# How long can you last at max HR....



## rydbyk

before you blow up or throw up? What is typical? Does the time that someone can sustain max HR change with fitness level?

Anyone...anyone?


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## HIMEHEEM

Wife says i'm good for three minutes....nevermind.


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## Nimitz

max = max...anything more = dead.

Chad


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## seppo17

Max HR is usually only sustainable for few seconds.

But your really asking about anaerobic power.


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## Creakyknees

The (very) few times that I have hit a true max hr, it was a very short spike (a couple of seconds / a few heartbeats / one or two readout updates on the HR monitor), usually following a very intense effort that left me seeing spots, gasping for air and unable to pedal for several minutes. 

You might be confusing true max hr with "a very hard pace" which could be anything from "threshold" to "vo2" to a short sprint effort...


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## viciouscycle

Nimitz said:


> max = max...anything more = dead.
> 
> Chad


Nope, you just will pass out until you recover, at some point the body quits until you heart slows down. Now is it smart to do it all the time to that point ?, probably not.


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## rydbyk

My max is approx. 190 (i have never seen anything higher on my HR and I have pushed to the point of near collapse a number of times)

If I was a pro in the TDF, how long would I be able to keep 184 bpm (96% max) before I puke or pass out or blow up?


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## muscleendurance

rydbyk said:


> My max is approx. 190 (i have never seen anything higher on my HR and I have pushed to the point of near collapse a number of times)
> 
> If I was a pro in the TDF, how long would I be able to keep 184 bpm (96% max) before I puke or pass out or blow up?


the same amount of time it takes for the store owner to return after he puts up a "back soon" sign in the window while he's out.


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## stevesbike

what's with all the heart rate questions lately? It's like a time warp to 1990.


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## TurboTurtle

HR response is slow. If you are doing an effort that requires your heart to go to max, you will quit before it gets there. Trained, you can maintain that effort for 7-10 seconds and your HR will peak after you stop. - TF


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## muscleendurance

stevesbike said:


> what's with all the heart rate questions lately? It's like a time warp to 1990.


everyone has had to sell their power meters to feed their families in these recessionary times


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## rydbyk

stevesbike said:


> what's with all the heart rate questions lately? It's like a time warp to 1990.



Sorry....need to sell the house to get a power meter to be cool like all the "legit" 2010 riders I see. I was racing mtb bikes in 1990. It is much more common to see a HR monitor today than in 1990. 

This would answer your question as to why there might be more questions today in 2010 vs. 1990....in case you were really interested and not just being condescending.

Now, do you have any useful feedback for me? I mean, afterall, you do have 20 years of HR info under your belt.


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## muscleendurance

heres something which you might not be aware of and some of us are saying what we are, hr is VERY unstable on a day to day basis, so many things effect it for instance heat, humidity, cold, stress, anxiety, fatigue..the list goes on! and so because of this your heart rate will have different max on different days its a very good indicator of effort, but is limited and saying how long can you sustain max is the wrong question really, the fact its your max means you cannot sustain it so, seconds, 5 maybe and thats a push if it truely is your max hr.


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## Bocephus Jones II

muscleendurance said:


> heres something which you might not be aware of and some of us are saying what we are, hr is VERY unstable on a day to day basis, so many things effect it for instance heat, humidity, cold, stress, anxiety, fatigue..the list goes on! and so because of this your heart rate will have different max on different days its a very good indicator of effort, but is limited and saying how long can you sustain max is the wrong question really, the fact its your max means you cannot sustain it so, seconds, 5 maybe and thats a push if it truely is your max hr.


Max heart rates are all over the place. Most people don't have a clue what their max is and any formula that says it calculates your max is only a guess. The 220-age one is especially bad as it assumes a sedentary individual. No reason you have to lose a beat a year if you keep in shape. It will go down as you age, but not nearly that fast. Think of max this way. If you do sprint repeats till you puke you're probably still 5 beats or so away from max.


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## hrumpole

Ok, then how bout this--how long do pros last over threshold? Or is the threshold so high that there simply isn't that much headroom?


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## muscleendurance

hrumpole said:


> Ok, then how bout this--how long do pros last over threshold? Or is the threshold so high that there simply isn't that much headroom?


the same as the rest of us who are trained but not necessarily pros:thumbsup:
1hr+ they just go faster while they are there.


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## Alex_Simmons/RST

hrumpole said:


> Ok, then how bout this--how long do pros last over threshold? Or is the threshold so high that there simply isn't that much headroom?


HR is not a measure of threshold, so the question really doesn't make a lot of sense.

One typically experiences a range of HRs when riding at threshold levels.


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## music

I aggree with all those that said a couple seconds, that's before I fall over from lack of oxygen to the brain.


