HR advice, please

[mstone]

My first thought is that this just isn’t the right forum for human resources questions. Then my brain caught up.

[Certifried]

the default max HR on strava is 150 or something I guess. I fixed it using this formula

• MHR = 206.9 – (0.67 x age)

from http://www.brianmac.co.uk/maxhr.htm

now I’m not worried my heart is going to burst (well, I still am, but only on hills)

[off2ride]

I used Strava on a few rides. The end data is totally inaccurate. So I stopped using it. I just stick with my gaminconnect.

[Dickie]

Because I have a heart condition I wear a HR monitor on occasion just to see if my numbers are generally consistent when I ride. I use it mostly to see when I am peaking and if I can keep my BPM around 150. Prolonged periods of high exertion unfortunately is not good on my heart so I need to have an idea of how hard I am working. However, I have also found that my own internal HR monitor (my brain) is pretty accurate and wearing the Garmin sometimes makes me unnecessarily worried. I pay attention very closely to how I feel, not just what the numbers are saying. A good HR might mask another issue, if you are only paying attention to the numbers you will miss other warning signs….. lets not forget the Jim Fix lesson. At the end of the day if you have any family history, or just feel strange one day (achy hands, palpitations, blurred vision, whatever), get screened, do a stress test, get an echo. The data collected from these tests will give you a far better understanding of how healthy and strong your heart is, and hopefully piece of mind. This is how I found out I had been living for 40 yrs. with a degenerative congenital issue.

*All that to say your numbers look pretty damn good to me!

(* – I only play a Dr. in my dreams)

[Certifried]

@Dickie 29746 wrote:

or just feel strange one day (achy hands, palpitations, blurred vision, whatever), get screened, do a stress test, get an echo.

I definitely felt had some blurred vision later that evening, but that could’ve been the wine.

Actually had a full heart work-up last year, including an ECG, got a clean bill of health, mostly. Was told to stop drinking so much coffee, lose weight, and exercise more. I’ve done 2 of 3.

[krazygl00]

Yeah, your numbers (after edit) look pretty normal to me. I have to go check how my HR zones are set up because I go by those numbers for simplicity’s sake. I try to stay in Zone 3 (3.0-3.9) most of the time, and a lot of times when climbing hills I’ll try to see not how fast I can climb but if I can get up the hill without going too far into zone 4.

[Dickie]

@Certifried 29758 wrote:

Was told to stop drinking so much coffee, lose weight, and exercise more. I’ve done 2 of 3.

Do you miss the coffee much?

[acc]

I agree with Dickie.

The HR monitor is like riding with a lie detector. There are moments when I’m sweating like a pig, gasping for breath, positive the pace is killing me and I need a cold drink— Right Now! But when I look down I discover my heart rate is not particularly fast. Then I stop whining to myself and get on with it. Or I turn the damn thing off.

I’ve also learned that when I start to cough and have the sensation I’m about to throw up, my heart rate is a little to high and I need to back it off a bit. It’s always the same number give or take three beats per minute. Lactate threshold be damned. I have the Vomit Threshold instead.

HR monitors are worth playing with at least long enough to get a sense of how you feel at any given rate. Once you know, it helps for figuring out how long to stay out on a ride or how long to maintain a level of effort. And it’s fun to play with the data.

[GuyContinental]

@off2ride 29722 wrote:

I used Strava on a few rides. The end data is totally inaccurate. So I stopped using it. I just stick with my gaminconnect.

The HR zone issue on Strava is pretty well reported- everyone’s zones are different and there are a bunch of varying methodologies for establishing your own zone but Strava tried to use a one-size-fits-all approach. Which doesn’t work. On their “suggested features” page iot’s marked as “planned” (LINK). Then again, it’s been marked as such for months…

[PotomacCyclist]

When I think of HR monitors, I mostly think of how annoying it is to wear the chest strap. I tried it out for a month because my Garmin Forerunner came with a chest strap. I never actually looked at the HR data while I was riding or running. Even after the workout, I would only glance at the HR numbers. After a few weeks, I pondered why I bothered with the annoying chest strap if I wasn’t using the HR data to guide my workouts. So off the strap went, into a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again.

I still use the Garmin, but only the speed, cadence, distance, lap time and GPS map data. I don’t even bother with the HR numbers. I like riding and running by perceived effort. If you do that, it helps to do some super-hard short bursts, such as hill sprints, just so you get a sense of what the top end of the effort scale feels like. It sort of calibrates your internal sensor. A lot of practice riding and training at different effort levels helps too. Some people like HRMs, but I don’t know if I’ll ever use one again.

