Why cant I get my heart rate up?

[Zula]

morning all,

 

 

 

So I've been riding MTB for over a year now and road for a few months. Im 26 so I work out that I should have a max HR of 194. However when Im training or racing I cant seem to get past 175/180 and at those levels I feel like Im going full out. My resting heart rate is about 52 - 60 on any given day, and Im not overweight.

 

 

 

Does anyone have any ideas???

 

 

 

Thank u

[Zula]

niks?

[Potato]

Using your 220 - your age is only an estimate of what it should be. Everyone is different and some people are either lower or higher.

 

The other thing to concider is how did you try to reach your max? You aren't going to reach it unless you are doing intervals which specifically push you to your threshold, usually a 2 minute max interval with a minute break followed by another 2 minute max interval although each person will have their own take on this.

[Harry Potter]

Look for the mother of all hills, and sprint the thing out that sould do the job

[fandacious]

this thread is begging for phantom pr0n

[Sammajoor]

Go to the Flesh thread. guaranteed to get the heart rate up 

[Wyatt Earp]

What aartappel said

 

..............and if you are over trained it never goes up.

[ianrodger]

Age-predicted mhr is too inaccurate. Only way to get a decent idea of your max hr is to do either a lab test, say with Carol Austin (and you'll know your power output too, bonus), or do a death-sprint of ~ 30 sec up a steep hill at a high-ish cadence.

From there you can apply standard zones to your mhr.

[bak2basiks]

.........get laid, dude........

[milky4130]

 

Why? Because you can.

Seriously go flat out for 30-40 mins or 20km & use the last 20 mins to determine your Max.

[Bike Mob]

 

you need to do 2 x 2 minute intervals with 2-3 mins rest.  warm up properly first.

 

go flat out for two minutes. uphill is best but not too steep, you want to stand and hammer it!!

 

check your max, then do it again, the second max may be lower. take the average and add 5.

 

use that in your training

 

My max is supposed to be 191, but in cycling I cant get it over 182. My resting is 30.

 

Tarmac-GSTR2010-02-24 02:17:10

[HomerSimpson]

I have (from somewhere) a spreadsheet that orginated from Polar at some stage:

There the max heartrate is calculated (for a male "athlete", which I read as being an active cyclist) : 205 - (0.5 x age).  I find that for me that is pretty accurate.  I am sometimes able to reach that value when popping a vein up a steady (4 - 5%) climb on the MTB

[stewie911]

If you're not overtrained and racing your ass off, then the max hr you reach should be pretty close to your max.

 

I am 23, but I'm almost 100% certain my max is about 183 and not 197.

 

How do I know this:

Polar hr monitor calculate it as about 183.

Did a trail run with sprints and then I gave it all out on a nasty hill and my hr reached 182

Did a 5km trailrun race and hr reached 183.

 

Climed a big ass technical hill after some sprints on mtb and again hr reached 183.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

morning all' date='

 

 

 

So I've been riding MTB for over a year now and road for a few months. Im 26 so I work out that I should have a max HR of 194. However when Im training or racing I cant seem to get past 175/180 and at those levels I feel like Im going full out. My resting heart rate is about 52 - 60 on any given day, and Im not overweight.

 

 

 

Does anyone have any ideas???

 

 

 

Thank u[/quote']

 

 

Ref:  http://www.polar.fi/en/support/faqs?product=&category=Training&documenttitle=How+to+determine+maximum+heart+rate&document=/gip/PKBStoGIP.nsf/web_cat/C225742500419A8A42256C4000344F35

 

 

"... The generally accepted error in the

age-predicted formula is ? 10-12 bpm, which is due to different

inherited characteristics and exercise training ..."

 

 

So your rate is still in the norm.

 

[SeaBee]

 

I have (from somewhere) a spreadsheet that orginated from Polar at some stage:

There the max heartrate is calculated (for a male "athlete"' date=' which I read as being an active cyclist) : 205 - (0.5 x age). 

[/quote']

 

Maybe that works for you. But for me - anything age-based is... well... bull. I'm 40 and exceed 200 frequently. Follow one of the mentioned examples. Basically ride your lungs out and see what your max was. "Easiest" obtained against a mean bit of hill, standing. Do this when in good shape, not after having been ill. My R0.02.

 

Whether it's lower or higher than any age-based formula makes no difference.

 

Most accurate will be to have tests done somewhere like SSI.