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Heart rate in warm weather - new max?

Former Member over 10 years ago

I know that heat can affect heart rate (the recent good weather certainly has for me, in hot days it tracks at 10bpm above the norm) However today in some hill training my HR went to 202 and stayed around 200 for some time. (previously i thought my max was 193 ) Should i adjust my HR training zones accordingly since this is a new max or is this a heat induced blip?

all advice appreciated

0 JSRUNNER_ over 10 years ago

Sounds like it should be raised - not sure you can have a heat induced blip - your max heart rate is essentially the maximum rate it will go to when your body is stressed to the max. It may be a bad reading however caused by the heat/conditions although this more often occurs in cold dry conditions. How did you establish your previous max heart rate?

0 JSRUNNER_ over 10 years ago

One other thing - if you can regularly hit your maximum heart rate during hill training then it almost certainly isn't your maximum heart rate. What state are you in after maintaining that MHR for 30 secs - you ought to be collapsed and gasping for air - if not then it probably isn't your MHR :)

0 pshare over 10 years ago

If you're wearing a chest strap and a non-cotton t-shirt, it could simply be static electricity. Some ways to overcome that is to make the strap tighter or to add salt to the water that you use to wet the strap.

0 JSRUNNER_ over 10 years ago

Yes that was my point regarding bad readings - but I've found these more often occur in cold dry conditions where static is generated. I eventually gave up on my orginal premium soft strap and moved to the newer one with the grey patch. That one is now disintegrating and I've bought a polar strap for £11 which seems to be much more reliable and works well (using the Garmin sensor clipped on) even without wetting before use.