Can't reach previous max HR anymore

cyclingvet

I've been using a Garmin HR chest strap for several years now and I turned 55 in July. In 2012 and 2013 I was regularly getting to a HR of 170-175 when going hard for Strava segments and my average speeds for rides ( usually rides are 40-60 miles) were often 17.5- 19.00 depending on wind/terrain.

I've noticed that this year , although I am still sometimes hitting averages of 18 + mph , a larger proportion of my rides seem to be 16.0 -16.5 mph average and my HR is lower. I did have a poor start to the year this year. I usually cycle 6000 miles year and I'm on course for 5250 miles is year at the rate I'm going.

I've deliberately gone for some long hills recently and gone full pelt until my legs/lungs die and the most I can get for my HR is 162.

Things are worse now as my 16 year old son is in has second year of cycling and can leave me dead on sprints/hills -- its so demoralising ;-(

Should I be worried? Is it just my age? Even with the formula 220 minus age I should still be hitting 165 (and that formula often underestimates what your true Max HR should be) and its only 12 months since I could regularly reach HR of175 and hit 179 on one occasion.

Jules Winnfield

I think the simple answer is that you are getting fitter than when you first started out. I stand to be corrected though. And that max heart rate solution is not 100% accurate, so I would take it with a pinch of salt.

imposter2.0

Max HR is not a predictor of performance. Regardless of your actual mileage, maybe your training is different this year? Either way, judging ride performance on the basis of how high you can get your HR is entirely meaningless....

Dippydog2

I cannot judge your experience, but as I am 57 I thought I would reply.

I have been cyscling with an HRM for a year now and every ride has been recorded.

I did the calculation as to what my MHR should be and depending on what method I used the result was quite different. I settled on a number of 175.

I then went out and rode my bike. And my turbo. Over hundreds of sessions I have reached the point of virtual collapse and have never seen more than 174. Then, earlier the year, on that day when we were told the air was so polluted we were all going tio die I hit 177.

I ride about five times a week, so I thought this might be a statistical glitch, and it seemed so until this week.

A few of us locals tried to bust a Strava segment and as the oldest in the group I decided to hang back, recover and then try to catch them during the three minute segment. It all went well, lots of PR's but I found myself surprised that I hit 179 for a couple of minutes. I am pretty sure I had no more to give, certainly for more than a few seconds. Arguably I was holding back a bit to complete the segment but we are talking very small time differences,

I am not a professional trainer so am not sure what to glean from this. I think the higher rate was partly due to the excitement of "competition". I did a much anticipated sportive event this year and after five minutes of pedalling on the flat I found my heart rate to be over 140 which normally I require a hill for. I must have been very excited!

So here is the truth. Ignore all this bollox about heart rate. Heart rate data alone just tells you what your body can do heart rate wise. Power is what matters. Get a power meter. A power meter tells you whether what your body can do heart rate wise is less or more than it could previously do.

The sad things is that unless you are busting your ass the power meter will just scientifically prove to you that you are getting older, and slower. Welcome to the club.

Be satisfied that although this is the truth you are getting sneakier and more committed and can still kick your teenager's son's ass if it matters. Just remind him who pays his bills. If he is wise he will back off.

shockedsoshocked

Quite common. Max heart rate may be down slightly as you get fitter but stroke volume will have increased, meaning cardiac output will more than likely have increased as well.

MarkAshton

Has your diet changed by chance? I know of people who switched to low carb and they couldn't hit the top end HR's anymore...

cyclingvet

No diet change. I seem to give up sooner now on a strava segment especially when my son is with me and is way ahead. It may be partly psychological. I have had a more stressful time with work this year so this may have a bearing on it as well. I've never done a proper max HR test, but all I know us that when I was red lining on a strava segment last year I would reach 175 and now the most I seem to get is 162. Power meter very expensive.

diy

What about the other end? If your resting HR has dropped then all that you are seeing is the results of an improved CV system. i.e. the pump got bigger so doesn't need to work as hard.

There are so many factors that can affect your top end output. Mostly, the time of day, what you ate in the last 4 hours and how much coffee you've had.

I find it very hard to hit my max HR unless I'm out on the road chasing a PB.

mm1

Ageing? Max HR is supposed to comedown as we age. No link between fitness and max (has yours been tested), but as you get fitter the hr you reach for a particular pace should decrease (which means you can go faster).

