytime my rate is in the 165-180 range for more than 30 seconds i have stopped and maybe gotten off for a breather. any time i’ve passed the 170 mark i’ll definitely have been needing a pretty good breather to recover.

let me put it this way. my heart rate graph looks more like your elevation graph then the spikey other ones! so unless you were stopping every 50m on that ride (or batteries are dodgy) it’s not what i’d have expected to see – and going to the GP is a good thing ™ – good luck.

p.s. btw I do realise i’m using a dfferent HRM and software so YMMV..

Yep – It’s just an Aldi strap bluetooth to a phone – assuming it’s that until someone test me properly.
My heart rate doesn’t feel erratic.
The only reason I posted it is because at least that period at the end where you can see it elevates – matched the period I felt my HR skyrocket.

Sounds awfully like the atrial fibrillation that I had. For me it only came on when on the turbo pushing hard. Nothing showed on the 24 hour monitor, but luckily they tested me on a stationary bike while wearing a full monitor, and managed to trigger it …that episode lasted about 40 mins.
Anyway, I had a catheter ablation in March, which seems to have fixed it…back on the bike, building up my fitness again.

gulp

it wasn’t as bad as it sounds….if it turns out that’s what you need, happy to be messaged directly

The doctor was very interested in the caffine gel on the phone and advised that I don’t take another one (not that I was going to anyway).

That doesn’t surprise me, I have heard anecdotes of people having heart problems following a lot of caffeine, I feel a bit funny if I overdo caffeine and exercise, and there was an Irish race recently (juniors or youth) where 2 riders ended up in hospital after taking caffeinated gels.

Sounds like you’re doing the right thing.

And molgrips, not sure if you’re having a laugh or not. If you feel perfectly normal it’s probably interference from the power lines. (now not sure if I’ve taken a joke seriously. Stupid text based communication)

there were options…do nothing (risk of stroke if AF lasts over 10-12 hours), take drugs for rest of life – not an option as far as I could see (I’m 53) as the possible side effects are worse than the AF!

they initially thought mine was a “flutter”, which is less serious and can be fixed under a local. AF takes longer to fix with ablation..4-5hrs under general, but not really invasive as it’s basically keyhole surgery

There are also some conditions that cause elevated heart-rate or tachycardia – from relatively benign to mega-serious. Some HR belts are also notorious for giving spurious readings.

However, as the OP has noted some physiological effects, then I’d be in front of my doctor seeking an urgent referral to a cardiac specialist

Get a proper doc to get you checked but also replace the batteries on your HRM and also make sure your strap was properly lubricated as that can also affect readings.

I’m never that bothered about the max HR as I regularly hit 200 and occasionally go past it. However, I tend to max out at under 210 (and that isn’t very often). Only other time I see higher than that, the HRM strap/sensor isn’t set properly and it seems to read a constant 248bpm!

————–
3-months later
————–
After an ultrasound and ECG, cardiologist wants to witness the event, so I got a 72-hour portable ECG to wear this weekend.
Unfortunately over two rides wearing it, I haven’t managed to trigger the arrhythmia, so I don’t know what will happen.

Over the last 3 months it’s occurred another 3 or 4 times, so it’s only 1-in-6 rides or so and under pretty specific circumstances (which I tried to replicate today and yesterday without luck).

We’ll see what’s next.
Priced up the device I’m wearing thinking I could wear it for every ride to guarantee recording it – £2000! I thought it would be approx £100! One on ebay that ‘needs calibration’ for £250, but I think I’ll pass.

If you can wear your regular device at the same time that might show if there was a problem with your monitor. It might not be but it is also worth checking as well. I had a problem with an optical hrm that would randomly ramp up to 190 and then back down again quickly. If you have both on at the same time you can compare.

Well my first instinct would be a dodgy HRM, mine often gives sky-high readings usually due to poor contact but sometimes perhaps too much sweat, but the OP seems very certain that it’s a real HR effect independent of whether it’s monitored. In that case, keeping on borrowing the ECG seems the best option – but also wear your own HRM to double check that it’s working well.

I’m not sure a standard Garmin type monitor is any good at detecting AF. I put mine on for a trip to A&E when I had a bout. It came up quite differently to the ECG reading. However it did show that something was obviously quite wrong. That said, I didn’t need an ECG to tell me that. I think it’s a tough one to catch. If I’m honest going straight to A&E is possibly the only way, and I only went as my wife forced me to. In retrospect I wish I hadn’t. A temporary blip resulted in 12 month of medication that I didn’t really need. But family history shows I need to be aware of what is going on in there.

If you are still getting noticeable symptoms, you need to persist until you manage to reproduce those symptoms while wearing the ECG. Have you spoken to the cardiology team about borrowing it more often?

My old Polar would go to 220+ at certain places, I used to put it down to RF interference of some sort.

I only tried the HRM after feeling it a few times. Even friends have put their hands on my chest and gone ‘bloody hell!’.
Anyway – it’s not really the speed as much as the fact that it’s completely detached from the effort. i.e. HR is normal (probably 80-90 while riding along) then suddenly zooms up during the same amount of effort. Stopping doesn’t let it go back to normal – it seems to do that after a few minutes (approx 5-10).

Anyway – I will be dropping it off later, but I don’t think a doc will be there to talk to, so I may have to make another appt. There seems to be a constant 4-5 week wait between appts/ECG/tests/etc.

Not that I’m panicking or anything, but it would be nice to know.

I don’t understand why people keep banging on about the hrm being dodgy…the OP has physiological symtoms to go with it!

Fwiw have you asked the cardiologist to give you a “stress test” while hooked up to the ecg recorder? Mine put me on an exercise bike and kept increasing the resistance over 20 mins until it triggered an event….and he got all the info he needed (even if the technician was convinced I was going to have a stroke!)

Fwiw have you asked the cardiologist to give you a “stress test” while hooked up to the ecg recorder?

I’m assuming that’s down the line if nothing else shows up, although it’s not during stress that I feel my symptoms.
If there is something to see while stressed, they will definitely see that from this weekend’s rides – I was at max for as long as I could cope with!

Well, good luck getting to the bottom of it 🙂

I have exactly what your describe…it’s called SVT….well, mine is and the symptoms you describe are exactly what i have.

My email is in my profile, send me an email and i will send you my number because add much aso i would like to write everything here it could take me forever.

The reason we should talk is because I saw so many specialists before someone made the correct tests and correctly diagnosed it and it’s this minefield i can give you some good advice on. If you don’t want to talk drop me an email saying so and i will try and write everything down.

I don’t understand why people keep banging on about the hrm being dodgy…the OP has physiological symtoms to go with it!

purely to help track the problem down. If he can’t borrow the fancy ecg machine all of the time but is convinced that the hrm is measuring accurately then that might give him something to help track it eg. Is it related to the caffeine gels

Wasn’t suggesting that it was a pure hrm problem