Heart rate

benneally

Hi guys! After messing around with my new heart rate montior i have noticed that my max heart rate is very high. I was just wondering what my max heart rate should be (im quite a fit 17 year old) and what u guys think is i sensible pace to average say racing?
Or maybe what u guys run? :P heheh

miket-62

What is very high in your opinion?
And what is your average over a ride?

benneally

well i hit 201 yesterday without noticing i was pushing hard. My average heart rate is 184ish which i heard should be around my max.... Im one of those people who pushes full pelt most of the though... :?

miket-62

Heart rate as you know is based on age, weight etc
I'm 45 yrs old and my MAX on a ride is about 175 and my average is 135. So you are a little higher than me :shock:
But it might be down to you as you say "pushing" and me just having a "nice little poottle about"
Are you fit?
You might wanna try wearing your HRM during the day at work and finding out your average there then you will more information to go on???

crackle

You need to establish your Max HR with a proper test. The calculation based on 220 - age is notoriously innaccurate.

For instance my theoretical max is 175, my actual is 191 and I average anywhere between 150 and 160 depending on terrain and effort (not a racer).

Being as you are 17 I wouldn't think 201 was anything to worry about but do some reading around about how to do a self max test. The usual warnings apply about being fit and healthy because any Max test should leave you seeing stars and wondering if you are going to die :shock:

Until you've done that you won't really have a clear idea about how hard you are training.

THere are plenty on here who can advise you better so hopefully one will be along soon.

benneally

I have a resting heart rate of 47 if that helps?

crackle

benneally wrote:

I have a resting heart rate of 47 if that helps?

As far as I know, your resting HR has no impact on your Max HR. Your resting HR will go up and down as a reflection of your fitness/health, as will other aspects of your HR but most people use their resting pulse as a rough guide to changes in fitness. It can also tell you if you've overdone things or if you're ill. If you take it daily, say in the morning, and it's higher or lower than your normal then it may indicate fatigue or illness. You would need to monitor that and learn to associate it with your own condition. As an example my own pulse rises before and during illness, by a few beats resting and 4/5 beats excercising. Fatigue brings it down but we are all different.

This link gives a self test for establishing max HR

http://www.timetrialtraining.co.uk/S6Ma ... eTests.htm

I've read other similiar techniques myself. It's important to make sure you are warmed up properly to do this. The one I did involved a small circuit and some intervals and then I went for it up a slight hill. Just when I thought I'd given it everything, I put the hammer down again and then again. I was totally shattered when I went over the top of the hill. And there was no way I was repeating it a few days later, the result was good enough for me.

Once you've established your max HR and resting pulse you can then establish your training zones (there's tons of stuff on training zones on the web) and tailor your training to maximize your potential. Or like me, who doesn't race or train as such, you can just use it as an effort and level meter. You have to bear in mind that weather and your own condition will make a difference to your HR as well, particularly if it's higher than normal which could be due to say heat.

There's literally tons of info on the web and I've only scratched the surface here in a very coarse way but if you've got one you might as well learn enough to make it give you useful information.

crackle

Check out this thread in the road section. It started with a similiar question to yours and there's lots of good advice in there

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12547677

benneally

thanks crackle

steve100

Your resting heart rate is the important one, the fitter you get the lower your resting heart rate will be, so find out how fast it is when resting. If it is high (80 or over) when you are resting then it is not a good idea to push it hard during exercise as it would sudgest a weak heart, if your heart rate is below 70 at rest then you shuld not have to much of a problem pushing hard. (70-80 beat is average)

As mentioned above a rough guide is 220 - your age so your max would be 203. But is a very rough guide.

A friend of mines brother is a canoeist (he was uk no 1 and no 35 in the world at river racing 10 years ago) he took part in a river race called the artic race which followed several rivers around the countries that are on the artic circle, he clams that his heart rate regularly went over 200 and for several mintuets at a time to.

From a medical point of view they do say that keeping your heart rate very high (around 200+) for a sustained period is not good for you, you should aim to keep your rate at around 90% of your max, so using the above guide with your max at 203 bpm you should be trying to maintain a steady rate of 183 bpm. Not only is this healthy but it also means you have a little in reserve if you need it.