By the way, HR formulas can be very inaccurate in specific cases. Some people have naturally higher or lower HR. You also have to be sure to use a formula for cyclists. I think most people have higher HR while running than while cycling at a similar effort level. That’s because running is a weight-bearing activity.

[Certifried]

@GuyContinental 30215 wrote:

The HR zone issue on Strava is pretty well reported- everyone’s zones are different and there are a bunch of varying methodologies for establishing your own zone but Strava tried to use a one-size-fits-all approach. Which doesn’t work. On their “suggested features” page iot’s marked as “planned” (LINK). Then again, it’s been marked as such for months…

I guess I need to actually go and read the link and look in to this some. My thoughts were along the lines of “it’s probably close enough for me since I’m not ELITE”. I’ll check it out and see if I can find what my correct zones are. I’m not really interested in serious training, I just want to make sure I’m staying in the proper zones. I’ve burned myself out a few times while commuting, and need to make sure I don’t push myself too early, too hard (that’s what she said) so I can’t make the entire ride home. Just slow down, you say? It’s not that easy! I have a type A pathonality.

Saw this comment on the link for the Strava HR issue. LOL

Quote:

“Does anyone know if Strava pubishes the “formula” for the Suffer Score?”
I believe they have a server that’s physically wired in to a “Magic 8-Ball”.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Instead of starting a new thread, I’m just gonna pickyback on this one.

I just picked up a Garmin 800 (wife wanted a Garmin too, so I gave her my 200 and upgraded ) and now that I have a unit that’ll link up with a HRM (I got the standalone unit, not the bundle), I’m thinking I might take advantage of it. I’ve done some reading about zone training and how a HRM can help you keep yourself in the right zone to gradually improve performance. My issue is that I really don’t want to get into a real training regimen, with intervals and repeats and all that crap…so I think I’d want to keep doing my normal commutes and weekend rides, but use the HRM to guide the level of effort I put into each ride (or sections of each ride). So for instance, on the days I commute the long way in (19 miles) I could shoot for keeping myself in Zone 4 or whatever, and on days I take the short way, focus on keeping myself in Zone 2 for base miles.

Does that sound like it’ll be effective, or am I just wasting my time and money if I do this? I don’t want to be a racer or anything, but I have been trying to do more challenging rides and work my way up to rides like the Alpine Loop, or Mountains of Misery, as well as just improving my overall speed and endurance for fitness’ sake.

[dasgeh]

@TwoWheelsDC 31845 wrote:

(wife wanted a Garmin too, so I gave her my 200 and upgraded )

This is awesome and I support it. But it doesn’t count as a present. Just FYI, in case you’re due for a present-giving.

[Certifried]

It sounds like you’re doing exactly what I’m doing. I have the HR strap just for curiosity and because I like seeing the cool numbers on Strava. I don’t really go by it too closely, however, as it’s been stated how much of a variance there is in not only a person’s fitness but also in the various calculations done to get all the zones figured out. So, basically what I do is some loose interval stuff when commuting, I’ll charge up hills or go hard on some nice flat straights or spots where I’ve got room to really push, then let the natural flow of stop signs, stop lights, and other things that force me to slow down be my “back off” parts of the interval.

I used this link below to figure out what the various heart rate zones do for training and then just kind of go by feel for the zone I’m in

http://www.cycling-inform.com/heart-rate-training/73-how-to-use-heart-rate-monitor-and-zones-to-improve-your-cycling

The main thing I learned from all of it was that I was staying in the “(General Aerobic Endurance) 75-84%MHR” way too much. The article states, “Cyclists that train in this zone a lot end up quickly reaching a plateau in their fitness.”. I’ve learned to slow down so I can drop in to a lower zone which improves my cycling stamina, and use hills and other “sprint zones” on my commute to work on the other parts of my cycling fitness.

Your mileage may vary, of course. I’m no expert and really only know what I’ve read, which hasn’t been a ton. I am, however, a serious hard-core cat 6 racing pathlete.

[acc]

Another fun game to play is, how low can I get my heart rate to go? There are several heart rate apps for phones. I can waste 30 minutes playing that.

I’m an admitted heart rate monitor monkey. And I’m not proud. But it was the way I was trained as a kid and old habits die hard.

After awhile you’ll know what your heart rate is doing without looking at the monitor.

Another fun game to play is to look at the data on your heart rate from a race. I can spend the better part of a Saturday night doing that.

In all seriousness, if you feel bad, lightheaded, sick, nauseated or experience chest tightening or pain —- stop.

I don’t want my hobby to kill me. Oh wait, it almost did. Let me rephrase that. I don’t want to experience a cardiac incident on dry land, especially if it’s because I was stupid. I think I’ve worked out the drowning thing, I’m not likely to expire during an open body swim now.

Data is fun.

[Author]

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