Hi everyone, I could use some of your insight…
My wife and I have started training for our second year of tri’s, and this year she’s using an HRM. She’s surprised to learn how high her heartrate is, especially during running. I’m hoping to be able to tell her whether it’s “too high”, or if she’s just on the high end of the HR spectrum. Here are the facts:
In the past she’s done most of her running at 9-10 minute/mile pace. Now, with the HRM, she sees that this pace is accompanied by a HR in the 180s, even though she feels like she could be pushing (and breathing) a lot harder. To keep her HR below 170, she has to slow down to more like 12 minute pace. She’s 26, and we’ve never really attempted to measure her Max HR. Her resting HR is around 50-60. Is her relatively high HR for a moderate effort run unusual? Do you think this is an aerobic pace for her since she is not straining to maintain it and doesn’t experience much (if any) soreness afterward?
She comes from a strong swimming background, and the HRM seems to show that she has a relatively high HR in the pool, as well. During a recent moderate effort swim, her HR was in the 160s (for comparison, we considered my floundering, struggling-for-air race effort swim HR of 150-155.)
Her confidence in her ability and potential as a triathlete is a bit shaken by these HR measurements. In a nutshell, she is wondering if (a) she just has a “weak heart” and it will be a limiting factor that prevents her from ever running as fast (or as aerobically) as she’d like to or (b) it’s possible that her HR zones are just “shifted up”, with a high lactate threshold, and she can therefore train successfully at high HRs and expect to improve over time. Is there anything you would recommend in order to determine what her true capabilities and limits are? Is it dangerous at all for her to be running with what seems to be such a high HR for so much of the time? Before the HRM, we probably did some harder runs in which her HR must have been in the high 180’s to low 190’s for extended periods of time.
I hope I explained this somewhat clearly—let me know if I can clarify or add anything, and thanks for any advice you can give!
Nate
My wife and I have started training for our second year of tri’s, and this year she’s using an HRM. She’s surprised to learn how high her heartrate is, especially during running. I’m hoping to be able to tell her whether it’s “too high”, or if she’s just on the high end of the HR spectrum. Here are the facts:
In the past she’s done most of her running at 9-10 minute/mile pace. Now, with the HRM, she sees that this pace is accompanied by a HR in the 180s, even though she feels like she could be pushing (and breathing) a lot harder. To keep her HR below 170, she has to slow down to more like 12 minute pace. She’s 26, and we’ve never really attempted to measure her Max HR. Her resting HR is around 50-60. Is her relatively high HR for a moderate effort run unusual? Do you think this is an aerobic pace for her since she is not straining to maintain it and doesn’t experience much (if any) soreness afterward?
She comes from a strong swimming background, and the HRM seems to show that she has a relatively high HR in the pool, as well. During a recent moderate effort swim, her HR was in the 160s (for comparison, we considered my floundering, struggling-for-air race effort swim HR of 150-155.)
Her confidence in her ability and potential as a triathlete is a bit shaken by these HR measurements. In a nutshell, she is wondering if (a) she just has a “weak heart” and it will be a limiting factor that prevents her from ever running as fast (or as aerobically) as she’d like to or (b) it’s possible that her HR zones are just “shifted up”, with a high lactate threshold, and she can therefore train successfully at high HRs and expect to improve over time. Is there anything you would recommend in order to determine what her true capabilities and limits are? Is it dangerous at all for her to be running with what seems to be such a high HR for so much of the time? Before the HRM, we probably did some harder runs in which her HR must have been in the high 180’s to low 190’s for extended periods of time.
I hope I explained this somewhat clearly—let me know if I can clarify or add anything, and thanks for any advice you can give!
Nate