Heart rate whilst riding

[Ming the Merciless]

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.

 

[HLaB]

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%.

 

[OldShep]

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

 

[OldShep]

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.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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.

 

[figbat]

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.

 

[Brads]

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

 

[OldShep]

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.

 

[marzjennings]

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.

 

[vickster]

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?

 

[numbnuts]

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

 

[Goldenretriever]

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.

 

[Mo1959]

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.

 

[Goldenretriever]

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