Minimum / Maximum Heart Rate

Heart rate whilst watching the TDF currently 41bpm, that may be helped by the beta blockers and ace inhibitors I took this morning!!!!

Resting from waking 45
Max 190
Age 48

Most intense ride this year was 5 hours at average 169bpm.

This is rubbish--you can only rate this thread using stars, not hearts, I've just checked.

To be honest, your heart rate sounds pretty normal for a fit individual. The algorithm that is commonly used to calculate maximum heart rate is just 220 - your age = max heart rate. This levels us with considerable levels of standard deviation though. Probably in the neighborhood of + or - 20 BPM. Resting is on the lower end. Although in well trained individuals, resting heart rate can be considerably depressed. Typically if you have a naturally lower heart rate, then your max will probably be a little lower than the expected value.

What you really need to focus on is heart rate related to work rate. As fitness and strength improve for a given heart rate, you will have a higher work rate.

As for the smoking, depends on how much you smoked and for how long. Given your age, you probably wouldn't have been able to go at it for too long (I've seen patients who who smoked 40/day for 40 years) so as long as you stay off them, your not going to do any permanent damage to you lungs and they will recover well.

I have a heart condition, arrhythmia, which is quite common. It's getting less frequent as I get older. Sometimes my heart beat skips about and sometimes it races; once it jumped to 240 when I was cycling with a heart rate monitor on and yes that did feel pretty odd and scary. My normal max heart rate at that time was 200. I can usually get it to stop racing by pressing on my eyeballs or pinching my ear lobes; seriously. Something to do with the parasympathetic nervous system or what have you, I wasn't paying much attention to the doctor after he told me it wasn't likely to kill me.

Tell me more. I've had this feeling before, where my heart feels like its racing. I've just never had my HRM on at the time. It generally stops after a few minutes.

This. At least I assume that's what it is. I go to a doctor once every 19 years. Roughly. So it's quite difficult to diagnose.

Feeling your heart racing and or beating erratically can also be a symptom of WPW which can in some cases be life threatening. Best thing to do is to go get an ECG done. About 2 months ago I actually ended up being rushed to hospital when my heart started beating like crazy in a weird rhythm (I was just sitting in bed at the time but paramedics told me I had a bpm of 189 when they go to me). I was diagnosed with WPW (wolf parkinson white) and ended up having to have minor surgery to correct it. The crazy thing is I went 26 years without ever knowing I had the condition but it only took one episode to send me to A&E.
Anyway, moral of the story is go get an ECG if your heart is doing weird things, even if you feel fine its better to get things checked out.

And yes, 220-age is bollocks, and my HRmax is pretty much unchanged over 25 years. I think it might be a cautious guide for people starting training with HR without the benefit of decent coaching, it's probably wise to tell 50 year-olds to back off if they hit 170 bpm until they know what they're doing.

As a near 50 year old... I wanted to test the formula, as, thanks to Strava, I seem to have a lower HR than others in my age range on the same rides.

So I took my computer on a short hilly run, since I knew I could get my ticker working hard on this. And sure enough Garmin showed my max HR as 184. My formula max HR for my age is 172, but if I actually pump a higher rate, is that my true max HR? Gotta be, huh?

Looking back, it now looks like I'm a lazy rider! It will take a while get get used to blasting away 10-12 beats faster, but good to know that the ceiling is a little higher.

Your real max might be higher than you can hit voluntarily. I did all the suggested "go till you blow" efforts to get a max reading and then in my first ever crit race (age 40) found I had another 7 BPM in reserve and didn't die or get dropped.

I took my computer on a short hilly run, since I knew I could get my ticker working hard on this. And sure enough Garmin showed my max HR as 184.

That was you maximum heart rate on that ride, not necessarily your HRmax.

Your heart rate will be higher when running than when cycling too.

...as for MaxHR
Quote:

 [Max Heart Rate does not decline with age.](http://www.howtobefit.com/determine-maximum-heart-rate.htm)

Sally Edwards has written about HR training for years

Curious that she claims it is unrelated to age, but then uses it in one of her own formulas.

This page details various different formulas for calculating MHR (which all take age into account in some form and references the research and studies that produced them) in an impartial way.

Your heart rate will be higher when running than when cycling too.

Higher for the same "perceived effort" level also, which I find interesting.

Higher for the same "perceived effort" level also, which I find interesting.

