This weekend, I was on-call so there was no riding for me. I was viewing some of the forums from my buddies at SoCalBikeforums.com and posted a thread on resting heart rate. To play along with this theme, I then posted one on maximum heart rate.
I got to see what other cyclist’s heart rates were, and compared to mine, I found them shocking. So my resting heart rate was hovering around 58 to 62 bpm. Some chimed in with 50 bpm, and some even lower than that (one even mentioned 29 bpm). Now, that can’t be normal. I guess when you donate blood, they normally don’t take anyone that is < 70 bpm, unless you are an athlete.
I have to admit, I never looked at my heart rate too closely, but 58 to 62 is pretty low. I don’t ever recall it this low, but then again my fitness isn’t what it is like now. The difficulty here is trying to look at past history, and comparing fitness by looking at heart rate, because most of these data is not resting, but more active heart rate measurements.
I didn’t have a working HRM from May through July, so it’s difficult to make a comparison. In April, my average HR was 127, August 140, September 131, October 135, and November 133. Looking at this, part of me sees this as how hard I’m working, and part of it says how fit I am. I guess I really do need a power meter, just to gauge how well I am doing.
As far as maximum heart rate, the highest I triggered was 191 bpm, and 184 bpm (that was the last 200m of the OLH LKHC). Some of my friends quoted 200 bpm, and I cannot fathom getting my heart rate that high. Perhaps my perspective of fitness is too low. I usually never go so hard that I don’t have anything left at the end … I always wanted to have something left in reserve, so that I have something left to go home with. I think I am averaging somewhere between 160 to 175 bpm on major climbs, like Page Mill, King’s Mountain, and gets just a little higher if they are intense steep climbs. Is my perception of fitness misguided?
I guess in the end, these numbers and data don’t really mean anything … as long as it’s within the goal you are trying to attain. Oh well.
Can you tell I was bored this weekend?
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