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## stevesbike

rydbyk said:


> Sorry....need to sell the house to get a power meter to be cool like all the "legit" 2010 riders I see. I was racing mtb bikes in 1990. It is much more common to see a HR monitor today than in 1990.
> 
> This would answer your question as to why there might be more questions today in 2010 vs. 1990....in case you were really interested and not just being condescending.
> 
> Now, do you have any useful feedback for me? I mean, afterall, you do have 20 years of HR info under your belt.


actually, I was using a heart rate monitor back in 1982 - it was a wired model. If you want to train with a heart monitor, do a field test, find your heart rate that corresponds to various training levels, and have at it. Get a book like heart zones cycling for more info. But don't worry about meaningless issues like how long you can maintain your max heart rate - it's a maximum so will be by definition the highest single value you record. And don't worry about how it compares to other people - that's meaningless as well. FWIW, a power meter isn't really that expensive. You can find a powertap on ebay for well under $1k. It's by far the best training tool I've ever purchased.


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## rydbyk

stevesbike said:


> actually, I was using a heart rate monitor back in 1982 - it was a wired model. If you want to train with a heart monitor, do a field test, find your heart rate that corresponds to various training levels, and have at it. Get a book like heart zones cycling for more info. But don't worry about meaningless issues like how long you can maintain your max heart rate - it's a maximum so will be by definition the highest single value you record. And don't worry about how it compares to other people - that's meaningless as well. FWIW, a power meter isn't really that expensive. You can find a powertap on ebay for well under $1k. It's by far the best training tool I've ever purchased.



Yeh..I guess it is "meaningless". I was keeping track of how long it was taking me at NEAR max to feel like quitting. Then I thought, "Hey...are other riders able to withstand more perhaps..am I being a pu**y...OR is it totally normal to feel like crap at near max after a short period of time..."


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## Ghost234

The max I've experienced was 224, but I pretty much flat lined within a few seconds of that. It essentially peaked and then went down to about 210 and stayed there for about 5 seconds and then I was completely done. 

I experienced this doing a climb up the Niagara escarpment that I was not ready for at all. ie. First ride of the season with almost no base and my friends wanted me to climb up the steepest/worst climb within a few hundred km. I succeeded, but it was not worth that level of effort.


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## stevesbike

some approaches base training zones as a percentage of max heart rate, but this is inaccurate since these change with fitness (e.g., threshold heart rate/max heart rate increases with fitness). It is better to determine threshold heart rate in a field test and base training zones around that. Friel's book is another decent source for this. Also, don't worry too much about the physiological interpretation of threshold heart rate (whether it's a lactate threshold, etc). Just think of it as a functional threshold and base training zones around it.
http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/03/heart-rate-and-training.html


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## Undecided

rydbyk said:


> Yeh..I guess it is "meaningless". I was keeping track of how long it was taking me at NEAR max to feel like quitting. Then I thought, "Hey...are other riders able to withstand more perhaps..am I being a pu**y...OR is it totally normal to feel like crap at near max after a short period of time..."


I don't train by heart rate, but I do typically record it. When people say that your HR is meaningless, I don't think they're necessarily trying to be snide, but rather that they mean that HR is not effort (and not a good proxy for effort), and aren't you really asking about quitting/reducing a level of effort?

I'm not sure what you mean about "feel[ing] like crap" in this context, but in truly maximal, short efforts, I see a noticeable drop off in power long before the physical discomfort of the effort would make me "stop," and my HR is still increasing at that point unless I started the effort from a pretty high HR. In longer efforts, I don't think that being at maximum heart rate dictates definitively whether I _have_ to quit the current level of power production, but it will almost always mean I would dial it back if there wasn't some good reason for it.

I have been in the situation where my power output has slowly declined throughout the last ten laps of a crit, on a hot day, when I was tired and dehydrated, but pretty sure with four to go that I had it in the bag, with my HR pretty close to my max the whole time. So my HR stayed maxed throughout, but my power was declining---does that mean I "quit"? 

At another time, rested, fresh and hydrated, I have almost perfectly paced an effort up a finishing climb (where I believe I could have gone almost no harder for the duration or longer at that power) and my HR didn't reach maximum until about 15 seconds after I crossed the finish line.


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## rydbyk

Undecided said:


> I don't train by heart rate, but I do typically record it. When people say that your HR is meaningless, I don't think they're necessarily trying to be snide, but rather that they mean that HR is not effort (and not a good proxy for effort), and aren't you really asking about quitting/reducing a level of effort?
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean about "feel[ing] like crap" in this context, but in truly maximal, short efforts, I see a noticeable drop off in power long before the physical discomfort of the effort would make me "stop," and my HR is still increasing at that point unless I started the effort from a pretty high HR. In longer efforts, I don't think that being at maximum heart rate dictates definitively whether I _have_ to quit the current level of power production, but it will almost always mean I would dial it back if there wasn't some good reason for it.
> 
> I have been in the situation where my power output has slowly declined throughout the ten laps of a crit, on a hot day, when I was tired and dehydrated, but pretty sure with four to go that I had it in the bag, with my HR pretty close to my max the whole time. So my HR stayed maxed throughout, but my power was declining---does that mean I "quit"?
> 
> At another time, rested, fresh and hydrated, I have almost perfectly paced an effort up a finishing climb (where I believe I could have gone almost no harder for the duration or longer at that power) and my HR didn't reach maximum until about 15 seconds after I crossed the finish line.