Probably something to do with running being more weight-bearing, so for the same level of PE there's more 'going on', as it were. (More muscle activity being recruited, so higher demands for blood and oxygen.) I don't habitually monitor HR when cycling but I don't think I've ever had it much over 180, compared to observed HR max of 202 when running. Incidentally I've only ever gone over 200 at the end of races, generally 5k or 10k, compared to a measly 186 when I first attempted a standard max HR test using a hill. Put simply, your true max is probably a few beats higher than you've observed, cos there's always another gear available if you really dig into the hurt-box!

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/116846922[/ame]

I rarely use my HR strap these days, but early on often read 185bpm during training. I was 42 when that recording ^ was taken on our tour. I prefer to do longer rides at weekends... maintaining high cadence, with plenty of hilly climbs.. it was a long old steady journey.. Worth it though.

Suspect in race conditions HR readings would be higher. As I tended to hang out the back of our Peleton (not a euph) soaking up the scenery on the climbs, then blitzing the descents..

As you can read, one nonsense speed spike ruins the recording.

191bpm is the highest recording I've ever seen for my own heartrate, my age-calculated max is 196. The 191bpm incident isn't something I recall as being particularly taxing (a short, stiff hill-climb, but not one I was really going for it on). Climbing in the Italian Dolomites this year only took me to 186bpm and I was blowing out my arse then so I can only assume the 191bpm reading was an error.

My resting heart rate is 52bpm which puts me in the "athlete" category for wimmin, prompting gales of laughter from anybody who's ever seen me crawling up a small hill at 3mph with a face so red that vehicles mistake me for a stop light.

On monday I tried to do a homespun 10mTT with a view to calculating my LTHR (e.g.) but the HRM seemed to be giving really inconsistent results for what was supposed to be a consistent level of effort.

Below is a scatter plot showing speed on the x axis and HR on the Y axis for that TT:

Looking at the screen of my garmin the HR seems to have been slightly more consistent on the turbo in the past two days but when I download the data there still seems to be a large variation in reported HR at a consistent effort.

5th Feb Turbo
6th Feb Turbo

220-age gives me a ballpark maximum HR of 190 and I'm 99% sure I never actually hit 220bpm.

Is the above variation within the bounds of what would be considered normal error or do I need a new HRM?

220 bpm to do 20mph? Maybe if you were riding up a cliff, on speed.

If you're getting inconsistent readings then there are a few possible reasons. Heart rate straps do tend to fail eventually, and when they do they start registering bonkers heart rates such as 200+. Also, if the batteries in the sensor are dying, they can give silly readings too.

My best luck has been with the Polar soft straps. These are compatible with Garmin ANT+ clip-on sensors; the Polar sensors, however, aren't ANT+, so don't bother with those.

HA! I was going to get my excuses in early but figured it wasn't relevant.

My time was c. 6minutes slower than my time on the same course in the summer, however I was on my road bike, it was my 3rd ride after 4 months off the bike and the weather was atrocious. Still I'll admit I've got a lot of work to do :-)

The exiting strap is a Garmin soft strap and is about 4 years old so that may be part of it. I'm heading to the lbs now so we'll see if I come back with anything new :-)

see if I come back with anything new :-)
Like a defibrillator?

;-)

when they do they start registering bonkers heart rates such as 200+

Is >200bpm bonkers? No, I can still hit that on a ramp test even at my age. Is a spike of 240bpm in a long stretch of 160bpm readings an indication of HRM error? Yes, usually.

My experience with both Garmin and Polar is that the most common cause of HR spikes is dry contact between the strap and body, either at the start of a workout or because riding in cold dry conditions keeps the skin dry even after a period of exertion. Poor contact can also arise from a loose strap combined with posture, so a HRM which seems to be fine when you're standing suddenly goes haywire when you get on the drops. EMI/RFI is another candidate, some people get consistent aberrant HR readings by riding under HV power lines.

You can get Polar soft straps and Garmin ANT pods separately on Ebay for the price of a Garmin complete set that will die within months.

Talking of heart rate straps I've found since having the "premium" one, when I run, it cuts a thin line accross my sternum, which is painful and annoying, I've found a solution by putting a strip of micropore tape where it has cut previously and it's stopped it.

Gentlemen, I give you the future: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/01/mio-link-first-look.html

Anyone using an ithlete? Little gadget to measure HR variability which is meant to be a decent indicator of freshness or fatigue.

http://www.myithlete.com/ithlete/