question about my heart rate



foild1

New Member
Aug 30, 2005
49
0
0
Hi everyone!

I went for a ride today to try out my new polar 720I for the first time. I have no idea what my real max heart rate is, but i noticed on the ride that lasted 1.5 hrs, my max hear rate recorded was 175 and this was while i was climbing quite a challenging mountain for me.. Would this be a good idea of my max heart rate? is there a better way to find it that i can do on my bike? im a 20yr old male if that helps...

Also, is there any online resources that everyone here recomends i read regarding how to train with heart rate? or any books?


Thanks!
 
If you were determined to ride your way to max HR, you would want to ramp up your intensity over the course of a few minutes, so that you're riding the last ~2 min as hard as you possibly could, sprinting at the end. A steady (>5-6 minutes) climb is a suitable place to do this.

Be warned, though, that that is not a fun exercise in any way. At max HR, dizziness, lightheadedness, tunnel vision, the feeling that you're going to pass out and fall off the bike, etc. are not uncommon. I'm not sure if that's how you felt at the top of your mountain climb, but my guess is that you probably still had quite a ways to go to your max HR. As a point of reference, the "220-age" formula would predict an average MHR of 200 bpm for someone your age.

As far as resources go, here's an article that's a good start:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=powerstern
 
I think Joe Friel's "Training Bible" is a must read for HR training. Others on this board will accurately point out that he recommends way too much low intensity training, but nonetheless the book will give you an excellent foundation from which you can build your own training program using the free advice of people on this board (like Ric Stern, etc.).
 
The 175 recorded during a big uphill section of a 90 min ride is probably about 90% of your max, it is really hard to hit your max. Like the previous poster mentioned, you have to ramp up and really sustain an huge effort and THEN go all out.
 
thats kinda along the lines that i was thinking...

in that case my max heart rate would be around 195.
 
I have a max. HR of 174, or thats as high as it went before i collapsed off the bike.
This was done during a set of tests during the summer, e.g. Power, lactate etc.

I got to 440w then just went 'bang'. All i could get to was 174, this was after 49mins.

I am a 21yr old male and race in the UK.
 
WINGNUTT said:
I think Joe Friel's "Training Bible" is a must read for HR training. Others on this board will accurately point out that he recommends way too much low intensity training, but nonetheless the book will give you an excellent foundation from which you can build your own training program using the free advice of people on this board (like Ric Stern, etc.).

I've seen others mention the same thing. What exactly is it that Friel promotes "way too much low intensity training"? My current goals are to ride nominally faster over 2-hour-long rides and, more importantly, improve my cardiovascular system. So would his recomendations work for me? Isn't the usefulness of his recomendation rider-specific?

Also, thanks to the starter of this thread. I had wondered the same thing about determining MHR.
 
usually, your absolute max hr is 220-your age. i'm 22, so 220-22=198 is my absolute max. you usually want to work out anywhere between 60 and 80% of your max heart rate
 
frenchyge said:
If you were determined to ride your way to max HR, you would want to ramp up your intensity over the course of a few minutes, so that you're riding the last ~2 min as hard as you possibly could, sprinting at the end. A steady (>5-6 minutes) climb is a suitable place to do this.
I would do it on an indoor trainer. If you really max out, you're spending the next hour or so trying rather hard not to puke. Not a fun way to ride home.
 
snugent said:
usually, your absolute max hr is 220-your age. i'm 22, so 220-22=198 is my absolute max. you usually want to work out anywhere between 60 and 80% of your max heart rate
An individual's max heart rate may or may not be 220-age. For a large group of people, the average max heart rate as a function age will be around 220-age, but that says nothing about what max heart rate is for any one person.
 
snugent said:
usually, your absolute max hr is 220-your age. i'm 22, so 220-22=198 is my absolute max. you usually want to work out anywhere between 60 and 80% of your max heart rate
Well I am 35 just coming back to cycling after a few years away (too many!) on climbs I have reached 191 and generally upper 180's.

I am aware that a proper MAX requires NOT doing it on the road - do it somewhere safe on a trainer just in case you pass out!

I can safely assume my max is higher than 191 as it does not feel too uncomforatable, hurts a bit though!
 
I just set a new "max" last week on the trainer. This was after a 6 min interval with a "sprint" at the end. The number 200 bpm (I quit when it got to 200 so I might have a few BPM's left in there. As the others said, it was quite "painful", trying to get air for the next min or so, felt like breathing underwater. Since I'm 36, based on 220-age, I have the heart of a 20 year old ! ;)

Seriously, there is quite a bit of varriation in the 220-age number. The other thing I "learned" after riding with a HRM is that make sure you have your training zones dialed in, or you won't work at the proper intensity during your work outs.

L
 
snugent said:
usually, your absolute max hr is 220-your age. i'm 22, so 220-22=198 is my absolute max. you usually want to work out anywhere between 60 and 80% of your max heart rate
210 - (0.65 x age) generally comes much closer to the true number for max hr, but can still be 20-30 beats off in some individuals.