Top end sprint speed and power also decrease with ageing, but are you targetting this type of effort in training? A lot (but no all) of decreased fitness / capability in ageing is simply the result of inactivity.

mm1

Forgot to add that I last had a ramp / VO2 max / max test in 2008. I still use the HR zones established in that test for training (can't afford to get a power metre), and can still reach the same max HR in sprint intervals and on steep climbs. I also TT at the same target HR (something like 7bpm above threshold for a 10 leaves me unable to stand at the finish). Because I am less fit than I was, or would like to be, however, my current 10 times are c. 3 minutes slower than they were. Sprint and climbing speeds are much reduced too (mainly because I'm too fat).

adam0bmx0

Here's a screen grab of my max HR in descending order, using a Garmin Edge 500 and HRM, not sure how accurate it is, im 28 and looking at the dates of the rides its mostly from last year and early this year;



Rides have been mostly in the 30-50mile range. I do try and go all out each time i go out, resting HR is 51 bpm measured on a proper device.

cyclingvet

I went out again today over a hilly route in Leicestershire for 40 miles with the intention of trying to get PBs on Strava segments. What I have noticed is that my legs seem to give up before I'm breathless. On some hills my quads are burning and I have to ease off and my HR is anything between 150 and 160. I'm beginning to wonder if I may be developing circulatory problems .(peripheral artery disease) I did the 40 miles with an average of 18 but I can't say I enjoyed the ride.

bobinski

I am almost 52y old. I am reasonably fit for my age. But 2014 has been a bit of a washout cycling wise. A fall on black ice in December last year kept me off the bike for near enough 8 weeks. Once back on the bike I struggled to recover fitness, exacerbated by long work hours and ill health within the family that kept me off the bike. When I did cycle on my commute it is now clear I cycled too hard for me and didn't allow sufficient recovery time. I ended up with a persistent kind of pain in both legs especially my quads. It then spread to my calves which became overtight. I tried to ignore it. I was anxious that I was loosing the fitness gains I had made in recent years. I suppose in a way I was also somewhat prematurely fighting against the dying light. Anyway, I went to the Alps with the family mid august for some mountain cycling. Sadly my partner broke her leg badly walking down a mountain on the second day. Months of recuperation lie ahead of her. I have not cycled for almost 2 weeks until yesterday. Interestingly I have no pain in my legs even after a quick spin on the bike yesterday. I will begin commuting and training Monday. Perhaps the persistent pain will return. I hope not. But the reason I mention all of this is that you might just be overtired? Are you building in recovery time into your riding? I recognise that, for me at least, recovery time may be more important that I was previously prepared to admit.

imposter2.0

cyclingvet wrote:

I went out again today over a hilly route in Leicestershire for 40 miles with the intention of trying to get PBs on Strava segments. What I have noticed is that my legs seem to give up before I'm breathless. On some hills my quads are burning and I have to ease off and my HR is anything between 150 and 160. I'm beginning to wonder if I may be developing circulatory problems .(peripheral artery disease) I did the 40 miles with an average of 18 but I can't say I enjoyed the ride.

Leave your HRM at home next time - stop worrying about numbers and just try to enjoy the ride...

cyclingvet

bobinski wrote:

I am almost 52y old. I am reasonably fit for my age. But 2014 has been a bit of a washout cycling wise. A fall on black ice in December last year kept me off the bike for near enough 8 weeks. Once back on the bike I struggled to recover fitness, exacerbated by long work hours and ill health within the family that kept me off the bike. When I did cycle on my commute it is now clear I cycled too hard for me and didn't allow sufficient recovery time. I ended up with a persistent kind of pain in both legs especially my quads. It then spread to my calves which became overtight. I tried to ignore it. I was anxious that I was loosing the fitness gains I had made in recent years. I suppose in a way I was also somewhat prematurely fighting against the dying light. Anyway, I went to the Alps with the family mid august for some mountain cycling. Sadly my partner broke her leg badly walking down a mountain on the second day. Months of recuperation lie ahead of her. I have not cycled for almost 2 weeks until yesterday. Interestingly I have no pain in my legs even after a quick spin on the bike yesterday. I will begin commuting and training Monday. Perhaps the persistent pain will return. I hope not. But the reason I mention all of this is that you might just be overtired? Are you building in recovery time into your riding? I recognise that, for me at least, recovery time may be more important that I was previously prepared to admit.

Sorry you've had such a bad 2014. I've not had a brilliant year myself, with a poor start to the year due to the weather and work. In fact, work has prevented me getting on the bike much at all some weeks. I'm often tired from work , often doing 10 hour days, and collapsing on the sofa in the evenings, but I don't think I'm overdoing it with the cycling other than the fact that I am having to become more of a weekend warrior doing 40-60 mile rides on both days and may be one midweek ride of 20-30 miles if I'm lucky. I'm sure my performance would be better if I could get out more frequently with shorter rides. May be I should just take things easier and enjoy the ride and stop trying to keep up with my 16 year old son!

mm1

cyclingvet wrote:

bobinski wrote:

May be I should just take things easier and enjoy the ride and stop trying to keep up with my 16 year old son!

