Is This Bad?

NewMK08

I was reading another post and AreWeThereYet mentioned that her HRM monitor picked up someone else's and it was in the 180's and she thought she was going to have a heart attack!! (Scary, but funny story!) But that got me wondering...At what point should I be worried about my HR?

I'm 23, 5'7, 160ish pounds, and my HRM gives me a zone of 132-148. I've never really noticed or cared until I read that post, but I'm normally above my zone range while running/spinning...Like yesterday during the Tulsa Run my maximum HR was 184 and my average was 174...Should I be worried? Also, yesterday while we were standing around waiting to run, I turned my HRM on and the reading came up as 57-60...One of the girls I was running with is a nurse and she saw the number and was amazed that my HR could be so low...Is this bad? Or what does it mean?? When should I start worrying about the number being too high?!? That heart attack comment has me all worried now! :blushing:

NewMK08

I was reading another post and AreWeThereYet mentioned that her HRM monitor picked up someone else's and it was in the 180's and she thought she was going to have a heart attack!! (Scary, but funny story!) But that got me wondering...At what point should I be worried about my HR?

I'm 23, 5'7, 160ish pounds, and my HRM gives me a zone of 132-148. I've never really noticed or cared until I read that post, but I'm normally above my zone range while running/spinning...Like yesterday during the Tulsa Run my maximum HR was 184 and my average was 174...Should I be worried? Also, yesterday while we were standing around waiting to run, I turned my HRM on and the reading came up as 57-60...One of the girls I was running with is a nurse and she saw the number and was amazed that my HR could be so low...Is this bad? Or what does it mean?? When should I start worrying about the number being too high?!? That heart attack comment has me all worried now! :blushing:

Fit2btied

Your resting rate is amazingly healthy! And I would not worry if your rate gets into the 180's...you won't have a heart attack. However, I don't think that is a rate you want to maintain. You probably need to slow a bit to keep that rate down within the healthy zone. It is unhealthy for a person with plaque build-up in their arteries to get to rates exceeding the zone, because the effort of the heart and stress could cause a heart attack. If you are still concerned, see the doc or a trainer in your facility and ask questions. Your resting rate is very telling that you are at low risk!:flowerforyou: Good luck getting the information you need to rest easy in your journey to fitness!

emorym

This morning I did The Pumpkin Run 5k. My max HR was 165 and I averaged 138 HR. This is only my second race and I did some walking. But I was out there Congrats on your race yesterday

songbyrdsweet

You MHR is only an estimate, and maintaining a high HR isn't going to put you in danger unless you have a preexisting condition. The longer you can maintain a high HR, the better your body is at delivering oxygen and processing lactic acid back into glucose. Olympic marathoners have to maintain a full run for 26.2 miles, so their HR's are up in the mid-high 80% range for a couple hours. They don't reach failure or pass out because they are excellent at processing lactic acid. A normal population won't be able to maintain that HR for very long because they can't process the lactic acid quickly enough, but there's no danger to that. Your body will just slow down by default until you're beneath the lactic acid threshold.

57-60 bpm isn't extremely low. It's very healthy, and lower than average, but you're not going to lose consciousness any time soon. What's normal for one person won't be normal for the next, and while it's good to follow guidelines, we have to realize that, as individuals, our bodies are very different and what matters is consistency in OUR bodily functions.

arewethereyet

So SBS, should I not worry if I am jogging and my HR gets to the max..meaning 100% for my age?
I am new to jogging and I always slow down when it hits 170.

Thanks to your prior posts I am not afraid to be in 80-90 % range any more. I just have fun.

I dont want to blow a gasket, ya know !!


New MK- you are so much younger than me and I am sure you are not just coming off cholesteral meds! You will be fine!

I didnt mean to scare you with my silly story, BUT you bring up a very good point.

At what point should we STOP-and get our hearrate down a bit?

songbyrdsweet

That really depends on the person.

Like I said, if you can't keep up with lactic acid production, your legs will simply stop working well. The upside is that this prevents injury. The downside is that recovering from a flood of lactic acid takes a while, so you may have to slow down to a walk if you're at a beginner or even intermediate level of training. If you can reach you 'max HR' and keep going, that's not your TRUE max HR. When you actually reach it, your legs will stop completely, and you fall off the end of the treadmill. :laugh:

If you want to keep going for a while, go ahead and slow down. I can maintain 85% MHR for about a half hour, but after that I feel pretty crappy. When I'm planning on doing a long run, I stay well below the treshold at about 75% max HR, where it's comfortable to speak. But when I'm on the home stretch, I'm sprinting, and because I'll be able to stop within 30 seconds, there's no need to slow down.

If you feel faint/dizzy/generally crummy, it's good to lower your HR. But if you're chugging along feeling like Wonder Woman even though your HRM says you're at 80%, you can keep going. You'll know when you're getting too close to the lactic acid threshold because your body will react to that.

arewethereyet

thanks SBS...and thanks for the thread.

runnerdad

A crude estimate of your max HR is 220 minus your age. (There are better ways to calculate your true max). A good working range for fitness is to work at 75-80 % of your max about 75% of your work out time. For me (at 53), my estimated max is 167. During my 5K race yesterday, my HR peaked at 191, so I guess I'm living proof your can exceed your 'max' without dropping dead in your tracks

NewMK08

Thank you for the advice everyone! I felt really good while I was running, so I wasn't even concerned until I looked at HR zone that my HRM had set for me! But since I felt good and wasn't at my max HR (if I do 220 minus my age, 23) I'm not too worried anymore!!