Weird Heart Rate Phenomenon (Am I odd?)

This is open for drs and anyone who has any knowledge of the subject. Ok so I've known for a long time that my heart rate runs high. Just walking at a good clip will put my heart rate in the mid to high 120's. I also have known for a longtime that I can maintain a much higher heart rate than most for a longtime, think mid 180's. I once did the Seattle to Portland bicycle race in one day (10.5 hours of ride time) with my heart rate in the 170's and 180's the whole way until the last hour or so where it plummeted into the 140's and 150's despite maintaining the same pace.

Well, today while on the treadmill running by heart rate I noticed that while my heart rate initially spikes high, once running I can increase effort pretty substantially with barely an increase in heart rate. For example, I was running at a 5 mph pace at 155 bpm. I increased a full mph to 6 mph and my heart rate only increased to 160bpm. Increasing to 7 mph and it only raised it to 164 bpm... Pretty weird stuff isn't it? I know most people that I exercise or run with their heart rates are slow to rise but then jump pretty fast with higher intensity. Am I odd? Is this a sign of something? Anybody have thoughts?
 
doesn't seem too odd to me in my limited experience. i race easily around 170. your hr climbing today seems just fine. the hr walking though does seem a tad high. i was about to suggest maybe some adrenal problems but could be all that coffee. any other symptoms got you worried?

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Mike, my point I was kinda getting at was that I can push myself at extremely high heart rate for long periods of time. I know you and several other running friends of mine mostly run lower heart rate and it's easy. I really struggle to keep mine down, but running what feels pretty easy is in 170's while pushing pretty hard is barely much different. For example, maf running paces for me are slower than if I just walked. My heart rate in the 170's and even low 180's I am often breathing just as easy as I do when my heart rate is 150. I know several of my friends that say when they push themselves that hard that their heart rates hit 180's it feels like their heart is going to pound out of their chests. Mine doesn't. Mine doesn't feel like that till I get close to 200. Shoot, remember when I tried running Maf for those 3 months, and all that happened was I got slower and slower every month? I think I got to like a 17-18 min mile pace. Crazy. When I say I struggle to keep my heart rate low, I mean it. When I cross the barrier from walking to running my heart rate goes from 120's to 150's just like that. Once I'm running though it really doesn't change as drastically with the higher paces.
 
Hi Nick,
would you mind giving your age and your resting heart rate as well?
I'm not a specialist but from what I've read it seems that individual maximum heart rate may change with age and the kind of sport you're practicing:
With biking the maximum attainable heart rate could be different than with running.
At a younger age the maximum heart rate is generally higher than 40 years later in life.
The resting heart rate (taken in the morning just after waking up) depends also on a couple of individual factors (weight, health, training...), but it's the difference between the resting heart rate and say walking or running heart rate which is interesting.
If your resting heart rate for example is 100, then 120 to 130 for a good walk would not be very high - and it would be understandable why running Maf would be difficult for you...
 
I don't really remember exactly what my reating hear rate is, but I seem to recall it being high 50's low 60's. Just sitting here for 3 minutes with my Garmin on my heart rate is 58, and thats after a cup of coffee too. My age is 36. One thing I may note is that in the military I learned how to push through pain and fatigue. Is it possible that my time in the military trained my body to operate with a high heart rate?
 
The first link is a really interesting read. Makes me wonder what people did before "target heart rates".

This seems like something that one should discuss with one's doctor, if one is concerned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/health/maximum-heart-rate-theory-is-challenged.html
''I've kind of laughed about it over the years,'' Dr. Haskell said. The formula, he said, ''was never supposed to be an absolute guide to rule people's training.'' But, he said, ''It's so typical of Americans to take an idea and extend it beyond what it was originally intended for.''
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3580725/
when tested with subjects walking or jogging at low speeds on a treadmill, typically 20-70% of the readings given by the machines had errors of greater than 20 bpm. In some cases over 50% of readings had errors exceeding 50 bpm.
http://m.livescience.com/44170-fitness-tracker-heart-rate-monitors.html
An increasing number of fitness trackers that are worn on the wrist claim to monitor your heart rate without the need for a chest strap, but how accurate are they?
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html
For those who train with heart rate monitors often, you probably know all too well know the tell-tale sign that your little device is lying to you about your heart rate.
 
