First Ride with Bike Club, pushed a little too hard?

[Ras1151]

The plan was for a flat 27 mile ride. We started out going 18-21 mph, and my HR started going up. 170's to 180's. I didn't feel anything so I kept going. We stopped for a rest, and to let everyone catch up. During the short rest my HR came down to 120.

When we started going again, I was keeping up with the lead group, untill we came to some hills. My HR went up again, this time to 190's and my body shut down. When HR came back down I was fine to ride again.

I slowed down a little to keep HR down to low 160's untill we came to a big hill climb. I found out I can't do hills. I could only go a very short way before my HR would climb to high 170's. I had to stop and rest, go short way, stop and rest. The hill was about 5 mile climb, it was brutal, also The sky opened up and it rained hard going over the hill. It was mostly dry the rest of the ride. HR goes high, energy goes low.

I have had my road bike three weeks, and ridden 300 miles, all is well as long as I stay off the hills.

I see the cardio next week. I am wondering if they will increase my BB so I can exercise harder without HR going too high.

How high is too High?

Ron

 

[SumoRunner]

First you have to know your HR max and on beta blockers HR max is lower than it would have been previously. I'd say going to 95% is too much if you're less than 1 year post-op. So take your HR max pre-surgery and subtract between 5-10% and then stay below 95% of that.

 

[camgough]

Hey Ron, I'm guessing you need more time to heal. I am almost 11 months post op and my heart rate still flys to 180 when jogging 6mph on a treadmill. The doctors tell me that with work and time this should slowly decrease back to normal before surgery. I am not on any pills either.

 

[Natina13]

Makes some notes....#1 Do not try to ride a bike up hill #2 Do not push my treadmill up to 6mph. Thanks guys..every bit of knowledge, helps me to not do more than I can. Of course.......if I remember correctly, I never had my treadmill going over 5mph before surgery....I have been walking on it at 1-2 mph minus my usual incline, since surgery ( against MD advice, what does he know,lol) and can maintain a HR of not over 80....so I know I will get to my 5mph again, post Cardiac Rehab. I have never ridden a bike 27 miles in my life...even on flat ground, unless it was in my childhood...so if I can get to 5 miles,on my bike ( without falling) I think I will feel like a winner
Funny how little it takes to make me happy these days........
Renee

ps...I am VERY proud you both are able to do these things....you are both winners in my book !!!!!

Dx BAV with 3 proximal arteries 75% + occluded 11/2010 Surgery 4/14/2011 AVR with a Edwards "Magna" Bovine Tissue Valve and a Triple Bypass

 

[normofthenorth]

Your HR sounds high to me, for this early in your rehab. A BB will keep the numbers down, but that does NOT give you license to push harder. When I did a stress test at the beginning of my cardio rehab class, I was still on Metoprolol (BB). I "only" got to a HR of 137 after 10 minutes of pretty brutal pedalling on the stress-test bike, but they stopped me because my heart RHYTHM was starting to go bad -- electrical signals going upside-down etc., for 2+ beats in a row.

I was on a 12-lead EKG monitor, and would not have known there was a problem (except that I was pushing crazy hard and feeling wiped!) if I were just checking my HR. I assume I would have had lower HR but the same arrhythmias if I were taking a bigger dose of Metoprolol.

There have been a few discussions here about the consequences of over-doing, and the answers still aren't crystal-clear to me. You've got more stitches and joins than many of us (with the AVR and the CABG too), and they should be just about healing and settling down now, so the main concerns may now be "electrical". But those seem to be serious concerns, and if overdoing increases your chances of having a chronic arrhythmia (like A-fib), then it's a bad bargain in return for gaining a couple of days on your rehab schedule, IMHO. Pushing your biceps until they "shut down" is probably going too far. Doing that with your heart. . .

 

[tprice54]

Well, good job! Hills bothered me for a few years post op. It seems to take quite awhile to get in shape for them. Other than the hills, you sound like you are doing great. Listen to your body...if you are wiped out after a workout, it's telling you tah twas too much!

 

[Lynlw]

The plan was for a flat 27 mile ride. We started out going 18-21 mph, and my HR started going up. 170's to 180's. I didn't feel anything so I kept going. We stopped for a rest, and to let everyone catch up. During the short rest my HR came down to 120.

When we started going again, I was keeping up with the lead group, untill we came to some hills. My HR went up again, this time to 190's and my body shut down. When HR came back down I was fine to ride again.

I slowed down a little to keep HR down to low 160's untill we came to a big hill climb. I found out I can't do hills. I could only go a very short way before my HR would climb to high 170's. I had to stop and rest, go short way, stop and rest. The hill was about 5 mile climb, it was brutal, also The sky opened up and it rained hard going over the hill. It was mostly dry the rest of the ride. HR goes high, energy goes low.

