I am setting new Heart Rate Highs, after 16 years of endurance sport and HRM use, and I am perplexed.
I started using HRMs at Age 34 as a 5K/10K/Short course Triathlete, evolved to marathons, 1/2 IM’s, IM, “Sky” events, distance cycling, masters swimming, Ultra running up to and including the 100-mile distance. I have a huge base of data, have used different models and brands of monitors … and the one constant … between the age of 34 and nearly 50 is a max HR 189/190 … depending on monitor.
I moved from 1/2 IM’s/IM’s to bike racing in 2009, raced Cat 5/Cat 4/Cat 3 … Crits/TT’s/Circuit Races/ Road Races/Hill Climbs/Stage Events … max HR 189/190.
This year I race Cat 2, and in January training camp, registered a HR 195 on an “all-in” extended hill effort. In the last 3 weeks of Crit’ & Circuit racing have clocked 202, 199, 201 … can not figure it out.
Your thoughts would be appreciated and “yes” I am considering the fact that I am getting old
Started monitoring HR 7 years ago (35 yrs old) and I was able to hold mid 170s for extended periods of time on the bike and run. I could peak over 200 bpm if needed.
I can still hit the same HR’s today (42 yrs old) but I’m a lot faster doing it.
I don’t think your HR would go down with age, it would go down with effort. Since you are getting stronger on the bike I would expect your HR to go up as well while putting out more effort.
Good input … my sleep is actually better than in the recent past (which could be a thought in itself) and “yes” I am much stronger on the bike than in the past. One thought is that bike racing at the masters level is fairly short - Crits - 50 minutes … Road race 2-3 hours … and the intensity of bike racing, and training, is very high … could it be that so much focus on raising FTP, and developing speed, is connected to realizing HR highs that were always there … just uncovered while investing in so much endurance work? Realize I am thinking out loud.
Stored value … and not a spike. Under max effort my HR is coming up through the previous (189/190) max value recorded 2 minutes yesterday (195-199). I feel fine … no different than any other historical max effort … if that makes sense.
I know what you are saying but what is the reason that is goes down?
Is it because the heart is physically not able to pump as hard and/or fast or maybe because as we age we are not able to put the same load on it and it only beats fast enough to keep up with demand?
Max HR can decrease with age for a multitude of reasons. The heart muscle itself looses elasticity, you typically train less as you decrease which can lead to a decrease that can’t be increased. you are unable to work as hard due to an overall increase in fast type muscle fibers. …your blood vessels loose elasticity…the list goes on.
To the OP…I forgot to look at the thread before i started this post but, what was your max HR before? has this gone up? it could be that you are just better trained to be able to hold a higher percentage of you Max HR on the bike compared to before.
The max that I can hit is a little higher than last year. 1 (ECG fitness test max 188) 2 (vo2 max fitness test stopped at 182 as values started to go down this 2 days after a 4 day Vegas trip) I am fitter and can go faster and harder in interval work so I can get to higher max heart rates.
I am 52
I don’t think so … on better fitness … I have a 1/2 IM PR of 4:21 and IM PR of 9:35 … all in my mid-40’s … all very hard efforts … and feel like I was in much better shape in those years than now. My running spans all distances and levels of efforts, and extreme efforts at altitude (run and bike) all yielded 189/190. It is … was … the most consistent number I had.
