23% Grade - Heart Rate Approaching DEATH - Help???

[GLC1968]

batsheva - that's a really good point. I didn't notice that. I agree...it's probably an errant reading! Looking at that graph, your max is probably somewhere in the 190's....

[indysteel]

Mr. Silver, out of curiosity, what hill were you climbing? Boltinghouse Road?

I don't have any expert knowledge to add. I've seen my heartrate as high as 220 on hill in Brown County State Park. My heartrate runs pretty high anyway, but that scared me.

K-

[kelownagirl]

I'm in the "not likely accurate readout" camp. I have a Garmin and it gives me super high readings once in awhile. I figure my max HR is around 185. My usual high up the dreaded hill is round 180 but sometimes it shoots up to 225 or so when I fly down that hill. It's at the very beginning of my ride so I think the thing just isn't "set" quite yet and although I'm sure HR does shoot up high when I'm doing 60+ kmh, I'm positive it didn't really go up to 225.

If I were you, I'd be more worried if it stayed at that high rate over a period of time. It would be interesting to stop and take it manually to see if it really was that high...

[Andrea]

Also, I honestly feel that your heart rate should not go above 190 or so. There are limits.

Maybe for you, but my average HR for a 4 mile time trial is 191. My max is 205, and I'm 26 years old.

220-age is just a prediction. Like someone said earlier, it's not going to kill you to be at your max, but it's not optimal because of the slight reduction in cardiac output. You can't physically sustain a max heart rate for long enough to feel serious ill effects from a reduced cardiac output, so, barring a pre-existing cardiac abnormality, there really is no danger in allowing your heart rate to get that high.

As your fitness improves, it's common to see a slight decrease in max heart rate. This goes back to the cardiac output thing- the better shape you're in, the more blood your heart can pump out with each beat, so it doesn't have to beat as many times per minute to move the same amount of blood per minute that it did before you started training. That's why your resting and submaximal heartrates decrease significantly when you go from being sedentary to well-trained. Max HR won't always decrease, and if it does, the decrease is not as dramatic as the changes seen in resting & submaxiaml heart rates.

[Di bear]

Maybe for you, but my average HR for a 4 mile time trial is 191. My max is 205, and I'm 26 years old.

Andrea, I'm not going by a chart. I'm going by what I "honestly feel" and the 190 is a ballpark figure. So, I think your 191 is perfect. If the goal is to increase stroke volume, which is what it really should be, then consistently getting your HR super high is not necessarily the way to do it.

I don't use a heart rate monitor because I personally feel that HR training is bunk, but that's just my personal opinion. I often climb at my "max" of 190 (I'll manually check my heart rate once in a while, especially if it feels really high and hard). I know I could go above it, but I don't feel it is necessary, and it could even become problematic. I stop and drink when my HR gets "too high." The heart is not the only muscle you're training. If your HR is getting that high, then it's your other muscles that are begging for mercy, not the heart. Slow down. Do an an endurance workout. Don't punish your heart because other muscles are undertrained. Your legs don't have to hurt to be working anaerobically.

For me, I prefer to keep my HR in the 160-180 zone. That is just where I am when I ride. If I go above that, then that is an indicator that I need to reassess my training and come at it from a different angle. Usually, that angle is endurance training. (Long, long, slow, hill climbs.) As stated before, I don't always measure, but I go by how I feel.

The reason why I thought of an arrhythmia is because I've seen a lot of them on peripheral vascular and carotid ultrasounds. They're not uncommon. You'd have a few normal beats, then a quick beat, then a few seconds of no beat. Something like that might throw the Garmin off. That's why an EKG may be a good idea. Get a baseline to know where you're at. It could be something as serious as a septal defect, or it could be nothing at all. Another issue is that it might not be your "true" max (I'm talking about the 212 and 225 HRs thrown out there), but tachycardia for whatever reason.

I've spent a lot of time with sick people, so I'm just cautious.

[Deanna]

Were you anywhere near a traffic signal when the spike occured? There's a few in my town that make my HR go whacky (like reading of 285, then immediate drops down to 90). However, a 26% grade just might spike it like that!

[Mr. Bloom]

As to the spike/errant reading: The graph is a Distance graph. If I had placed it on the Time oriented axis, it would have shown that it was 5 minutes before my bpm was below 190. So, I suspect this is an accurate reading.

Indysteel: Yes, it was Boltinghouse Road. An article last week in the local paper featured one guy who did it 14 times in one hour last week. Eek

Deanna: No traffic lights...a very rural area.

Interestingly as to my level of exhaustion approaching the hill, I road down the hill before turning around and riding up. The downhill was exhausting and made every muscle ache. The road was rough, so I had to ride the brakes all the way down. I was braking hard the entire way and couldn't slow to less than 15 mph. Now that I know where it is, I'll come at it from the opposite direction next time and see if that helps.

[El Hombre]

As to the spike/errant reading: The graph is a Distance graph. If I had placed it on the Time oriented axis, it would have shown that it was 5 minutes before my bpm was below 190. So, I suspect this is an accurate reading.

Indysteel: Yes, it was Boltinghouse Road. An article last week in the local paper featured one guy who did it 14 times in one hour last week. Eek

Deanna: No traffic lights...a very rural area.

