I went for a ride about 70 minutes with my new Garmin and HR monitor and my average HR was 182bpm. This includes some stops. I think my RHR is around 45bpm. I measured it in the morning with a machine. I'm not sure about my max yet, but I hit 203bpm on the ride. I wet the electrodes with water.

If your max is around 203, 182 isn't a bad average for a 70 minute ride.

That seems a bit high for an average but what do i know. It varies from person to person.

I think my max is higher than 203. I'll do a sprint tomorrow to see.

How old are you?

25

I wouldn't worry about it. I'm in my forties and I can still push my heart rate over 200. Since I got my Garmin last year, I've regularly reached heart rates over 200, though since the weight's been dropping and strength increasing it doesn't happen as often now.

Here's the highest heart rate I've reached since I bought my Garmin a year ago: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/47769187

Nothing mediacally wrong with that but you're hitting peaks near your max so as a workout that was quite a hard one. Good training would require rides at a lesser intensity as well as rides like the one you posted above

You should do a 20 minute max test and see what your avg heart rate is for that and then the numbers will mean something but without knowing your LTHR different HR's mean different things for diff people.

OP, it depends on your intensity.
How much do you weigh and how much was your average power output during that ride?
Maybe your cardiovascular system isn't good enough or trained enough for your riding intensity.
Having your heartrate too high could be dangerous ... not far from my house is "de muur" and quite a few people actually die there every year because their hearts simply couldn't do it.
Don't seek advice about this on the internet ... consult a sports specific physician and let him test your heart under extreme tresses like this.
No offence intended but it could well be that you simply aren't cut out for this sport.

A sprint won't determine your max by itself. Find a long and gradual hill. After warming up for 15 minutes or so, go hard for a couple minutes and shift into a more difficult gear for a minute or two. Then go to the next gear for the same period. Keep this up until you can't stay seated any longer and maintain momentum. Then shift once more, stand and sprint all out. That should be your max. The instructions for this also adds your vision may be blurred so it's hard to read your max!

If you are absolutely concerned, go to a Dr. and have a stress test done -- however, at your age, unless you are experiencing some type of heart related discomfort, I doubt you have anything to worry about.

160lb like the picture shows. I don't have a power meter. Average cadence was 87 including stops. I didn't cycle for two weeks, and that was my first ride with my Edge. After consistent cycling, my cardio gets a lot better. Heat index was 110F, so I think that could've raised the HR? I'm going to go for a ride after this post with fewer stops too many traffic signals and stop signs around here.

Make sure the device is calibrated.

Yes - heat can make HR go higher all else being equal. Being dehydrated can also cause it to go up.

Today's run



I wasn't in the mood to sprint today, but I did 204bpm. After 45min, I took it slow, so I could sprint later. I stopped a couple times where you can see in the graph, because sweat started burning my eyes. When I'm at ease at 150-160bpm, it almost instantly goes right back to 190-195bpm. It seems about 190-195bpm is my normal rate.

I don't know what you mean. I'm using 700x23C, and I have my wheel size set at 2,096mm.

I drank at least 2L of water yesterday and at least 1.5L today.

How do you FEEL when your HR goes over 200? Are you maxed out?
Does this happen when going up steep hills?
If there is nothing medically wrong with your heart (ask your doctor), then you may want to find out what your max HR is.

I feel perfect right now, and I like doing sprints every once in a while. I have fast twitch fibers, and I like to sprint. I'm not sure about hills yet. I don't see much correlation here.

It's good to be young.

Like others have said, everything about HR is individual, and you aren't too far out of line for the statistical norm.

One thing though - in my case, I find the Garmin regular heart rate strap and their premium heart rate strap to be extremely unreliable (I've been through several). Something about the clothes I wear, the humidity, my body, moon phases, or whatever, and they almost always report false data, often too high. Lots of experimentation found it's effectively not getting data all the time and the devices are interpolating and getting it wrong. Your graph is too smooth to see if that might be happening.

I've never had that happen with any other heart rate sensor/strap, and these days I just use the hard strap that came with the PowerTap.

Besides trying to find your max, what happens if you go for a short recovery ride? Put the strap on, go out for 15 minutes at a super easy pace on some easy terrain - one that won't work up a sweat, other than from the heat of the day. What's your average then? If it's more than 130-140 then I'd personally be wondering if the HR sensor/strap are reading correctly.

I don't think it's the HR monitor. When I go to the gym, my HR always seemed high compared to other people. I don't remember what it was on top of my head. I'm using the soft strap. After 45min on the graph I took it very easy and slow around the busy city. At a really slow pace, it's about 150-160bpm. If I leave my place after a really long rest and go a slow pace, it might be lower.

I read F1 drivers average 170-180bpm for over 90min. Some are higher, so I guess it's OK. I'm going to do some tests. Hopefully they don't cost much.

Those graphs are painful to look at from a training point of view. No real warm up, no real cool down, flat out heart rate the whole way..... Very poor training if that is your average ride. I dont mean any offence but the whole point in having the monitor is that you can target specific HR to target the training you do. If your heart rate shoots up very quickly in response to only small extra efforts or you find you are really slow at a rate of say 160 ish (about 80% of max for you) then you should target that heart rate to improve your power in that zone.

Riding flat out everywhere is not going to do your riding any good, wont do you any good and wont be any fun. You'll leave yourself open to injury and on top of that you will improve more slowly.

If you don't have a powermeter, at least give a glimpse of your power by telling your average speed when doing this exercise.
If your average is 25mph ... that heartrate could just be about normal.
If your average is 20mph ... that heartrate seems way too high to me.
If your average is 15mph ... that heartrate is just insanely high.

I average about 17-18mph, but I do regularly hit 20+ mph. Sprints are 30mph. My bike weighs 28-30lb depending on what equipment I bring. I measured it at the LBS. I was kinda surprised how heavy it is, but it's a low-end bike.

I have to agree with lazerzxr here. sprinting and going fast is all well and good, but if that's the only training you're getting... Well it might be doing more harm than good.

Most of your training should happen under the aerobic level (60-70% HRmax). Most means two thirds or more

a small portion of your training should happen in the aerobic level (one sixth and 70-80% HRmax)

and a small portion should happen in the anaerobic level ( again one sixth of all training and 80-95% HRmax)

if your HR max is 203 then in most of your training your Hr should not exceed 142. Speed is not the issue, at least not in the beginning.