# Heart rate whilst riding



## cyberknight (20 Jun 2020)

I got into a bit of a "discussion" on another social media to do with cycling.
Member posts his mate has lost no end of weight e biking and was really giving it the beans up a hill maxxing out at 120 bpm , the picture the chap in question doesnt look a day over 40.
Now i applaud his efforts and wish him well but i raise the issue that they seem to think that 120 bpm is really hard training and get shot down for saying this .
Now i am open to discussion and correction , am i wrong ?


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## fossyant (20 Jun 2020)

Everybody is different, but my average heart beat on a ride is over 150. Maxes out about 180 these days. I only need to swing my leg over the bke and it jumps to 100.


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## figbat (20 Jun 2020)

Not for “maxing out”. I’d expect something north of 170 for a balls-out effort.


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## ianbarton (20 Jun 2020)

I think heart rates depend on all sorts of things. I am 65 and my resting heart rate is about 60bpm. My absolute max rate is around 195 bpm. On hills I can maintain a rate of about 160bpm, but if I go much above this I run out of steam quite rapidly. Your heart rate zones are probably very different than mine. The best way to find out is to do some cycling with an HRM and find your maximum rate and the highest rate you can comfortably maintain for say 30 minutes.


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## Slick (20 Jun 2020)

Yeah 120 is dawdling along. They will more than likely learn that as they go.


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## cyberknight (20 Jun 2020)

fossyant said:


> Everybody is different, but my average heart beat on a ride is over 150. Maxes out about 180 these days. I only need to swing my leg over the bke and it jumps to 100.


i dont use a hrm anymore the last time i did i was cruising at a similar 150 average .


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## screenman (20 Jun 2020)

cyberknight said:


> I got into a bit of a "discussion" on another social media to do with cycling.
> Member posts his mate has lost no end of weight e biking and was really giving it the beans up a hill maxxing out at 120 bpm , the picture the chap in question doesnt look a day over 40.
> Now i applaud his efforts and wish him well but i raise the issue that they seem to think that 120 bpm is really hard training and get shot down for saying this .
> Now i am open to discussion and correction , am i wrong ?



I doubt cycling alone was much to do with his weight loss.


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## Specialeyes (20 Jun 2020)

52 y/o here, sustainable tempo HR is 152 and max around 175. Interestingly, I've watched my wife's progress as she's cycled way more during lockdown - she used to think 120-130bpm was 'pushing it' and now can sustain 140-odd - proving the old saying correct. It's not got easier, she just goes faster!

I do wonder how much of the HR limit is mental - worrying about seemingly high HRs and not simply letting the inner chimp loose! Ought to test it sometime, with max efforts with and without a visible HRM. hmmmm


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## cyberknight (20 Jun 2020)

Specialeyes said:


> 52 y/o here, sustainable tempo HR is 152 and max around 175. Interestingly, I've watched my wife's progress as she's cycled way more during lockdown - she used to think 120-130bpm was 'pushing it' and now can sustain 140-odd - proving the old saying correct. It's not got easier, she just goes faster!
> 
> I do wonder how much of the HR limit is mental - worrying about seemingly high HRs and not simply letting the inner chimp loose! Ought to test it sometime, with max efforts with and without a visible HRM. hmmmm


I hear you last year i was struggling on hills then i realized i was subconsciusly not pushing it like i used too.


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## Ming the Merciless (20 Jun 2020)

cyberknight said:


> I got into a bit of a "discussion" on another social media to do with cycling.
> Member posts his mate has lost no end of weight e biking and was really giving it the beans up a hill maxxing out at 120 bpm , the picture the chap in question doesnt look a day over 40.
> Now i applaud his efforts and wish him well but i raise the issue that they seem to think that 120 bpm is really hard training and get shot down for saying this .
> Now i am open to discussion and correction , am i wrong ?



Unless they have an exceptionally low max HR then 120 bpm is not giving it the beans. 120 bpm is at a conversational effort for most cyclists, and sustainable all day and all night. It’s the average I target for even the longest of my audax rides.


