Training & Nutrition - Worried about high heart rate.

Hey guys.

I am really starting to get worried about my resting heart rate and my heart rate during exercise.

Some background info on me. I'm about to turn 23. I was 109kg (240 pounds) a year ago, and am now about to go below 91kg (200 pounds), so I have had a weight loss of 17.5kg. While i had fairly drastic weight loss for the first 3 months I tried to change my whole lifestyle so it would be sustainable for the future. At the moment I have started training for triathlons. I run about 10km 3 times a week, swim twice a week and ride 3 times a week Most weeks I mange to do a BRICK on Saturdays. I have also started some rather disorganised weight training. My rides consist of 2 interval type training rides after work and then Sunday I have a longish ride of 80-100km (50-60 miles). I will be aiming to take this out to 80-90 miles every sunday in a few weeks. Overall I feel I am pretty fit. I feel really good after each session, and it seems to be very repeatable. I am not at a very good pace atm. Running is only about 8min/mile and my average speed for riding varies between about 16-19mph.

I have just aquired a heart rate monitor off my dad. It s a little old. The model is the Polar f1, and it has very basic functions. Basically it just tells me my time and average HR at the end of each session. I am thinking about buying the polar 625x in the near future.
Now here's the problem.
My resting heart rate seems to be about 80-90 whenever I measure it. When I exercise, it jumps to about 160-180 without any trouble. Now measuring my resting heart rate I have also done manually and the heart rate monitor seems to be pretty close.
Most of my running sessions are performed at an average HR of 175. Biking I am usually a bit lower, but still get around the 160 mark. I can't seem to get any lower despite feeling as though I am not exerting myself at all. I am not breathing ver hard at these heart rates.

I have done a 12 lead ECG on myself and I'm in sinus rhytm with no signs of any arrythmias. Actually, the leads all look near textbook.

My questions are....Should I be worried? What can I do to get these HR down? also, shoudl i Perform lower intensity workouts for more effecient training? I am still new to proper training, as up until recently I just did as much as was repeatable.

Any advice would be great!

Many thanks,

James

Get a book on HR training. Very good reads. I got one "Heart rate cycling" or something like that. I am not near the book atm.

For cross training there may be better books, as the one I am reading is geared towards cycling.

As far as training goes, depending on what you are trying to do, your cycling HR is quite low.

Take a look at a metric century ride I did earlier this summer. Check out the HR. I did this with some BF members, all of which were in better shape than I am, so I was pushing myself pretty good.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/dashboard.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1237178

Also, here is a recent short hill interval session I did.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1431222

I am still not in the shape I would like to be. 34yo at about 195lbs on a good day.
-D

Your training schedule sounds like you are a prime example of overtraining which might explain some of your elevated heart rate - especially your resting HR. Maybe you should try taking a week off and see if it makes a difference.

If you think you have a medical problem with your heart, you should see a doctor.

Heart rates by themselves don't really mean a lot - some people have big hearts (me), some people have small hearts. I had a friend who had similar heart rates to you - she wasn't working hard until 200 bpm.

Having said that, I have a few thoughts...

First, I think you need some rest. Looking at what you're doing, it looks like you don't have any rest days/recovery days. Training days you put a stress on your body, and rest/recovery days are when your body improves based on the stress. It's fairly common for people to overdo it by working out every day, and if you are overtraining, that could lead to a raised resting heart rate.

My second thought is that you are likely working out too hard during your average workouts, and not hard enough in your hard workouts. You generally want to work out fairly easy for the aerobic workouts, and very hard on things like intervals. The heart rate monitor can be useful for this, if you do a field test (search the archives for info on the carmichael field test) - it will give you good ranges.

Third, most training programs are periodicalized, normally on a 4 week cycle. Basically, during weeks 1-3 the training load gets progressively harder, and then the 4th week is lighter, and then it starts over.

A good book can explain a lot of this. The ultimate ride is pretty good.

Thanks for that guys.

I guess I am just having too much fun doing all this exercise that was much harder and slower a year ago!
I try to have an 'off week' once a month, but I understand what you are saying. I guess I over simplified my approach by training as much as I could do sustainably. Maybe I'll take it easy for a little while.

I'm not really concerned about my heart. I am 37 days away from finishing med school so I hope I haven't missed anything obvious! That would be embarassing.... I have been utilising all the equipment in the ED and radiology department to make sure everything is alright. I'll have a chat to the cardiology reg tonight anyhow, but the overtraining theory is much more likely as my resting HR used to be much lower 5 years ago.

I think I'll just monitor it closely and read up a bit more on specific training techniques.

Thanks again,

James

Have to agree on the overtraining. On a good climb / sprint, I can get my HR a little over 200, my resting heart rate is about 52.

One more vote for over training

I'd say it's likely overtraining as well if you are measuring your RH correctly. It needs to be done first thing in the am or with a Monitor attached overnight to measure average resting HR. While I'm "resting" sitting on the couch watching TV my HR is often in the 80's. In the morning my RH is under 60. There are also many things that can affect a resting HR.... caffeine, stress, medications...ect... your high limit of 175 could easily be within your aerobic range. You're 23 years old. If you can cruise at 160 and not feel fatigued then that sounds like a reasonable HR to me.