Interesting info! Thanks.


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## Gnarly 928

Creakyknees said:


> The (very) few times that I have hit a true max hr, it was a very short spike (a couple of seconds / a few heartbeats / one or two readout updates on the HR monitor), usually following a very intense effort that left me seeing spots, gasping for air and unable to pedal for several minutes.
> 
> You might be confusing true max hr with "a very hard pace" which could be anything from "threshold" to "vo2" to a short sprint effort...



Me too..except "unable to pedal for several minutes" is not what I get...Maybe 30seconds to a minute is my 'down-time' until I can resume my efforts, but at a lower exertion level for sure..

.After several minutes backed-off a little, I can (rarely do, however) get another Max HR spike for a few seconds, if someone really pushes it and I am 'motivated' enough.

My maximum sustainable HR seems to be about 170 on a good day..That is eye-popping effort on an uphill TT of about an hour...I'll spike into the low 190s, my max, a couple of times, but then I have to 'recover' with reduced effort. I don't have to stop and get off, but I do have to lighten up..

Don Hanson


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## Alex_Simmons/RST

stevesbike said:


> some approaches base training zones as a percentage of max heart rate, but this is inaccurate since these change with fitness (e.g., threshold heart rate/max heart rate increases with fitness).


There's nothing particularly wrong or "inaccurate" with using Max HR to determine training zones/levels. You just need to test for it, in the same sense that you need to test for an average heart rate in a TT effort if basing training levels on a "threshold" HR. 

Of course there is no single threshold HR, but a range of HR's typically experienced when riding at threshold levels.

My HRmax usually _reduces _with improved fitness.


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## ZoSoSwiM

If you actually hit your physical MAX heart rate you might last a few seconds there. 

Last week I tested myself on my rollers with plenty of fans blowing on me. I gradually built up my heart rate over an hour before picking up the pace. I simply wanted to see how high I could get my heart rate. Once I got over 195 I was really pushing it.. once I hit 201 I was totally out of it.. I held it for maybe 3 seconds before I eased off. It took a few more seconds to drop under 200. I continued to spin at 90rpm with some resistance for another 15 minuted or so.. Took maybe 30 seconds or so for my heart to slow down to normal.. However I was dead. I could still feel the effort the next day. Never before has an indoor bike workout left me so dead.


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## c_kyle

I think every HR max formula is a rough, rough guide, and not very accurate. My last 9 mile run consisted of 3.5 miles in zone 4 and 5.5 miles in zone 5.

In Garmin Training Center, my max heart rate is 189, which is pretty consistent using some of the popular HR max formulas. I don't know how applicable to me the formulas are, though. When I run shorter distances, I'm always in the 95% or more range. When I run longer distances, I drop into 90-95% range.


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## sburke

Everyone is different. It also depends on what you did yo get yourself up there to max HR


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## ZoSoSwiM

Heart rate can be sport specific as well.. My heart changes smoothly on my bike.. If I run it jumps all over.. when I swim it's steady.

Last weekend I competed in my first kayak race.. 7 miles.. 1:09. Plenty slow but it was as hard as I could go. Felt like my arms were falling off but my heart rate never went up.. Might have been in the 140's. For as hard as I was paddling I would have thought it would be higher. 

Something I've noticed with higher heart rates mirrors what was said above.. Depends on what you did prior. If you're slugging away at 90% for a long time and then sprint you'll likely fade pretty quick. If you're riding steady at 75% and then hammer you might last a little longer at max before you blow up.


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## rydbyk

donnaj867 said:


> Hi, I am a new member of forum. Would a newcomer be warmly welcome here? Good day you guys!!!



Weird. Yes is your answer. Are you busy watching Harry Potter, or did we scare you away?


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## Mike T.

rydbyk said:


> How long can you last at max HR....


Chris Hoy can tell ya and it's probably a number that is countable on two hands -


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## atpjunkie

*I'd ask a good*

cx coach because most elite cxers push near max (not max but close) for an hour. I wore an HRM for a few cross races and indeed I was always over 90% for the duration but that is 90% plus and not MAX


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## stevesbike

Mike T. said:


> Chris Hoy can tell ya and it's probably a number that is countable on two hands -


that must have been his warm up - no bucket in that pic...


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## ETWN Stu

I use mine for warm up and warm down only... also to help guide me from where I can hit it from with out blowing up or doing an O ring!! If I am going hard I don’t have time to look at my max whilst on the pedals full tilt.

Taking a step to the left field here...I had 12 months off and jumped back on near 6 months ago and got a new Polar CS600X hr computer to treat myself for the progress back to fitness. In the 6 months, I went from having a max 172bpm 6 months ago to a max of 218bpm atm. My resting has lowered from 44bpm to 38bpm...Nice to know for me but don’t care about max when doing efforts as I ride to how I feel. And if I hit a new high that’s great!!

People should spend what they can afford and avoid the rubbish that they don’t need, also be honest with them self when it comes to their fitness and power they have on tap.


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## saird

Over 9000.


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