running for first time and heart rate is super high

Doodlewhopper

I've used heart rate monitors on and off for around 10 years, and sometimes at the start of a run you can get some very strange readings: sudden spikes in heart rate when I'm not physiologically feeling as though my heart rate is that high. It could be due to the HRM picking up some stray electromagentism from traffic or other sources because further into the run the readings drop substantially. I'm not suggesting this is the reason why your readings are high, but they can be distorted. If you're really out of breath and your chest is pounding, then stop. If you're feeling ok, then that's because you are actually ok. High heart rates are only a concern if you have high blood pressure and you are at risk of heart disease or a stroke, or some other illness that can really hurt.

Sometimes your hrm strap is not damp enough at the beginning of the run. Sometimes the erratic reading is due to radio frequency such as traffic control, WIFI, burglar alarm motion detectors, etc. I travel a lot and have found most problems occur around motels and shopping centers.

meshashesha2012

I am astounded at some of the most irresponsible comments regarding a heart rate monitor and of a hr of 190! Not one person here asked your age and physical condition, and yet gave you a bunch of unqualified advice.

no need to be dramatic. i did say that as long as the OP doesnt have any heart conditions and got the OK to exercise from their doctor, didnt i? or did you conveniently skip over that in order to make your point about how irresponsible we are?

and unqualified advice (since this isn't a medical forum) is kinda what this site is about, isn't it? :laugh:

228lrt

I have had the same problem. I am in decent shape but I recently climbed a 14K mountain and about 1/4 of the way up my heart rate jumped to 215 bpm! Scared me. After disussing with an excellent climber, he suggested I might be dehydrated. I drank a gatorade and some water and didn't have a problem the rest of the way, my heart rate stayed in the 145-150 range where I expected it would be. After researching on the internet, dehydration does cause an increase in heart rate.

Doodlewhopper

I am astounded at some of the most irresponsible comments regarding a heart rate monitor and of a hr of 190! Not one person here asked your age and physical condition, and yet gave you a bunch of unqualified advice.

no need to be dramatic. i did say that as long as the OP doesnt have any heart conditions and got the OK to exercise from their doctor, didnt i? or did you conveniently skip over that in order to make your point about how irresponsible we are?

and unqualified advice (since this isn't a medical forum) is kinda what this site is about, isn't it? :laugh:

Unlike some, I dont feel the need to justify what I wrote. It is what it is my friend. :bigsmile:

patrickmathews

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I am 45, 6'2" 220lbs. Recently dropped from 272 lbs over the last 5 months. I don't have any heart condition (that I know of) and have had pretty thorough flight physicals every other year for the last 20 and never had any inkling of a heart issue.

I have been a swimmer off and on since I was a kid so I am very comfortable in the water and can easily modulate my rate of exercise to swim for very long distances and time (I've done 3:15 non stop several years back). The problem is that is does not seem to translate at all to running. Once I start a very slow jog, within a minute, my heart rate goes sky high and if I slow down I"m walking.

Most of the advice is seems to be something between keep running and it will improve or slow down a bit. I charted a path around my neighborhood that measures out to 3.1 miles. I did that with a combination of running and walking in 50 minutes. I'd like to keep this route and see how my time improves over the next month or two. Anything wrong with that? Is 3.1 miles too much to start out with? I'm also going to try and pay much more attention to my breathing and try to slow it down a bit. I find my self gulping air and perhaps the heart rate is spiking due to my excessive breathing (this is a bit of a chicken and egg question). When swimming, it's pretty easy to do this as I take a gulp of air every four strokes and slowly exhale in between so I am just done when it is time to inhale again. There is no rhythm like that for running (at least for me, yet).

I mentioned this to a friend and she suggested I try interval training for my running regimen. I've done a little googling on it and it seems like that's what I'm doing by default since I can't keep a steady pace.

Ashsmith07

Everbody's different but I often have a heart rate in the 190s while running or on the elliptical and have talked to my doctor about it and he's not concerned

DavPul

Everbody's different but I often have a heart rate in the 190s while running or on the elliptical and have talked to my doctor about it and he's not concerned

Perhaps doodlewhopper should give your doctor a call and lecture him on how irresponsible he is for not heeding the readings of a $100 toy. Entire emergency rooms are filled up with people that ran 14 min miles without HRMs.

What's that? No doctor has ever advised anyone to use an hrm? Odd. People on mfp swear it's life or death. Doctors must be stupid

muddyventures

I'm not going to tell you it is high or it is low, you will need to do the calculations based on height and weight and age. I don't use a monitor I do it the old fashioned way. I rarely check my heart rate at this point unless I've done a very long run, or a very hard run, I check it about 3 times a month. I've been to the DR. and had a physcial and I would suggest you do the same.

When I first started my running program I had a very high rate, and it was compounded by the stress I was feeling over a new exercise program and about people 'seeing' me in public running. Gradually all that changed and every thing seems to have fallen in place. I assume I burn about 100 calories a mile, and if I'm not running I count 10 minutes of equiv. aerobic exercise as 100 calories burned. I think the numbers game can be come overwhelming, whether it be heart rate, calories burned, calories eaten, or pounds lost.

Find out your max heart rate, get a physcial, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually those feet will be moving faster.

denezy

Have you ever taken a "learn to run" course? I had the same thing happen to me until I spent some time actually learning what to think about while running. I still am not a RUNNER, but I was clenching all of my upper body muscles so tight when I started, no wonder the heart rate went so high. Now I relax my arms, hands, shoulders, back, and chest, plus I have to really concentrate on breathing evenly... it has made a world of difference.

