Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

nmadden
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Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by nmadden »

I’ve been cycling now for about 3 years, and I’m in my early 40s. I was quite overweight when I started, but through cycling (and very little else) I’ve managed to reduce my weight to where I am now just about in a healthy BMI for the first time in over a decade. However, since I bought a heart rate monitor I’ve noticed that I spend a significant amount of time in the higher heart rate zones, and regularly hit close to my theoretical max heart rate.

Where I live it’s quite hilly and I find myself addicted to pushing myself up the local climbs, even though it’s definitely a slog at my current level of fitness. I certainly couldn’t talk to anyone while doing it, and I’m breathing hard. However, I get such a sense of achievement and rush at the top and feel energised for the rest of the ride. I never feel close to passing out - quite the opposite, I feel strong. But I’m usually good for nothing the next day.

Am I overdoing it? Should I be sticking to flatter (duller) routes along towpaths and cycle tracks until my fitness is improved, or should I trust my instincts that my body is coping with this and my fitness is improving? Would my fitness improve quicker if I took it easier (as some have suggested)?

For background, I recently had to see a cardiologist for what turned out to be a false alarm, so I’m pretty sure I have no underlying heart problems to worry about.
Jdsk
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by Jdsk »

Welcome.

That doesn't sounds as if you're overdoing anything. But please tell us more about how you feel the next day... anything specific, and anything musculoskeletal?

Jonathan
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foxyrider
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by foxyrider »

You can enjoy cycling without going eyeballs out all the time!

Professional riders know this and will include 'recovery' rides into their programme, these allow your muscles to repair damaged tissue whilst still giving you a workout physically. If every ride is at 110% you will constantly be below par and lethargic for a day or more each time as your body goes into a major repair programme.

You will get best results fitness and health wise by riding at a less frenetic effort level, aim for a level where you could carry on a conversation or as i do, sing to myself, you can still put in hard efforts, Bitd, we'd do this by sprinting for name boards, unstructured intervals if you like. The recovery element is very important.
Convention? what's that then?
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Nearholmer
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by Nearholmer »

My personal take is that it’s time above 90% HR that really takes it out of you, disproportionately so, and if there’s too much of that, especially early in a ride, it can blunt the enjoyment, and leave you a bit whacked the next day.

I find that when I’m in reasonable form (I’m still not quite, there at the moment, even six weeks on from covid), then if I ride mostly <90% HR, with a goodly slice of that at <80%, then I can ride 4-6hrs, for five or six days on the trot, without feeling whacked.

So, how to keep HR down on the hilly bits? Low gears, and going slowly. I have no shame in taking climbs “at my leisure”, and have moved to making sure I have a lower bottom gear these days than I used to.

PS: I frequently exceed my nominal max HR, which simply says that my actual max HR is a little above nominal, and in most rides at least hit it at some point, but that’s OK in stamina terms if it’s only in short bursts, and a small % of the tide.
nmadden
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by nmadden »

Jdsk wrote: 14 May 2022, 7:27pm Welcome.

That doesn't sounds as if you're overdoing anything. But please tell us more about how you feel the next day... anything specific, and anything musculoskeletal?
Thanks, that’s reassuring. The next day I’m just really exhausted. My legs are tired, but mainly I spend the whole day wanting to go back to bed.
nmadden
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by nmadden »

Thanks everyone, some good advice here. I will try slowing down on the hills and taking some easier rides, but it sounds like I shouldn’t be too worried about pushing it sometimes.
rualexander
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by rualexander »

Remember the old Greg Lemond adage "it never gets easier, you just get faster".
So unless you are tracking your average speed improvement, or the gears you are in up a certain hill, you won't really know you are getting fitter, but you will be.
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by mail@nickavery.com »

This is something I think about a lot, I do have a health condition and my heart rate is always high during exercise. When not cycling I do long cardio workouts. According to the standard formula, my max HR is now 159, but I can maintain 97% almost indefinitely. I think that this actually means that the standard max HR calculation is wrong.
mumbojumbo
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by mumbojumbo »

I would ask a Gp and relying on the opinion of a layman is dodgy
Nearholmer
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by Nearholmer »

I think that this actually means that the standard max HR calculation is wrong.
Like all average or typical figures, it’s bound to be “wrong” to varying degrees for many, possibly most, people. For every person whose true maximum is slightly higher, there will probably be another whose true maximum is slightly lower, and there will be outliers at both extremes.

Treat it as what it is, average or typical.
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TrevA
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by TrevA »

According to the 220 minus age formula, my max heart rate is 157, but I regularly see HR above 160. 169 the other day and 163 on today’s ride, without going particularly hard or going up any big hills.
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by Nearholmer »

without going particularly hard or going up any big hills.
Personally, I’d consult the doctor if I was seeing high HR when not “pushing hard”. May be nothing; may be significant.

Based on what your 220-age figure comes to, we must be pretty much exactly the same age, and I get very similar actual numbers to you, but the high spikes are always very clearly associated with going up hills, either steep ones, or less steep but very challenging ground conditions off-road, and as I said above I ‘ration’ that on longer rides to avoid getting too whacked.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
How are you calculating your max heart rate?
If its using some formula etc you could be way out!

So if you have been cycling for three years whats the time you spend per week cycling?.....Not your mileage!

Time and effort is the way to go.
That will tell us what to expect with what you max will likely be.

So how much time are you spending each week?
How long are your rides in time.....un-interrupted riding?
Whats your average heart rate on your ride?.........if not available then post your zone times of a typical ride.
Z1 = ?
Z 2 = ?
Z 3 etc............
We will also need what is deemed / you have set as you max heart rate?

80%+ average of your max (theoretical) for three hours will be at limit for a pretty fit person.
90%+ average for an hour will be very hard.....................................
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
TrevA wrote: 4 Jun 2022, 8:53pm According to the 220 minus age formula, my max heart rate is 157, but I regularly see HR above 160. 169 the other day and 163 on today’s ride, without going particularly hard or going up any big hills.
Snap!

But we all know the formula is crap!

Also individual HR is nothing to go on.

More importantly for training purposes.........(fitness or otherwise).......its all about average percentage of your max for a set time.

This will be comparable between similar fitness persons................even though their actual HR readings can be very different.
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Jdsk
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Re: Heart rate nearly always high - overdoing it?

Post by Jdsk »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote: 4 Jun 2022, 11:13pmBut we all know the formula is crap!
I don't. I do know that a crude but helpful clinical tool can be misused.

Jonathan
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