I understand the articles about the machines reading heart rate being off, but could every single machine I use be off? I've used probably over 10 different heart rate monitoring devices and they all read high, several different Garmins, a couple of Polars, a Blackburn, and then all the different hand held machines like on treadmills or bikes in the gym. I do need to read all of these so thanks for the links Sid and I will start reading.
 
Ok so I've known for a long time that my heart rate runs high. Just walking at a good clip will put my heart rate in the mid to high 120's.

Well, today while on the treadmill running by heart rate I noticed that while my heart rate initially spikes high, once running I can increase effort pretty substantially with barely an increase in heart rate.

It doesn't sound like you have a high abnormal heartrate maybe a little above average. Comparing heartrates between different runners is meaningless really. My max heartrate is about 10 beats higher than the 220-age formula but probably at least 20 beats lower than yours. I've read claims that a person max heart rates drops with about .5 to 1 beat per year but thats probably just ballpark observations not true testing etc.

About your heartrate spike I would try a couple things before suspecting a health issue...the heartrate monitor straps can give false high readings at the start of the run if the contact is not good...try putting on the strap about 15 - 30 minutes before the start of your run to help get the skin body oils in good contact with the strap. You could also be running too fast at the start...it takes at least 5 minutes for heartrate to stabilize....try going really extra slow maybe start with a run/walk...try to get no overshoot at all up to your MAF heartrate of 144.
 
The first link is a really interesting read. Makes me wonder what people did before "target heart rates".

This seems like something that one should discuss with one's doctor, if one is concerned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/health/maximum-heart-rate-theory-is-challenged.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3580725/
http://m.livescience.com/44170-fitness-tracker-heart-rate-monitors.html
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html
Sid that first article is actually very enlightening. Could explain everything for me. And just for the record for everybody, I didn't believe that anything was wrong with me, I was curious if I was abnormal. From that article Sid linked, I wonder if maybe I am only abnormal in the sense that maybe I am just on the higher end of max heart rates (which means maybe I am actually still normal). That could explain exactly why I can't follow maf and get the same results someone like Mike does. Oh, and I did mention how I not only hit high heart rates, but that I also sustain them in the initial post. It's really nothing for me to sustain high 180's for an hour or more with zero chest pains or breathing problems. Anyow, I had just found it interesting and was curious if anyone had insight on this. Glad Sid brought a really good article.
 
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which article?

i have to go to my original statement then. you may be suffering from adrenal stress if i remember correctly. Maff describes it in his book and blog. probably the blog. low resting hr. high when training.

http://www.philmaffetone.com/the-overtraining-syndrome

i know. not a scientific study but good clinical experience speaking.
 
which article?

i have to go to my original statement then. you may be suffering from adrenal stress if i remember correctly. Maff describes it in his book and blog. probably the blog. low resting hr. high when training.

http://www.philmaffetone.com/the-overtraining-syndrome

i know. not a scientific study but good clinical experience speaking.
Read the first article Mike that Sid linked. The maximum heart rate challenged.
 
yeah. Maff dissected that and tore it down too. he even admits his formula isn't perfect but it's a useful tool. it's at least a starting point for you to look at. i myself have suffered the same problem of slowing down at the same hr and am trying to figure it out. i was slowing down more and treating my leg like an injury and i was seeing an improvement. then my garmin was stolen. the jerk. maybe you may have to do the same thing if you go back to maf. treat your surgery like an injury and slow down 5 beats. i'm just grasping at straws trying to help you out.
 
Mike I don't really know that it IS anything to fix. If you read that article then you would have read where the dr states that some hearts push more blood and so beat less, while some hearts accomplish this same task of more blood flow by beating faster while pushing less blood at a time. Not a direct quote but a generalization. I figure I must just be one of those that pushes less so has to beat faster.
 
Why don't you go to a doctor and get checked out??? Maybe you have a heart or blood pressure problem.