Good luck!

natalie412

It will go down. Running is completely different than what you have been doing, and your body is not efficient at it! My avg HR used to be around 160 (this spring) for 12 min mile pace, and now I tend to avg in the 140s to 150s for 10 min mile pace or less. 10 mile run yesterday was 138 avg. Of course, races, I avg higher! The downside, is you burn fewer calories.

Doodlewhopper

Everbody's different but I often have a heart rate in the 190s while running or on the elliptical and have talked to my doctor about it and he's not concerned

Perhaps doodlewhopper should give your doctor a call and lecture him on how irresponsible he is for not heeding the readings of a $100 toy. Entire emergency rooms are filled up with people that ran 14 min miles without HRMs.

What's that? No doctor has ever advised anyone to use an hrm? Odd. People on mfp swear it's life or death. Doctors must be stupid

Youre in the company of adults. Behave. Quit pouting. Put your tongue back in your mouth.

lyttlewon

Have you tried starting in walk/run intervals? I still do this, when I feel super tired and over worked I will walk for a few seconds until my heart rate chills again. When I first started running I would start out too fast and kill all my endurance for the rest of the run. I also ran so slow I could have walked faster. In fact I still run hella slow, I run a 17 minute mile, but that is the only way I can make it the entire 5K without feeling like dying.

katapple

One way I got my HR to be more stable while running is to belly breathe, google it and try it.

scottb81

The reason your HR is so high is because your aerobic fitness is poor. At 45 years old you ought to be able to run at a reasonable pace at a heart rate of around 135. With a very high aerobic function you could run fast at 135.

The only way to improve it to the point you can run reasonably well at that heart rate is to train at that heart rate.

RAFValentina

^^ Say what?! Even when I was mega fit and fast my HR when running was around 150-160BPM! Running at about a 7.5 -9 min mile. When I've not been running for a while it is noticeably higher as, as you rightly say, aerobic fitness has declined.

scottb81

^^ Say what?! Even when I was mega fit and fast my HR when running was around 150-160BPM! Running at about a 7.5 -9 min mile. When I've not been running for a while it is noticeably higher as, as you rightly say, aerobic fitness has declined.

At your age 150 to 160 is exactly the right range for maximizing gains in aerobic fitness. At my age I have to run from around 122 to 132 to get the same training effect. Right now that is anywhere from around 8:30/mi to 9:45/mi depending on the day and the route. Someone that is 45 years old that is just starting out should run between around 125 to 135 bpm.

The purpose for running at this low heartrate is to stay at or under the aerobic threshold to maximize the training effect on the slow twitch muscles in the legs. Specifically, it maximizes the growth of capillaries and mitochondria and the activity of aerobic enzymes in the muscles. This allows one to run faster aerobically while maximizing the use of the nearly unlimited supply of fat for fuel. Over time, the speed at that heartrate will increase as well as the speed at higher heartrates allowing one to race much faster for longer distances.

Once a person has spent some time developing their aerobic capacity at this level they could then spend a short time training at higher intensities to get ready to race. However, spending all their time at higher intensities is a big waste of training time because gains at that level are maximized in around 6 to 10 weeks at which time that person will plateau. Gains in aerobic capacity from training at lower training intensities are not maximized for many years.

clover5

.

clover5

Most of the advice is seems to be something between keep running and it will improve or slow down a bit. I charted a path around my neighborhood that measures out to 3.1 miles. I did that with a combination of running and walking in 50 minutes. I'd like to keep this route and see how my time improves over the next month or two. Anything wrong with that? Is 3.1 miles too much to start out with?

That looks like a good and reasonable plan to me. Good luck.
Add me if you want.

Azdak

Running is a high-intensity exercise. Once you move to a "running" movement (i.e. both feet off the ground at some point in the gait cycle) the energy cost of the movement increases signficantly, even at a slow pace. For example going from walking @ 4 mph to running @ 6 mph results in an energy increase of about 125%.

It is conceivable that, while you (referring to the OP) have trained at an endurance level for swimming and the elliptical, your aerobic fitness capacity is still low enough that running represents a very, very hard or near max effort. That might also be combined with the fact that you need to adapt to the specific physiologic and metabolic demands of running.

If you want to run, then the best approach is a walk/jog routine. Start off with a relatively short running interval (1-2 min) with a 3:1 walk:jog interval pattern. As your conditioning improves, gradually increase the running interval. If the running is pushing you into a 90+% intensity level, it is best to break up the running into small chunks. As fitness level improves, the running speed should represent an increasingly smaller % of max effort.

As for heart rate, it is not abnormal for some people to have an actual max heart rate that is 25-30 bpm above the "age predicted" number. If you are one of those people, your exercise heart rate will always be "high" at any given workload compared to someone closer to the "average". As your fitness level and running endurance improve, it is likely that the heart rate will decline at that running speed. I doubt that it will go down into the 130s--I don't think that would be all that effective, to be honest. In the absence of symptoms or heart disease, exercising at a high level of effort (reflected by a high heart rate) is not inherently harmful. I am not saying that it is recommended or necessary to work that hard.

_SABOTEUR_

The day my heart rate reached 220 on a hrm was the day i threw the hrm in the bin. That was 6 years ago.

p.s. If you're worried seek medical advice.