nmadden wrote: ↑14 May 2022, 3:26pm
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.
I wonder what you are using to determine your "theoretical max heart rate"?
A while ago, at the age of 62, the first time going up a short, but very steep hill, my heart hit 182 bpm. Whereas the usual 220-age would suggest that 158 is my maximum heart rate. 220-age is thought to be very unreliable, especially for older people.
Even the slightly more complex ways of calculating maximum heart rate:
https://www.brianmac.co.uk/maxhr.htm
...still only give me a maximum heart rate (then) in the low 160s.
(My resting heart rate, by the way, is in the low 60s.)
So I attempted to find my "real" maximum heart rate
as it applies to cycling (because MHR is different for different activities, apparently) by doing something like number 3 from here:
https://padyakracingteam.com/2022/04/02/max-heart-rate/
There are various versions of the "outdoor hill climb test", but they are all more or less the same. My max heart rate then was 173. Though I think I could have tried harder. I daresay if I had prepared for it in terms of rest and nutrition, as though I was getting ready for a marathon or something, I might have tried harder, and got a higher MHR.
Anyway, the point is my MHR seems to be way higher than any of the calculation methods.
As far as I understand it, only a genuine supervised stress test can determine your maximum heart rate. I've thought about doing one, but I'm not an athlete in training, so precise measurement isn't that important to me. But to establish the "zones" this sort of thing might be as useful as any numbers:
https://www.bicycling.com/training/a200 ... ing-zones/
I often feel that I'm taking it a bit easy cycling, especially as I've got stronger. Even though my heart rate spends some time in the 140-150 range, which according to the calculated methods is close to my maximum.
I suspect your "maximum heart rate" is higher than you think.
My HRM is a polar H10, by the way. Which is usually thought to be very accurate.