And just incase you were wondering my resting rate 55 bpm and my max is 185 bpm and no matter how hard I try it will not go any faster and I am 30 years old.

harry_jones1984

a resting heart rate of 45 is extremely low. you're looking at tour de france level resting hr there

benneally

awesome

El Capitano

I'm 44. My resting heart rate is between 45-50. My Maximum (using the 220 minus your age) should be (gets the calculator out....) 176.

Okay, back to reality, when I'm riding, my average is in the 170's, when I'm racing, it's well into the 180's and the maximum I've hit this year is 198.

The point in me posting this?

I had received 3 heart attacks by the time I was 25. I monitor very carefully what I'm doing and get a full health check-up every 12 months, to make sure everything (not just my heart) is working correctly. The Internet probably isn't the best place to get any sort of medical advice. If you're worried about your heart and what it's doing when you're pushing yourself hard, then I would suggest you speak to a doctor.

benneally

Wow :shock: Im sorry to hear about ur heart attacks. But were u a fit rider before u were 25? ie was ur heart rate below 50 like it is now, and were u reaching high heart rates (like pushing to hard)? Yeah i was thinking bout seeing a doctor sometime soon, probably next spring. thanks for all ur help guys. I might attempt a max heart rate test thing as soon as there is some non torential rain , so probs next summer? lol

crackle

Beneally, you sound like a fit young man but I would echo the advice of El Capitano and if you have any doubts about your health see your GP.

Also, though I hate to say so, resting HR is not necessarily an indicator of potential You need to know something called your VO2 output and what kind of power you're putting out (you need a powermeter for that). You normally have to get those kinds of tests done in a lab. There are places that do that, maybe you should ask for it as a birthday/Xmas present, they would also give you some good advice and a training program if you wanted it. VO2 is a largely genetic thing, though I believe it can be trained to a small degree.

benneally

Yeah we studied VO2 max at school :roll: lol i have asthma though which is soo irratating! oh well

crackle

you probably know more than me then 8)

Yes my son has Asthma and I seem to be developing it in middle age. So long as it's under control it's not an issue, in fact excercise is the best thing for making the most of the peak flow you have with Asthma. Unfortunately I think Asthma will lower your VO2 max for the same given 'fitness' as someone without Asthma but that's not to say your relative fitness may not be greater anyway than someone without Asthma, if you follow my drift :roll:

Anyway I now truly have transgressed my knowledge on the subject and if you want to know more I reccommend posting in road training as there are some real life coaches loitering in there.

benneally

NOOO! I shant go over to the dark side! :P jokes, been thinking of getting a road bike actualy :oops:

Yeah I understand what u mean, fitness being in heart rate, and VO2 being the ability to use ur fitness for sport...
Thanks again

breezer

My friends reckon I have a tiny shrews heart or something as although I am 30 (yawn...), I can hit 212 ok and go at over 200 for a few minutes with no problem. I normally average around 180 on a 10 mile ride

benneally

yay ur heart suffers more than mine! let me know if u die or have problems :P lol

But seriously, thats an effort! go for a guiness world record...i wonder what the max heart rate from a human is :shock:

El Capitano

benneally wrote:

Wow :shock: Im sorry to hear about ur heart attacks. But were u a fit rider before u were 25? ie was ur heart rate below 50 like it is now, and were u reaching high heart rates (like pushing to hard)?

Erm, yes, I was Uber-fit, which is why I'm still alive today. I had pancreatitus (Sp?) and my heart shut down due to lack of blood (my pancreas had digested my stomach and I'd hemoraged). I'd never tested my resting heart rate before my illness, so don't know what it would have been.

ACDCwmb

I'm very carefull about pushing my heart too far now, I used to train regular using a HRM when I was younger I was extreamly fit, serving in the armed forces. Most of my training was aimed at strength & XC endurance, for about 2 years I trained very hard for something specific, I'd train 6 out of 7 days, sometimes for up to 20hrs at at time, at my fittest my heart rate at rest was around 34bbm (not so now though!) I was able to sustain a max heart rate of around 210 for about 5mins, but I'd aim to keep it at about 185 during training.

Now I tend not to push myself too hard, mainly as I have nothing to train for anymore, I just like to keep myself fit, also there is a history of heart disease and a whole load of other things in my family now, so now I am older and wiser I'd just like to keep getting older!