195 bpm 53 year male

[martinhermanus]

I have been running at our local park run for the last 9 months. I have read many of the couch to 5 k over the months and found much inspiration from them. For the first few 5 k I took 50 minutes. I now run about three times a week. For the 5 k I run around 32 to 34 minutes. Its not flat and I improve by 3 minutes on a flat track. Yesterday I sprinted the last 30 m and my heart went up to 195 bpm. My maximum heart rate according to the standard formula is 220 - 53 which is 167. I felt fine after the race. My resting in bed morning heart rate is between 58 and 61 bpm. My heart rate after the race takes about 30 minutes to drop below 100. I run my 5 k race with a heart rate at 160 to 178 bpm. As anyone experience had such a high heart rate for someone so old ? 😂😃😀

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

On events my maximum heart rate goes up to 188. Just for piece of mind I got it checked out with my Gp. They did an ecg, in the past I have had an exercise stress test as well. If it is out of the ordinary or your just concerned always get a professional opinion when it comes to your health, especially concerning your heart. It could just be that is right for you, but best to check. Oh and by the way I'm nearly 51 and we are not old 😀.

[ju-ju- Graduate]

Perhaps see your GP if you are worried? And you aren't old!!!

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

That is a high HR for your age, but there is a wide range of variation around the averages, so you may be quite normal, in an abnormal way. It sounds like your rate is taking quite a long time to come down below 100bpm, but your resting HR is not particularly low, so it may be that you just have a high HR. I would certainly mention it to your GP when you next visit, but if you are feeling fine then there is probably nothing to worry about.

I am 61 and haven't worn my HRM for over a year. My resting HR was about 40bpm, if I remember correctly. I can and do run 10k with the rate around 160 and have had it spike (I don't know if this is my actual HR or a technical error) at 185. After a run my rate is below 100bpm within 10 minutes. All this, as far as I understand it, means that I have a greater than average range of BPM for someone of my age and a fairly good recovery rate.

We are all different. While checking HR occasionally can show progress or aberrations from your own norm, I have never actually established what my actual maximum HR is, so have never bothered with it for general training purposes.

[martinhermanus in reply to IannodaTruffe]

I have not exercised much over the last twenty years ... so I do need to keep exercising for a few years to get some long term benefits. You are constanlty 20 bpm below my heart beat. My iron was rather low a few months ago so maybe need an iron supplement.

[martinhermanus]

Thanks so much for the comments much appreciated. I am going to see a cardiologist as GP's are excellent GP's. I spoke to a friend who is a GP he almost fainted when I said my heart goes up to 188. It's only a spike and I walk when it's 178. I am not stiff today so my muscles were not oxygen deprived. My lactic threash hold is higher than 195😜. A few seconds at a very high bpm should not be toooo dangerous 😂

[useitorloseit Graduate]

My resting is 50ish, and I often get up close to 180 ish if I'm pushing it (rare!), but it doesn't stay up there for long. If you feel fine, I wouldn't worry. If we didn't have all this technology we'd never know, would we?!

[PhilHays]

It's great and re-assuring to read this - it's not just me. I can get 195bpm when in the final 200m sprint of a bike race (yep still racing at 50) while pushing out over 1000 watts. Although in my 20's I get pip over my bpm to 210bmp. Been doing this for 30 years.

I think if you've always been athletic and trained 3-5 times a week your body and heart is going to be strong and have big endurance numbers. It just means you've got a bigger engine than the average person who jogs 5k in the park once a week, who if pushed to 190+ bpm would probably keel over.

[mrrun Graduate in reply to PhilHays]

Phil, that's a 2 year old post.

[martinhermanus in reply to mrrun]

I am still alive after two years 😀 I purchased a heart watch and did intervil training tonight works like a bome. I still have an average heart rate of 90 percent for a parkrun but the rest of my running is way down. Slow and steady! Heart rate per km run is a very interesting number how it declines over time. Thanks for the post Phil. Much appreciated.