heart rate cycling vs running

speshsteve

Hi, I've been running, playing squash and doing weights for about 6 years now and have added cycling too the mix mainly to give my knees a slightly easier time. When running say 10k my heart rate is usually in the 150bpm range i.e. 150 feels pretty hard work but can be sustained for a reasonable time.

My resting rate is approx 50 and i'm now 35 and wanted to make comparisons to the bike. So today I put the hear rate monitor on and did a 35 miler average at 17mph lumpy but no big climbs and my average heart rate was 135 with a peak of 141.

Simple question really, am I just not pushing myself hard enough or does this sound about right i.e. running will raise the heart rate higher compared to cycling based on a similar percieved effort (obviously if I was in the alps this would be a rather different matter).

What do you guys think....am I just being lazy on the bike!!

Anonymous

Running make the heart go faster. For me anyhoo.

cougie

Running uses more muscle groups so your HR will be higher.

freehub

I wonder how high my HR can go running, it can hit 202 if I murder it on a turbo.

hopper1

I've done Max HR tests in both and my running HR was 10bpm higher than cycling.

da goose

Interesting as I come from over 20 years of biking and just started running, yes its a higher hr av running but hills in either sport will clearly push this up.
Whats interesting for me is my recovery and resting heart rate far improved from running than by cycling and I feel I get a full workout runnning 6-8 miles compared to normal cycling.
Can run a 10k at av hr 143 `ish for 42.59 av hr 151 41.03 this off road trail for half and road for half with a big hill at the finish.
Bike speeds not brilliant at the mo as only 2 rides a week but around 17.5-18.3 mph av over 20 miles av hr120-125 420mtrs ascent. :oops:

hopper1

Hills push up the HR, but the gap still remains the same... try a proper HR Max test...

jibberjim

Everyone has only one HRmax, it's the fastest your heart will beat. However you may not be able to elicit HRmax in a particular sport be it running or cycling, most untrained, or moderately trained people tend to be able to elicit a higher max HR running than they can cycling, particularly if there aren't long gradual climbs (the best way to do an aerobic max test, short steep climbs tend to have your body stopping due to leg limiters on the bike, and on the flat the technique and focus required to keep pushing whilst going faster and faster is the problem.)

So a lot of people will see a higher max HR when running, however a highly trained cyclist who rarely runs will likely see a higher max HR cycling as the legs will limit their running before their heart is really working.

Your threshold HR will also likely be sport specific, and different, but not necessarily the same percentage of your HRpeak (the sport specific HRmax)