High Heart Rate While Running

[MJOR1981]

Hi, I know there are some runners on here so any advice would be appreciated..

Yesterday went for a 5k run, felt really good up to 4K and breathing lovely, legs feeling good and strong, I was in the zone… but looked at my watch and HR was 184 which I never hit, plugged on a bit as I didn’t feel bad at that number but anxiety got the better of me and I stopped at 4.8. HR was 150 all the way walking home about another kilometre but in this time I’m normally down to 100ish. Sat down when I got home and took about half hour more to get down to 80’s. Went back to normal through the night and back to usual low 40’s while asleep last night. Fine today.

Even in my hard training days in the gym before my HA I was hitting 165 max on a beasting. My runs i max at 170 on hills so it’s only 10 extra but never experienced it before and the slow recovery worries me slightly.

Had an ASD closure in March and have had a 3 week gap from running due to bad knee but haven’t got out of shape and kept up long walks with the dog while not running.

Anyone experienced similar… preferably with a great motivating story to top it off 🤞

[MJOR1981]

Thanks for the feed back…

Yeah hopefully a loss in fitness is the culprit…

Had the same thoughts on the device but it did seem to correspond with my wife’s Fitbit when I got back so quite confident it was accurate…

[Heartattackvictim]

I have had similar issues (with my Garmin watch). I now focus on being able to hold a conversation whilst running and use the BORG scale. Pre HA (18 months ago age 59) I did a sub 2 hour half marathon. I did a half marathon recently in 2:38 so "it is what it is" and I focused on how I felt. My heart rate does vary a bit and if I need to I do so I walk depending on how I FEEL.

The watch is good for recording what I've done, and I am not driven by it like I was pre-HA. And that was tough because I was quite competitive. I'm just back from a 5k in 31:30 but sometimes that will be 36 minutes and just the once I did sub 30 minutes. It all depends on how I feel. I don't go out with a pre- determined pace, focusing on enjoying the run and NOT getting out of breath.

[MJOR1981 in reply to Heartattackvictim]

Wise words… my wife has said similar, I am probably target driven and maybe just need to ease off and enjoy the experience.

I will go again tonight and probably ease on the hills this time … 😅