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (20 Jun 2020)

120 is barely doing anything for most people, not the most useful of number vs an ebikes assist


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## fossyant (20 Jun 2020)

120 bpm to some people is alot and the ebike has enabled him to get out biking without getting knackered. It's OK for us lot that have been riding bikes since a kid, but bear in mind loads of beginners out there now, way more than there used to be. It's a good thing. I've got 30 year old's at work think I'm a nutter popping out for 16 or 20 miles before work or at lunch.. I'm 50 but I've never got off a bike since I was a kid.


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## OldShep (20 Jun 2020)

I’m 68 and have always had a low heart rate. Taking a look at yesterday’s ride I maxed at 109 and an avg of 90 on a 20 ml ride with over 1000 ft of climbing. I can reach 120 on a hell of a steep hill.
on a 14 day LEJOG a couple of years ago my avg hr/ day was between 75 & 84.
my rhr is usually 42-44
A few yrs ago I had to attend hospital for a minor op. 11:30 in the morning after a coffee and a walk to the ward the nurse takes my BP HR was 52. Not believing it she took it again and then asked, ' are you an athlete'? To which I replied No just a cyclist.


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## cyberknight (20 Jun 2020)

OldShep said:


> I’m 68 and have always had a low heart rate. Taking a look at yesterday’s ride I maxed at 109 and an avg of 90 on a 20 ml ride with over 1000 ft of climbing. I can reach 120 on a hell of a steep hill.
> on a 14 day LEJOG a couple of years ago my avg hr/ day was between 75 & 84.
> my rhr is usually 42-44
> A few yrs ago I had to attend hospital for a minor op. 11:30 in the morning after a coffee and a walk to the ward the nurse takes my BP HR was 52. Not believing it she took it again and then asked, ' are you an athlete'? To which I replied No just a cyclist.


last medical i had they said i was one bpm above a clinically low HR or Bradycardia, i do have an irregular ecg and they ask me if i feel dizzy .


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## si_c (20 Jun 2020)

For arguments sake I'm 40, my RHR is 44 and my max HR somewhere north of 180, I did a ride today, not even close to max effort really and my max HR was 175 average 156.


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## Ming the Merciless (20 Jun 2020)

OldShep said:


> I’m 68 and have always had a low heart rate. Taking a look at yesterday’s ride I maxed at 109 and an avg of 90 on a 20 ml ride with over 1000 ft of climbing. I can reach 120 on a hell of a steep hill.
> on a 14 day LEJOG a couple of years ago my avg hr/ day was between 75 & 84.
> my rhr is usually 42-44
> A few yrs ago I had to attend hospital for a minor op. 11:30 in the morning after a coffee and a walk to the ward the nurse takes my BP HR was 52. Not believing it she took it again and then asked, ' are you an athlete'? To which I replied No just a cyclist.



What was your average speed on the avg 90 bpm ride? 20 miles, 1000 feet is typically what you’d find in Essex / Hertfordshire. Relatively flat within this country, overall average 1% gradient.


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## HLaB (20 Jun 2020)

HR is a individual thing as most folk know but I'm just under 45years and my max (on the turbo) is 200bpm, since my op and chemo though on the road I've not went beyond 196bpm and general mentally restrict my self to circa 90%.


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## OldShep (20 Jun 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> What was your average speed on the avg 90 bpm ride? 20 miles, 1000 feet is typically what you’d find in Essex / Hertfordshire. Relatively flat.


12 mph which is typical for me nowadays. 
fastest ride I’ve ever done since I turned 60 was 15 mph over a 60 mile to Edinburgh. I can’t find it now as it’s on an old Garmin account but I recall that was an avghr of 94


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## OldShep (20 Jun 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Unless they have an exceptionally low max HR then 120 bpm is not giving it the beans. 120 bpm is at a conversational effort for most cyclists, and sustainable all day and all night. It’s the average I target for even the longest of my audax rides.


20 years ago when doing Audax 200&300 I would stay with a group if my HR was between 100&117 I was happy I’d let it rise to around 135 on climbs and i dont think it ever got over 140. 
on 400s though I used to be reluctant to go over 125 on the climbs I knew I’d always get them back again on the descent.