I have had my road bike three weeks, and ridden 300 miles, all is well as long as I stay off the hills.

I see the cardio next week. I am wondering if they will increase my BB so I can exercise harder without HR going too high.

How high is too High?

Ron

I thought they (rehab, and your cardiologist) suggested you not let your HR get so high until they've done a stress test or check up in your other thread asking about having such a high heart rate. Did you have that yet? Or did they tell you it was ok?

 

[Ras1151]

I thought they (rehab, and your cardiologist) suggested you not let your HR get so high until they've done a stress test or check up in your other thread asking about having such a high heart rate. Did you have that yet? Or did they tell you it was ok?

No, I am not supposed to let it go that high. I thought it was going to be a flat relaxed ride. I just couldn't myself.
I get an echo on thursday 6-2, and then talk to cardio on 6-8.
I won't let it go that high until after I meet with the cardio. Just trying harder to slow down now.

 

[scott.eitman]

I am having trouble with hills as well. I stopped taking the BB because it really made it hard fro me to ride. Off of them, I am just out of shape. The hills are coming back, but I am still looking up at the guys that used to look up the hill at me. I am not tracking my HR because my monitor is not working. I just listen to the clicking.

I am finding that my legs are needing some time to get back in shape, which I am assuming is mostly letting the oxygen get processed and down to them from the heart and lungs.

 

[spartangator]

Well, sort of glad to see we're all having similar experiences on the hills, then

Ron, that's quite a pace for someone three weeks into road biking. As Tom says, be easy with yourself and build slowly. While patience with ourselves isn't the most fun, it is part of the deal. And you'll get where you want to go; it just takes some time to develop the fitness.

 

[scott.eitman]

I rode about 100 miles this weekend (42 Sat and 58 Sun) the 42 was cool and went great however the 58 did not. I have done two 55+ rides in the last couple weeks and both were in 80+ degrees. Both times the heat really got to me more than normal. It was more like a 90+ degree gotcha.

Just trying to say it is not just the hills, be aware of all of the variables we will encounter.

 

[Ras1151]

Scott

I have to say that I am very impressed. I would think that 80 degrees would be brutal. I am not to that level of 50+ miles at one time. I have done a few 30+ miles. the temperature is usually in 50's or 60's, Oregon has not really had any hot weather yet.

My cardio increased my metoprolol to 50mg from 25mg, I think that is helping alot.

I just rode a hill that gave me trouble before, Now I am able to push through without stopping. I figure that is a victory.
My Doc said not to go over 170 BPM HR, and that doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. It hit 170 on the hill, but came down fast when I slowed down. She also said that it had a good sinus rhythm with no a-fib.

How long does a 58 mile ride take? the 42 mile ride? Did you have hills to deal with?

my bike has been my main transportation. It takes me 8-10 minutes to get to work, and about 20 min to get across town. I rode my bike to the Cardio Doc, and all my appointments. They were in the next town over, about 14 miles.
In the last 6 months I have only used a half tank of gas, and it's a SUV, a gas hog.

Ron

 

[scott.eitman]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this.

10 degrees isn't all that bad...when I am in shape, but that ride was tough. Sunday, I did 65 at 17.3 avg mph. I had my HR in the 170s a few times, however I was a machine in the 150s. All of those ride had between 2,000 and 3,000 feet of climb, so hilly, but no mountains.

42 is about 3 hours with a half hour of coffee. The 58 was long because I bonked; I averaged 18+ for the first hour, but only about 14 for the whole ride.

Scott

 

[Ras1151]

It's been a couple of weeks since I was checked by my Cardiologist, and my Metoprolol increased to50 mg a day.

Since then my avg speed has been picking up. it was 13-15 mph avg. Today coming home from Cardio rehab work-out, my avg moving speed was 18.6 mph. I had speeds upto 25. I can still get HR to 170 but does not happen as often. On my way to Cardio I had a little headwind, my avg was 15.7, then HR hit 170 and I slowed down.
Hills are getting better also, I was able to push through a hill I couldn't do a couple of weeks ago.

My limiting factor still seems to be my HR. But it is better than it was.

It is nice to see improvments. Now I think I can go on another bike club ride, hopefully with better results than last time. Last Club Ride was 35 miles with hills. The Hills killed me, HR would shoot up to 180's in short distance, so my pace was very slow.

Ron

 

[Ras1151]

One more note from Cardio. She said HR has good rhythm, just try to keep HR down to 170 when working out. It still hits 170, but usually less than a minute.

 

[spartangator]

Sounds like you've got some reasonable parameters (the 170 bpm) so now you can go out and keep enjoying yourself. The numbers you're putting up are great and will keep getting better. Excellent that you're involving your cardiologist in this and completing cardio rehab, too.