BCTTT Forum

We know the 220-age is rough and ready, however, as I get older I am missing some HR

2015 and 2016 for 10milers and hms I averaged 164.
This year I have done 159,159,160 and recently 161.

A number of the performances this year were faster than the previous years, yet Ave hr lower.

Over the last 2/3 years I have done a lot more run training than previously but overall training load not that much more.

Is this a sign of age or a better cardio system that the legs haven’t caught up with

Bit of both.

Bigger heart, older heart, more efficient system.

With a couple+ of years of de-training, I need to get the HR strap on again; see if my max HR has gone up at all, or stayed the same. I suspect max won't have altered, but average for speed will definitely be up (a lot more mass to lug round too, so can't really control for that; by the time I get back to a sensible weight, I will be a lot fitter ).

As the Yorkshire lad says a mixture of both.
HR training over the years has gone from a main phase or regime to an add on, due to the huge amount of variables that creep in, age, weight, BP, stress, temperature, humidity, caffeine intake, illness all impact HR.

You could do a max hr test, and then retake it every six months that would give a rough metric.

But faster results, from a lower hr, just means greater things to come. ( caveat I still use HR as training, so may be biased, as I don't do power, training peaks etc )

Found my missing HR

Parkrun this morning Ave 171

Jimba wrote:Found my missing HR

Parkrun this morning Ave 171

Great work just misplaced, not list then

Wish I had this problem. Instead, I get spontaneously younger (based on 220 minus age) for no reason and sometimes for long periods.

Last weekend at the Red Bull Timelaps I was thoroughly enjoying myself in my first turn when my HR monitor started beeping at me. I've set it to go off at 170bpm so I can keep an eye on things. I certainly wasn't putting in 170 bpm of effort at the time.

So I assumed it was caffeine (Red Bull event, after all...) and to be honest a lot of adrenaline: there were some VERY serious cyclists on that course. On my first lap I went wide on a narrow downhill left-turn and got a LOUD shout from behind. Turns out I'd almost skittled Alex Dowsett. My bad.

Anyway, for the next few hours I had the jitters that usually accompany my high HR problems. Sat chatting to a team mate in the hospitality tent my HR was 120bpm. The rest of the event was spent managing it until fatigue took over the duty and no matter how hard I tried the alarm wasn't going off! That's another thing I learned.

Actually, there were so many lessons learned from that event I'll write it all up in another post. Just like old times.