As an example my 42 yr old wife routinely goes over 215 and is able to talk fairly well until it's over 220.
 
Funnily, a good time to have a better picture, is when you are a bit out of shape. Next time you have a 6-7 day rest (could be more for some people), take a look at your HR data. After such a rest, at the begining of the ride, you have legs to ride fast, it doesn't feel difficult. So you look at the PowerMeter, you see high figures, feels great, HR to the top limit.

After that, good luck. I hit 197 out of shape this summer, two weeks after healing from a crash.

Reminds me an other one. In 2000, I got back to cycling. After 4 months of plain slow LSD, I went on a group ride with a buch of Italians. They said they were "friends". After 1 hour at 25mph, my hr was still averaging 187, with very long peaks at 195. 175 felt like nothing.

BTW, I am 37.
 
mises said:
210 - (0.65 x age) generally comes much closer to the true number for max hr, but can still be 20-30 beats off in some individuals.

As an example my 42 yr old wife routinely goes over 215 and is able to talk fairly well until it's over 220.
That is the most accurate way to figure the average max heart rate. For athletes, you also take into account your resting heart rate. The lower your resting heart rate, the higher your max heart rate. I don't know the formula right off hand, but you can get the info from a cardiologist or on the internet from one of the heart rate calculators online. Keep in mind that there is a reason it is called "max" heart rate.
 
foild1 said:
Hi everyone!

I went for a ride today to try out my new polar 720I for the first time. I have no idea what my real max heart rate is, but i noticed on the ride that lasted 1.5 hrs, my max hear rate recorded was 175 and this was while i was climbing quite a challenging mountain for me.. Would this be a good idea of my max heart rate? is there a better way to find it that i can do on my bike? im a 20yr old male if that helps...

Also, is there any online resources that everyone here recomends i read regarding how to train with heart rate? or any books?


Thanks!
i also just got a Heart rate monitor and bought two books at Amazon.com (very inexpensive because they were used) 1) "the heart rate monitor book for outdoor and indoor cyclists" by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed 2) "the heart rate monitor workbook vor indoor cyclists by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.
i have found them both very informative. the book says for a 20 yr old the MHR would be about (220 - 20) 200. i am 7o yrs old and my MHR seems to be about 150 although i sometimes push myself over that for short durations.
 
I've never used a heart rate moniter in my training before. All my cycling buddies say I need to get one if I want to train better. Is it really critial or can I just go by feel?

P.S. I consider myself a simi-racer, a mix a fun touring and hard core riding.
 
Hi guys, Im new. That 220-age formula certainly doesnt work for me! Im 20 years old, and my max heart rate Ive hit on my bike was 219. I was pushing pretty damn hard but not tunnel vision and sickness hard so I imagine its a few beats above that. I find that on most climbs that go on more than 5 minutes or so its hard to keep below 200bpm and I often hit 210 in quick flat/ slight incline sprints. Im not very fit, so im sure this doesnt help keep my heart rate low but I certainly dont think Im chronically unfit, My daily 12 mile ride up some serious inclines and down some aswell but generally levelling in the middle 5 miles takes me just about 3/4 of an hour on a Mountain bike on rough roads. This gives me an average heart rate of high 180s. If I really push I average close to 200 on the ride and knock a few minutes off, so just to tell you not to just take the theoretical heart rates as truth. I bet a lot of people are under and overtraining based on a theory with very little real factual grounding!
 
sherm_144 said:
i also just got a Heart rate monitor and bought two books at Amazon.com (very inexpensive because they were used) 1) "the heart rate monitor book for outdoor and indoor cyclists" by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed 2) "the heart rate monitor workbook vor indoor cyclists by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.
i have found them both very informative. the book says for a 20 yr old the MHR would be about (220 - 20) 200. i am 7o yrs old and my MHR seems to be about 150 although i sometimes push myself over that for short durations.
A good friend of mine is also 70yo. We ride together, sometimes at 25mph on average. He his like a lion in sprint finishes, former vet canadian champion on track. I am amazed by how fast he can pull a pack.

His heart can go pretty high. Just like yours, in the range of 150 for an hour or two in duration.

Funnily, at 70, he also buys most of his gears on the internet, for better deals.
 
sherm_144 said:
i also just got a Heart rate monitor and bought two books at Amazon.com (very inexpensive because they were used) 1) "the heart rate monitor book for outdoor and indoor cyclists" by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed 2) "the heart rate monitor workbook vor indoor cyclists by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.
i have found them both very informative. the book says for a 20 yr old the MHR would be about (220 - 20) 200. i am 7o yrs old and my MHR seems to be about 150 although i sometimes push myself over that for short durations.
If you can go above 150 bpm, then it isn't your max heart rate.