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## Ming the Merciless (20 Jun 2020)

OldShep said:


> 12 mph which is typical for me nowadays.
> fastest ride I’ve ever done since I turned 60 was 15 mph over a 60 mile to Edinburgh. I can’t find it now as it’s on an old Garmin account but I recall that was an avghr of 94



Do you ever try and really push the HR? I have a similar resting HR to you but can push my max much higher.


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## Ming the Merciless (20 Jun 2020)

OldShep said:


> 20 years ago when doing Audax 200&300 I would stay with a group if my HR was between 100&117 I was happy I’d let it rise to around 135 on climbs and i dont think it ever got over 140.
> on 400s though I used to be reluctant to go over 125 on the climbs I knew I’d always get them back again on the descent.



Exactly nice easy pace for audax, well short of maximums.


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## figbat (20 Jun 2020)

I’m a ‘moderately fit’, 48 year old, slightly overweight leisure cyclist. I top out at around 175 on the hardest climbs I have done, which is turning myself inside out but making sure I have enough left to get home. Resting HR 65-ish.


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## Brads (20 Jun 2020)

52 yr old and average resting of maybe 55bpm
Can easily maintain 155 / 160 for a decent turn, but had a push at a max ride the other day, maybe 95%+ of Max HR for an hour and my god I felt buggered after it. Really weak for maybe 10 minutes. The average for that ride was in the 170's


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## OldShep (20 Jun 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Do you ever try and really push the HR? I have a similar resting HR to you but can push my max much higher.


Occasionally I get this whim and think I’ll train 
So yes I’ll do some intervals make myself gasping for air and on the bike it won’t go over 125 ish
A few years ago I pushed hard on the Lowther Hill climb https://veloviewer.com/segment/1367493 and made 130 especially if I was out of the saddle. 
interestingly though, at a time I was worrying about this low HR, around 5 yrs ago I wore the monitor in a game of squash. At some point in the game I’d reached 141. I guess that’s the difference of Impacting the ground maybe.


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## marzjennings (20 Jun 2020)

Heart rate is a weird thing and I've never had a high average or peak rate. I'm 50 and my resting heart rate is in the high 40s, and when riding I rarely see anything above 150, even when pushing +300 watts. From a recent Swift ride, my avg power for an hour was 186 and my avg hr 127. My max power was 573 and max hr 158. But as the OP states, I don't see 120 as a max for anyone unless they are really unfit or have a medical issue.


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## vickster (21 Jun 2020)

If he’s on an e-bike isn’t the motor doing a large proportion of the work going up hill so he’s hardly maxing out?


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## numbnuts (21 Jun 2020)

I've got a job to get mine over 130 - beta blockers


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## Goldenretriever (21 Jun 2020)

Just curious as I know next to nothing about heart rates. I have never used a monitor while riding and tend to ride within myself. Due to circumstances I also occasionally run to be nearer to home. Wife has ongoing health issues and has to monitor her heart rate, so within a couple of minute after a 5k run this morning she checked mine, was 122/77 which is about what my normal rate is. I expected it to be higher and by the way I will be 63 next month. Can anybody interpret this please always good to learn.


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## Mo1959 (21 Jun 2020)

Goldenretriever said:


> Just curious as I know next to nothing about heart rates. I have never used a monitor while riding and tend to ride within myself. Due to circumstances I also occasionally run to be nearer to home. Wife has ongoing health issues and has to monitor her heart rate, so within a couple of minute after a 5k run this morning she checked mine, was 122/77 which is about what my normal rate is. I expected it to be higher and by the way I will be 63 next month. Can anybody interpret this please always good to learn.


That's your blood pressure.......and it's pretty text book average, possibly a fraction better than most 63 year olds if they don't keep fit.


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## Goldenretriever (21 Jun 2020)

Obviously know even less than I thought but still expected it to be higher after running


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## ianbarton (21 Jun 2020)

Goldenretriever said:


> Obviously know even less than I thought but still expected it to be higher after running


Not always. Depends on how much rest she had after stopping running and taking her BP.


