General Fitness & Nutrition: Heart Rate Too High?!?!

I am no professional, but I am also 45, female, you don't say if your are male or female, but they do take that into consideration when computing your MHR.  Anyway I have trained around your same heart rate and am still alive. I don't think it will hurt you to train at that rate, you will see it come down and you will have to work harder to get it up there again.   But good for you, keep up the good work on taking care of yourself.

Hey, your story sounds familiar!!

I just starting running again within the last three years, of course walk / run in the beginning, I am currently 46.  My heart rate has pretty much always been exactly as yours, in that 150 and 168 range, and that is not at a real fast pace, maybe a 10 minute mile.

 I usually warm up the first 5 minutes or so around 130 - 140, then pick up my pace to the 150 - 160 range, then the last 5 minutes doing the same.

 More recently I have been doing interval training to get my pace / speed up, and my heart rate goes up to 170 - 175 or so.  I only do these once a week or so, the rest of the week is at a lower rate. 

 I have always wondered the same as you about the max heart rate, but just kept pushing forward. 

 If feel great too, and I'm still alive! 

The other point is that the quoted MHR is the theoritical maximum - individuals can and do deviate from the computed figures quite dramatically. Testing your maximum heart rate needs to be done under suitable supervision as there is some risk involved.

Having trusted myself to my trainer's tender mercies, my maximum heartrate is about 10bpm above the quoted figure for my age/gender. And it should be noted that as this is tested on a treadmill your legs may conk out before your absolute limit is reached but it is more accurate than the quoted figures by age/gender.

Also where you can comfortably train is impacted as much by resting as maximum heart rate. That figure is much easier to test, just lie round doing nothing for at least 10 minutes then check - the most accurate figure is first thing on waking.

These all then alter the 65 or 75 or whatever % you are aiming for. And again, each person is a little different on where they go anerobic as well. If you continue training you will notice that it takes more effort to drive your heart rate up as high. But while it is happening feel free to cruise along where it feels good for you. I did the trainnig for my first 2 half marathons at anything up to 15bpm higher than the books said. The faster ones started to happen when the heart rate came down - so then I just did longer long runs and faster fast runs!

You might want to try some sub-max testing to estimate your real max HR. All those equations that calculate your maxHR from your age and a base number are horribly inaccurate. For example the old 220-age would put my max at 192 (I'm 28), but through experience and testing it would appear my real max is somewhere around 210. I discovered this in a triathlon where I reached 205 in a big hill climb. Your maxHR doesn't change dramaticly with age, just the amount your able to do within each zone changes.

 There's some great stuff from Sally Edwards, mutli-Iroman and general triathlon guru who helped develop the heart zone based training methods. Check out this link for info on HR and sub-max testing:

http://www.howtobefit.com/determine-maximum-heart-rate.htm

Good luck and keep on running!

Before doing too much more, I would suggest that you see your doctor. I'm an unusual case. I'm a 34 yr old female and been into sports my entire life. I have a low resting heart rate (60 bpm or less), but I have an extraordinarily high heart rate... 189 bpm regardless of the distance I run, and it spikes up to that rate in less than 2 minutes of running. I had a trainer a few years ago tell me that I need to see a doctor regarding this because it is unusually high.

Long story short, I ended up going to a cardiologist. She did EKG, 24-hr halter monitor, stress test, and echocardiogram to ensure that my heart was healthy. She says that I'm at no risk for a heart attack while running... but she does see me annually to check up on me.

Don't take any risks!! See your doctor immediately!!!!!

It's so nice to hear that others have got similar issues with running! I am a 33yr F and have been running on an off for 7 years. Every year I will do a half marathon and will typically run up to 10k runs twice or three times per week at c10minute mile pace. I also enjoy swimming and cycling and keep myself as fit as possible however my pulse rate "ramps up" exponentially when running and within a couple of minutes I will be at 160.

 I average 168 on a distance run which doesn't really drop. I also return from m runs very sweaty and with a bright red face that seems to take the rest of the day to fade.... Does anyone know what kind of activities would help improve on this? Would fartlek training help? I can't quite seem to move it to a level where the running gets easier for increasing speed - although I can add miles at the same pace no problem.