Heart Rate Advice.......

singleton

I have a HRM and I wear it for all my rides.
Last year I was training for a 70.3 triathlon and I trained by zones - lot's of work in z2 and a bit into z3 to keep the volume high but the intensity low.
Now I do shorter rides and work harder on hills etc. I still wear the HRM but I don't even display the number "real time" on my garmin screen as I found it off-putting when going harder and I felt it had a negative psycological effect, I just look at it afterwards as a reference.
I'm 47 and my average for a 2 hour, 60k ride will be 135-140 with a peak of 165-168. I very rarely see 170 or above. Hills will push mine up quickly - especially if I stand to climb.

zak3737

Popped into my Doc's surgery and checked BP in both arms, both the same and all good, 125/80, so no issues.
Pulse was 55, so what I thought.

Looking back at my HR on last sundays ride, my Avg was 128, with Max of 176, and it clearly went up & down with effort and hills etc, and perhaps more so toward the end as the ride ended in a very undulating route.

Still not sure what to make of the 176 Max I peaked at, - I didnt really push myself up any of the Hills, which were hardly 'tough' climbs anyway, I tend to spin up them all anyway.
So,......clearly having to work hard to get me up at times, and perhaps explains why I do back off & spin.
Perhaps if I did 'push' thru and work harder, got 'fitter' and lighter, and worked myself harder, then my riding HR might come down of course.
But hating that 'balls out' effort like I do, I think I'm perhaps destined to always be a crap climber.......

paul2718

There is no indication of anything unusual in your report. I'd just collect some more data.

After a while you should be able to decouple the number on the device from the idea that it is your heart and you care. It's just a number, look at that! I've never seen 180 before! Rather than OMG 180 I'm going to die.

I think the drop you should be concerned about is how rapidly it drops when you cease a big effort, and the drop isn't to the rather nebulous 'resting' but to a reasonable range for the current situation. So 90 during a coffee stop is very normal, you're not 'resting' and your body is anticipating standing up and going.

On Tuesday I was out with a group, somebody had a puncture so we stopped. My HR was 150 immediately before, dropping to 115 after a minute and then bumbling between 90 and 110 for the next short while. Because we were standing around. I'm sure if I'd laid on the ground and meditated it would have been lower.

53 for the record.

Paul

StillGoing

Zak3737 wrote:

Popped into my Doc's surgery and checked BP in both arms, both the same and all good, 125/80, so no issues.
Pulse was 55, so what I thought.

Looking back at my HR on last sundays ride, my Avg was 128, with Max of 176, and it clearly went up & down with effort and hills etc, and perhaps more so toward the end as the ride ended in a very undulating route.

Still not sure what to make of the 176 Max I peaked at, - I didnt really push myself up any of the Hills, which were hardly 'tough' climbs anyway, I tend to spin up them all anyway.
So,......clearly having to work hard to get me up at times, and perhaps explains why I do back off & spin.
Perhaps if I did 'push' thru and work harder, got 'fitter' and lighter, and worked myself harder, then my riding HR might come down of course.
But hating that 'balls out' effort like I do, I think I'm perhaps destined to always be a crap climber.......

Your systolic and diastolic values are both good and in both arms so with a good resting HR, I can't see there being a problem. Remember the adage that it never gets easier; you just get quicker.