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## PaulSB (22 Jun 2020)

I'm 65 with resting HR of 48. If I've completely smashed it I'd peak at 160/165 but this is giving it everything up the toughest climbs.

I rode a century with 116 avg HR last week and 16.4 avg mph in to a headwind all day.

A few weeks ago I rode 40 miles, climbed 3000 feet, 15.1mph avg with HR avg of 122. This included a PB by 30 seconds on Birdy Brow a 1.1 mile ascent averaging 9.7%.

Everyone who gets on a bike should be applauded but for me 120 is cruising at speed, easy riding and chatting. I wouldn't consider it in anyway difficult but we are all different.

I've always understood the important figure is how quickly HR drops in a minute. Mine goes down by 20-30 beats depending on how long I've maintained real effort.


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## matticus (22 Jun 2020)

I love HR threads.

You may as well have a "How tall are you?" thread!


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## numbnuts (22 Jun 2020)

matticus said:


> I love HR threads.
> 
> You may as well have a "How tall are you?" thread!


We did 
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/how-tall-are-you.214028/


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## matticus (22 Jun 2020)

I knew there was something missing in my life!


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## Milkfloat (22 Jun 2020)

matticus said:


> I love HR threads.
> 
> You may as well have a "How tall are you?" thread!



I guess they can be helpful to find out if your measuring device is way out of wack. For instance if someone claims they are 16' tall, we know something is not right.


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## Phaeton (22 Jun 2020)

vickster said:


> If he’s on an e-bike isn’t the motor doing a large proportion of the work going up hill so he’s hardly maxing out?


All depends on which setting, if he has it switched on & where he's riding, I can come back from an ebike ride as knacked as a non ebike, just find I have either gone faster or longer.


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## Levo-Lon (22 Jun 2020)

Riding to work 105_125

Out with Sin in law 300000000000000000000000000000
Well 150 _180


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## wafter (24 Jun 2020)

FWIW, knocking on the door of 40 my RHR is about 56bpm, max around 190-195bpm, mean over a purposefully super- slow recovery ride around 100bpm, a relaxed ride around 120-125bpm, an intense ride 150-160bpm with balls-out hill efforts maxing out at 185-195bpm.

As others have said 120bpm is the opposite end of the scale to a full effort and what, barely zone 2 for most people?

Sounds like the man in question doesn't know the meaning of "a big effort" and presumably you've been attacked on FB by his group of sycophants because they'd rather protect his ego from the truth of the matter. Can't stand FB groups personally; seem like a flypaper for idiots and trolls IME. Get him to join a proper cycling forum


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## Ming the Merciless (24 Jun 2020)

Problem with Bradycardia is that it’s defined by the resting heart rates of sedentary populations. So if you’re not sedentary your resting HR can often be outside the range of what’s considered normal.


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## Drago (24 Jun 2020)

I've a low HR, particularly for my age, can get as low as 36 when I'm asleep. Even maxing it out I barely crack 150, so anyone who thinks 120 is a high heart rate when under exertion is either Ill informed or in a coma.


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## itboffin (24 Jun 2020)

Resting is 68 was 95 for a long time my max is now 198 was 214, I’m actively doing rides to keep my HR low whilst increasing distance and avg speed but all the hills around here make that hard to do, my objective now is to do a longish Z1 HR and power ride, currently HR2 power 1

I believe with time and practice you can train your body to achieve that goal


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## Brads (24 Jun 2020)

itboffin said:


> Resting is 68 was 95 for a long time my max is now 198 was 214, I’m actively doing rides to keep my HR low whilst increasing distance and avg speed but all the hills around here make that hard to do, my objective now is to do a longish Z1 HR and power ride, currently HR2 power 1
> 
> I believe with time and practice you can train your body to achieve that goal




How old are you ?


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## johnnyb47 (25 Jun 2020)

My HR maxes out at around 175 when pushing it on a climb and averages around 150 when cycling.


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## Biff600 (25 Jun 2020)

just back from a quick 10 mile sprint, max heart rate 187, average 174


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