HR Changes Post Surgery?

I'm still trying to figure this out, totally unexpected.  I've seen that my ave HR for rides is up a bit compared to the level of output (very unscientific, no power tap) and that I am bumping what I thought was my max HR on a regular basis.  Even when I get up there I don't really feel that I'm working that hard.  HR seem very smooth through out.  

Did any of you see anything like this?  I know that I am less than 3 weeks out but I would have thought I would been reasonably normal by now.  

 I'd guess its gonna take some time for your hr to really adapt as you get into better cardio shape.  3 weeks really isn't that much time.  Are you tracking via a HR monitor?  

My resting HR pre-op was around 90, earlier this year I was around 50, so dramatics changes can and will happen (funny story, at my last checkup, the nurse was really concerned because my pulse was so "weak".  The doc came in and I mentioned I was training for an IM, and he chuckled at the nurse :)  )  

Yep, I use a HRM...you can see my stats on the links to my roll call.  I had a good summer on the bike and my resting HR was consistantly down to between 55 & 60 pre op.  However, I have had it as low as 53 on a couple dr. visits.  

In trying to compare what is going on after a 4 week lay off to earlier this year after a whole winter I don't seem to have really deteriorated too much.  But this spring if I hit 170 bpm I was ready for the paddles.  LOL  Right now I am hitting 170 and I'm just starting to feel the need to breath hard.  Also, earlier this year at 170 it would sometimes get ragged.  Right now it just seems to purr along.

Go figure. 

 if you are hitting 170, with a rhr of 55, and just starting to feel the need to breathe hard, I'm guessing you need a new HR monitor, or else something funny is going on :)  

YA...lol

Right now my rhr seems to be a bit higher, closer to 60-65.  I should qualify that breathing hard is probably also not scientificly measurable.  I do know that when I hit 165ish that I need to dial it back a bit and maybe some of the 170 numbers are natural up ticks when one dials it back.  

Thanks for your thoughts!

 man, when I hit 170, I KNOW it.  On a bike, I almost never get that high - in training my coach had me make sure I didn't, but on a sustained hard climb I might.  In running, on a 5k I am trying to PR I am in the mid to high 160's, and I might break 170 on a last sprint to the finish.

My coach calculated my max HR as around 185ish, so 170 would be 90% plus, I'm guessing you aren't too far off from me.  I'd be careful of spending too much time up there if your HRM is right, if nothing else, it will wear you out in a hurry ;)  

What did you think your max HR was?

That 220-age formula is a bunch of junk, in case you already didn't know that. They measured all sorts of people in a bunch of studies including one that was all college athletes and found their max HRs were all over the place and there was no correlation between either age or fitness.

My Max HR is around 186 according to my cardiac stress test. My RHR is in the low 50s. Pre-op it was in the high 60s to low 70s. Every once in a while my RHR goes as low as 49. I'm  hoping it will eventually be in the high 40s. The highest I've seen on a HRM was 179. I did feel like I was going to die during that particular run. Usually I'm at a much lower HR especially these days when I'm more fit.

Hi Mac

Ya, the 220 formula has never been my favorite.  Pre surgery I was pretty consistent that at about 173 I would have to slow down or toss my cookies.  LOL  I think I read that there is about a 10 bpm difference between mhr for running and biking.  If I ran and if that is reasonably correct, that would put my mhr running at about 163.  

I hope to get a Vo2 max test next year and see if I can pin the MHR down a bit better. 

 HR when running is usually higher than when biking though. It's even lower swimming! (Well, unless your form is really, really bad, I guess.)

DOH!  I got turned around...I knew that...once.  LOL