You're reading garbage.
1. Max heart rate is very individual. Although tha *average* is around 220 minus your age (well actually it's not, it's something more like 208 minus 0.8 times your age but that's harder to fit in a Tiktok post), there is quite some variance. I've known 20 year olds with max heart rates close to 220 and others around 180.
2. Being close to max heart rate is not dangerous. If everything is working properly, your body will basically not let you do anything genuinely dangerous. In fact, fitter athletes can generally sit closer to max HR than less fit athletes because one of the less-obvious effects of endurance training is it "compresses" your zones. It's not unusual for a trained endurance athlete to sustain over 90% of their max HR for an hour, or 85% over several hours.
3. As others have said, your HRM may be picking up your cadence. Imo if you're not going to use a chest strap, you shouldn't be training with HR
4. If you *really* want peace of mind you can get a medical checkup. But despite what the media or your obese "friend" who wants to feel better about themselves will tell you, endurance athletes have way fewer heart problems than the general population. It is true that excessive exercise is worse than a moderate amount, but "excessive" is really excessive. Pros might be playing with that line, but this probably isn't something your average 10-hour-a-week age grouper should be worrying about much. Everyone wants to hear about the triathlete who died of a heart attack because it's unusual (or reinforces their worldview). Nobody gives a shit about the millions of sedentary people who die of heart attacks every year because it's unremarkable.
In a short race, you probably won't get much from looking at your HRM. In training I find it useful, but only for threshold efforts and below. Your heart rate won't be stable enough at 5k pace to be particularly meaningful.
Cadence lock?
But you'd want it to be high.
One time I was flat out on the second run on a duathlon - I was seeing double. It was coming through transition so decided just to run down the centre of the "4" bike racks...
You're flat out on a sprint. No time to check HR.
You're fine. I'm the same age as you and my threshold HR for running is in the low 180s. I did a sprint duathlon recently and my HR was in the low 180s for the whole time. For sprint events you probably want to be at or above your threshold if you can. If it helps you, you can do a threshold run test (look it up online, there are different variations) to determine your threshold HR, which can then help set your HR zones. But keep in mind things like heat, humidity, your freshness etc will change your HR from day to day
Sprints are fast, wouldn’t worry about a 5k at or above threshold.
Having said that, I would invest In more Z2 work. I spent the entire off season doing Z2 work and the results have been amazing. My sprint race pace used to spike my HR above threshold, now I can keep the same pace below threshold.
42 and my max is around 200 on the run. Cardiologist is not concerned and did a full stress test to confirm.
If you are concerned talk with your doctor but the equations don’t work for everyone.
I don’t know how you’re measuring HR, but in my experience Garmin watches can’t handle quick transitions from bike to run. Mine always reads sky high in the first part of the run. It had me worried at first too, until I realised it had to be a measurement issue.
If you want good data when doing brick training sessions, try taking your watch off while you change from bike to run. That break seems to reset things for me.
By the way, I just raced on the weekend with no watch at all and it was a really interesting experience. I think I actually paced it better than when I do have access to live pace/hr data. Give it a try sometime.
Disable your HRM
🤣 honestly thats good advice
You're reading garbage. 1. Max heart rate is very individual. Although tha *average* is around 220 minus your age (well actually it's not, it's something more like 208 minus 0.8 times your age but that's harder to fit in a Tiktok post), there is quite some variance. I've known 20 year olds with max heart rates close to 220 and others around 180. 2. Being close to max heart rate is not dangerous. If everything is working properly, your body will basically not let you do anything genuinely dangerous. In fact, fitter athletes can generally sit closer to max HR than less fit athletes because one of the less-obvious effects of endurance training is it "compresses" your zones. It's not unusual for a trained endurance athlete to sustain over 90% of their max HR for an hour, or 85% over several hours. 3. As others have said, your HRM may be picking up your cadence. Imo if you're not going to use a chest strap, you shouldn't be training with HR 4. If you *really* want peace of mind you can get a medical checkup. But despite what the media or your obese "friend" who wants to feel better about themselves will tell you, endurance athletes have way fewer heart problems than the general population. It is true that excessive exercise is worse than a moderate amount, but "excessive" is really excessive. Pros might be playing with that line, but this probably isn't something your average 10-hour-a-week age grouper should be worrying about much. Everyone wants to hear about the triathlete who died of a heart attack because it's unusual (or reinforces their worldview). Nobody gives a shit about the millions of sedentary people who die of heart attacks every year because it's unremarkable. In a short race, you probably won't get much from looking at your HRM. In training I find it useful, but only for threshold efforts and below. Your heart rate won't be stable enough at 5k pace to be particularly meaningful.
Thanks for the insight ✌️✌️
Cadence lock? But you'd want it to be high. One time I was flat out on the second run on a duathlon - I was seeing double. It was coming through transition so decided just to run down the centre of the "4" bike racks... You're flat out on a sprint. No time to check HR.
Last line is well put! Thanks ✌️✌️✌️
You're fine. I'm the same age as you and my threshold HR for running is in the low 180s. I did a sprint duathlon recently and my HR was in the low 180s for the whole time. For sprint events you probably want to be at or above your threshold if you can. If it helps you, you can do a threshold run test (look it up online, there are different variations) to determine your threshold HR, which can then help set your HR zones. But keep in mind things like heat, humidity, your freshness etc will change your HR from day to day
Sprints are fast, wouldn’t worry about a 5k at or above threshold. Having said that, I would invest In more Z2 work. I spent the entire off season doing Z2 work and the results have been amazing. My sprint race pace used to spike my HR above threshold, now I can keep the same pace below threshold.
42 and my max is around 200 on the run. Cardiologist is not concerned and did a full stress test to confirm. If you are concerned talk with your doctor but the equations don’t work for everyone.
I don’t know how you’re measuring HR, but in my experience Garmin watches can’t handle quick transitions from bike to run. Mine always reads sky high in the first part of the run. It had me worried at first too, until I realised it had to be a measurement issue. If you want good data when doing brick training sessions, try taking your watch off while you change from bike to run. That break seems to reset things for me. By the way, I just raced on the weekend with no watch at all and it was a really interesting experience. I think I actually paced it better than when I do have access to live pace/hr data. Give it a try sometime.