Interestingly as to my level of exhaustion approaching the hill, I road down the hill before turning around and riding up. The downhill was exhausting and made every muscle ache. The road was rough, so I had to ride the brakes all the way down. I was braking hard the entire way and couldn't slow to less than 15 mph. Now that I know where it is, I'll come at it from the opposite direction next time and see if that helps.

I've gotten up around 190 a few times and things start to close in. SWMBO HATES it when I do that. My family has a history of heart attacks I just got my Polar back up and there is a BIG hill nearby. Hmm, what to do today??

[lph]

ok, I really wasn't going to ask this because I know, I should be asking my dr instead, BUT she really hasn't got a clue about cycling or other strenuous exercise, nor does the heart specialist I've gone to see, so bear with me please...

any of you medical types have an opinion on whether I should be avoiding stressing my heart eg. up to max HR, when I have no sign of heart disease at all, but my family all do? My dad has had a 5-double bypass, my mom has had a small heart attack, my brother died at 41 of a heart attack. All of them with very few symptoms in advance, if any.

I don't really worry about it much, but I wonder a bit if I should be more careful than most about riding alone without a cell phone, for example. All opinions welcome, qualified or un-

[Mr. Bloom]

I don't really worry about it much, but I wonder a bit if I should be more careful than most about riding alone without a cell phone, for example. All opinions welcome, qualified or un-

I know Norway is a safe place (my Mercedes mechanic is from Oslo), but IMHO, I personally think everyone should carry a cell phone with them and whether you are alone or not would be dictated by how isolated your route is.

As I was climbing the hill, I honestly pondered "if I have a heart attack, could I actually get my hands on my cell phone?"

[Andrea]

ok, I really wasn't going to ask this because I know, I should be asking my dr instead, BUT she really hasn't got a clue about cycling or other strenuous exercise, nor does the heart specialist I've gone to see, so bear with me please...

any of you medical types have an opinion on whether I should be avoiding stressing my heart eg. up to max HR, when I have no sign of heart disease at all, but my family all do? My dad has had a 5-double bypass, my mom has had a small heart attack, my brother died at 41 of a heart attack. All of them with very few symptoms in advance, if any.

I don't really worry about it much, but I wonder a bit if I should be more careful than most about riding alone without a cell phone, for example. All opinions welcome, qualified or un-

You are right to assume that your docs don't know too much about exercise, because they barely teach exercise physiology in medical school! As for yourself, since you have a family history of heart disease, it's very important that you have regular heart checkups for any abnormalities. If you perform a stress test at the doctor's office, request that he let you exercise until you get very close to your max heart rate (most docs will stop the test at approx. 85% of max). By doing this, you can be assured that everything is working smoothly across your entire heart rate range.
As long as your checkups are clear, then you should have no issues with strenuous exercise. If you start showing early signs of heart disease (plaque buildup/blocking of the coronary arteries), then you'll have to modify your exercise intensity to avoid depriving any areas of the working heart of oxygen. As long as there are no blocked arteries, though, you should have no problem with pushing yourself to the extremes of your abilities.

[lph]

Thanks, Andrea, I really appreciate it I'll be taking stress tests once a year, and next one is coming up soon, and I'll know now to ask him to keep me puffing for a while...

[indysteel]

[QUOTE=Mr. Silver;240197]
Indysteel: Yes, it was Boltinghouse Road. An article last week in the local paper featured one guy who did it 14 times in one hour last week. Eek

I saw that article and immediately broke out into a cold sweat. They looked like they picked the hottest day of the year for the "challenge." Insanity!

When I first started riding last year, I was alarmed at my heartrate and perceived exertion during the Hilly Hundred. I decided to start from stratch over the winter and worked on building a better aerobic base. During spin classes, I kept my heartrate in Zone 2 for a couple of months and then gradually increased my intensity from there. I haven't been all that scientific in trying to figure out whether it worked. I can climb better this year, but I've still had a few bad moments. Luckily, most of the hills are short enough that it's okay, but I've still gotten off the bike a time or two to catch my breath.

[Scarlet]

sometimes when I read the "technology" threads with heart rates and "what should be my max" i just get a bit naffed off. Surely when you cant get enough breath in your lungs and your heart is bursting out of your chest!!!! this should tell you your heart needs a rest!!!!! And if you want to puke .......well why on earth would you make your body work so hard that all it can do is throw up???
I do understand about getting fitter but one can measure this without a heart rate monitor... really
As you get fitter you go the same route faster and without feeling fatigued
also hills become easier to do
For me i dont want to feel ill after a good ride , I like to feel a sense of acheivement and that my body is still ok for example...
51 miles on Sunday in 4 hours ... oh yeh no puking and a good few hills Scarlet x

[ChickWithBrains]

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

I'm in the "your heart rate monitor was EXACTLY RIGHT" camp.

What does a quick spike on a HR chart mean? It means that, for the interval your HRM is set to (1 sec? 2 or 3? 5?), your heart beat really fast. Maybe you somehow got 4 into that one second for whatever reason. It only lasted a second, but your HRM picked up on it and you have a huge spike saying you were at 240 BEATS PER MINUTE!! But you weren't. You were at 4 beats per second, for one second. Before and after, you were likely lower. Who knows? Maybe you even had a PVC (a premature beat we all get from time to time for a huge variety of reasons) during that little window your HRM was listening.

The important thing is that it was not sustained, you had no repercussions from it, and you're listening to your body and your doc. Keep it up and don't worry about the little blips on your graph that don't seem quite right. No one has a smooth graph.