Irregular Heart rate after hard rides

I am slightly concerned and wonder if I am worrying for no reason. On Sunday mornings I ride with a number of Tri guys for ~ 3 hrs. We usually cover about 50 miles and I can hold my own. I know the rides are hard as later in the day I feel pretty shattered. I am a little worried as on a couple of occasions I have noticed that on a Monday morning my heart rate seems slightly elavated and every once in a while I get an odd sensation in my chest and when I take my pulse using my two fingers on my left side of my neck I notice a rate of about 70 bpm, but then every so often a bit seems to be missed and I get the odd feeling in the chest.

Is this common after heavy exercise or should I see the doc. I am 32 and ride three times a week.

Thanks

After you do a long session of elevated exercise like your talking about, your body doesn't just go right back to normal. Your HR and metabolism will stay elevated for some time after, up to a point. How long depends on the effort you put out and your conditioning, but could be up to 2 days. What is your normal resting HR compared to the 70 on Monday?

What your talking about in the second case is most likely a premature fire of your heart. This happens to everyone to some degree and can be caused by a number of reasons, alcohol, stress, or other more serious problems. I had this same thing going on several years ago and went and had it checked out. It's a good excuse to go see your doctor and bring in a cardiologist if need be. Don't panic over it, but if they are occuring frequently you should get it checked out.

My normal resting is ~ 55 and these so called missed beats only happen the day after a very hard ride where I know I have had times on the climbs where I am at max heart rate of 196 bpm.

I always hate going to my doctor as they make you feel like you are a hypercondriac.

You could have a minor issue, or something significant that would mean the hard exercise your doing now is putting you at risk for a heart attack. Your doctor may advise you to have a exercise stress test, so your EKG can be monitored while you're on a treadmill and working up to near max HR.

If any problems are found in the EKG, it doesn't mean you have to quit riding, but just learn to deal with it. If it's done at a cardio clinic, the test may cost $300 or more. But if you've never had one to clear you for hard exercise, at your age I'd say it's well worth doing.