surgeonstone

Okay, riddle me this.
I am 57.
When out riding during this winter I noticed my max heart rate up to 166 quite often.
Now that warmer weather has arrived, I can't get my rate up past 157.What gives.

coachboyd

Simple answer is that when you are rested (haven't been riding a lot) your heart rate will be a lot higher. As you ride more you will settle into your "normal" heart rate range.

I remember a couple years ago I took my winter break, which coincided with my honeymoon and three weeks completely off the bike. My first ride back I was sustaining low 180's for heart rate. Normally I can sustain about 170-172 when time trialing and my max is about 183. I think I hit 189 at one point on my first ride back. Over the course of the next few weeks my heart rate gradually went back to normal.

surgeonstone

But I have been riding steadily throughout the year. I don't ride rollers or trainers much but I do ride throughout the seasons.

Velo Gator

Weather differences.

BillyD

Your body and heart have to work harder in cold weather to stay warm.

Agave

Your heart's giving out......

mmmdonuts

What do you mean by "can't"? Do you mean that you are literally going all out and still can't reach that HR?

My experience has always been the better my fitness level the harder it is to reach a very high (near limit) HR. When I'm out of shape it takes a lot less effort/work to hit the high numbers. When I was in racing form it felt like I had to die trying.

overgeared

a bit more ambient heat usually increases heart rate so i dont think temperature could be the cause of this.

as a person gets fitter the stroke volume of their heart increases in addition to changes in blood volume and composition which allow them to move the same a amount of oxygen at a lower heart rate. as that happens it's common for HRmax to come down a bit.

you might be riding all year round but would the type of riding you do explain a bit higher fitness in the summer?

surgeonstone

But I would think that I should be able to get the same heart max no matter what the weather.

surgeonstone

This sounds possible. I have been putting in a lot of miles through the winter and my resting rate is down in the 40's for the first time ib years.

surgeonstone

Well no question....as the weather warms and daylight savings comes, I spend more time in the saddle.

bikerjp

I think it's a fitness thing. My "average" HR tended to be around 155 and then I got sick and missed a couple weeks of riding. Next couple rides afterwards my average was around 165 on the same routes. Since the weather was warmer too I think that points to fitness over weather. I suspect a few more weeks and it will drop back down.

You are probably just riding more or maybe harder in the nicer weather and bumped up your fitness a bit. Take a couple weeks off and eats lots of fried foods and see what happens.

tortugaflats

my take on this would be if you have a power meter you could compare same output to the different temps to see if there is a difference. to many variables can change the way your body responds to exercise ie: heart rate

surgeonstone

.how old are you

RiPHRaPH

This is a simple question of perceived exertion. When you are bundled up the sweat cannot evaporate, and everything is 'perceived' to be harder. That said, your maxHR is largley genetic and should not change with the seasons.
So either you are not well versed in the 'how much work can I do' OR the chilly winds are exerting its effects on you differently.

That said, 166 still seems low for a 57 yo. 90% of this is 150. So you shouldn't be venturing higher than 150 anyway.

bikerjp

43. My max HR so far is 187.

surgeonstone

The equation, largely ignored, is 220 - age = max heartrate. For me that would be 153. I see it up to 165 rarely. For me on a hard ride 160-161 is usually tops.

colombo357

This is true except for all of it.

deacon mark

I not an ex phy but years of running and biking my heart rate is difficult to get above 150 period. I am almost 50 and my resting pulse is 39-40 and I have to really be stressed to get over 150. I think over the years it has lowered my maximum but I can maintain the 140s for a whole marathon. If I am well rested and have a few days off my maximum seems to go up a bit. I have never found the morning rest pulse being higher as an indication that I need rest. I do find after a really hard long bike ride or run, my pulse will stay up higher and not return to normal as soon.

Beaker

The highest HR you see on a ride may well have nothing to do with your MHR. For example, I often get mid 180s to 190 on rides when I'm pushing myself. But this will be nowhere near the 203 MHR I've seen a couple of times doing an insane, push hard or fall over climb. The highest HR I'll see during a ride rarely gets close to my MHR (I'm 39 FWIW), but the highest HR I see fluctuates depending on how much mojo/rest I have and what my fitness is. I find perceived exertion a better tracker of that. As someone else noted, you'd have to be comparing absolute all-out efforts to answer the MHR question. That shouldn't be the kind of thing you're going to want to do on a frequent basis.

bikerjp

I think it's ignored because it's not very useful. Lots of discussions here about how to find your LTHR which seems to be the preferred method. For the 220 method my max should be 177 and I hit 187 on a climb and I don't think that's my max since I wasn't working to the point of vomiting.

mmmdonuts

Most need external motivation to hit maxHR. I ride mostly by myself and don't go hard, typical HR in the 140-150's. Most of what I do is essentially base and might go harder on a hill now and then. Towards the end of a group ride last summer I held 185+ for the last 10 minutes and the final "sprint" at 199. I hadn't seen that max in 16 years and I'm 44. It's a number that's different for everyone.