Good idea. I'm eternally grateful that my 15 year old son shows no interest in cycling, we swam a bit on holiday and he made me look really slow without even trying - his younger sister rides a bit and has a fearsome uphill kick if I have anoyed her.

Do you have time for some really easy short rides (5-10 miles)? Last year that's more or less all I did apart from clubruns and I was going far better than this year when I've had loads of time to train after taking early retirement.

Have a look at Grahame O'Bree's book. He recommends going really easy, when you're not going super hard. Lots of people seem to ride in a painful no-man's land, where unless they have a super tough constitution they end up riding themselves into the ground without getting much fitter, or faster, or having much fun.

Another anecdote is that the winter before he won the milk race, Connor Henry kept his HR below 110bpm. Easy miles are better for you than most people think.

diy

adam0bmx0 wrote:

Here's a screen grab of my max HR in descending order, using a Garmin Edge 500 and HRM, not sure how accurate it is, im 28 and looking at the dates of the rides its mostly from last year and early this year;

Pretty impressive aerobic capacity there (VO2Max over 75), just a word of caution. The Garmins tend to record 255 or 254 bpm when the signal errors. But you'll recall if you were working your nuts off at the time. according to most of the calculation methods your MHR shouldn't be over 210.

Zingzang

cyclingvet wrote:

Sorry you've had such a bad 2014. I've not had a brilliant year myself, with a poor start to the year due to the weather and work. In fact, work has prevented me getting on the bike much at all some weeks. I'm often tired from work , often doing 10 hour days, and collapsing on the sofa in the evenings, but I don't think I'm overdoing it with the cycling other than the fact that I am having to become more of a weekend warrior doing 40-60 mile rides on both days and may be one midweek ride of 20-30 miles if I'm lucky. I'm sure my performance would be better if I could get out more frequently with shorter rides. May be I should just take things easier and enjoy the ride and stop trying to keep up with my 16 year old son!

Yes, I think you should just take things easy for a bit. Blood tests would be a good idea though as well as they might show abnormalities.

You're lucky to still be able to do what you can do. I was hit by a virus 20 months ago, and since then haven't been able to ride my bike other than to the shops and back. A primary immune deficiency (shown on blood test) has put paid to virtually all physical exercise for me. I'm only a couple of years younger than you but when I was racing two years ago my heart rate would regularly reach the high 180's and a max of 196 was recorded twice. My maximum now is academic to me as my physical condition is in some respects about thirty years older than my actual age. This is what cycling can do to you.

Karla

Dippydog2 wrote:

I cannot judge your experience, but as I am 57 I thought I would reply.

I have been cyscling with an HRM for a year now and every ride has been recorded.

I did the calculation as to what my MHR should be and depending on what method I used the result was quite different. I settled on a number of 175.

I then went out and rode my bike. And my turbo. Over hundreds of sessions I have reached the point of virtual collapse and have never seen more than 174. Then, earlier the year, on that day when we were told the air was so polluted we were all going tio die I hit 177.

I ride about five times a week, so I thought this might be a statistical glitch, and it seemed so until this week.

A few of us locals tried to bust a Strava segment and as the oldest in the group I decided to hang back, recover and then try to catch them during the three minute segment. It all went well, lots of PR's but I found myself surprised that I hit 179 for a couple of minutes. I am pretty sure I had no more to give, certainly for more than a few seconds. Arguably I was holding back a bit to complete the segment but we are talking very small time differences,

I am not a professional trainer so am not sure what to glean from this. I think the higher rate was partly due to the excitement of "competition". I did a much anticipated sportive event this year and after five minutes of pedalling on the flat I found my heart rate to be over 140 which normally I require a hill for. I must have been very excited!

So here is the truth. Ignore all this bollox about heart rate. Heart rate data alone just tells you what your body can do heart rate wise. Power is what matters. Get a power meter. A power meter tells you whether what your body can do heart rate wise is less or more than it could previously do.

The sad things is that unless you are busting your ass the power meter will just scientifically prove to you that you are getting older, and slower. Welcome to the club.

Be satisfied that although this is the truth you are getting sneakier and more committed and can still kick your teenager's son's ass if it matters. Just remind him who pays his bills. If he is wise he will back off.

I'm 56 and have used a heart rate monitor on and off since the 1980s. At any sport I have hit my maximum heart rate and when adapted to that sport my Max heart rate has never been higher than 179, it has declined very slightly to 174 most recent years, but earlier this year I hit 175. But I mean I hit that number. No way I could hold that for more than a few seconds. I would pass out or die. So if you can hold a heart rate for a few minutes I doubt it is anywhere near your maximum heart rate.