Max heart rate and zones.

[Jody]

Is it safe to be riding at 85-100% of max heart rate most of the time? I have been watching (occasionally) my heart rate using a polar watch and there were times last year where my heart rate hit 200+ which can't be good as I am no Miguel Indurain.

I try not to exert myself to that level now but even medium intensity gives me a HR of 155+ and up to my max of 185BPM. As you can see from last nights spin round the block I don't have a fast average speed, although I am riding a full suss on the road with knobbly tyres at a fairly low pressure.

So is this a safe level to work out at?

 

[uclown2002]

Your max HR is not 185 bpm if hit 200+ unless that was a random spike.

 

[crazyjoe101]

If your max is 185bpm then I doubt you were hitting 200bpm last year, as all other things the same, you don't really lose more than around 1bpm per year. How reliable is your monitor?

I'm no expert but I think it's pretty hard to exercise at a dangerous intensity without noticing a lot of pain, unless you have some sort of strange condition.

As general advice, if you're looking to go hard the ride will be uncomfortable and then painful towards the end but you won't be in agony. That said, a full suss mountain bike isn't really right for these sorts of efforts on road due to the geometry differences.
As far as training goes, going as fast as you can for as long as you can isn't the best way, and you should always give yourself time to recover between hard rides.

 

[HarryTheDog]

how old are you and what is your resting heart rate?. If you are in your 50's or above I would say way too high.

 

[Jody]

how old are you and what is your resting heart rate?. If you are in your 50's or above I would say way too high.

36 and when I wake up in the morning its about 55BPM

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Does the watch have a separate Heart Rate Monitor? When I was looking in to HRM and the various wrist mounted options it seemed that sensing off of the wrist was a bit flaky when it came to active exercise (much better at getting resting heart rate) and a strap was really the thing. Although I could be completely wrong here. Are both the graphs from data off of the watch too? Considering the elevation lines in both graphs neither main line looks right to me. Although again, no expert, just going by what I get off of the Garmin.

 

[Jody]

Watch is a strap type HRM and the one hooked up to my phone is a bluetooth strap type.

Heart rate and SP02 is checked in the morning on my phone using a light sensor. But have checked against counting for 15 seconds and it seemed accurate.

The quick drops in HR are when I am taking a breather going down hill.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I guess only you know how hard you're cycling, if you think you should have more in reserve and so your heart rate is too high then it'd be silly not to tell you to go and get checked out just in case, presuming you haven't been recently, but I have to warn you Beta blockers are a bitch.

 

[Crackle]

If you don't know what your max is because you've never done a ramp test, take the 200 you've seen, in which case the average and Max above look possible and probable. Presumably you were working quite hard at the 185 point.

Forget the age formula, it's rarely right. In theory max hr decreases with age, in practise if you are fit and active, it may not or decrease much slower but I think the capacity to pump as much blood still decreases.

Resting rate and how fast your hr returns to normal are more important things to look at than your max hr.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Since you are 36 it would seem fair enough, however I see you are nearly stopping at some points and your heart rate stays high, If I went down to a near stop my hear rate plummets fairly quickly . Recently I was having real problems with my heart rate strap, where heart rate did not seem to react fast enough, I put it in the wash which sorted it. On another note how the hell did you hit 42mph on a MTB with soft tyres?

 

[DWiggy]

I'm 38 and regularly exercise at 160-170ish with no problems, my max bpm is about 186bpm, sounds like a good session to me!

 

[Jody]

On another note how the hell did you hit 42mph on a MTB with soft tyres?

That was a little conservative as the hill has no street lights, in the middle of nowhere and a 90 degree right when you reach the bottom. My max down there was 47mph.

 

[Jody]

Since you are 36 it would seem fair enough, however I see you are nearly stopping at some points and your heart rate stays high, If I went down to a near stop my hear rate plummets fairly quickly . ?

Mine doesn't drop quickly when I finish. Maybe a few minutes to get sensible again. It might look like I am nearly stopped but I feel pooped and am usually in the granny ring spinning. Even downhill I try to pedal but catch my breath while I can.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I know when I'm exercising at max HR. The lights go dim and a pronounced sensation of intense physically discomfort pervades my body. I no longer need at HRM to tell me when I'm there. I go by 'feel'.

 

[moo]

Were you mostly freewheeling down that first big hill? Did you stop pedalling at any point on the ride? In both cases your heart rate will plummet (even if you're relatively unfit). I'd suggest your HRM is wildly inaccurate.