High exercise pulse rate

I'm a 45 yr old male who partricipates in a few bicycle racing events a year. I can only train once a week and usually ride pretty hard for a couple of hours at a time. My concern is that my exercising heartrate is quite high,it's usually around 170 to 185 with highs up to 225 during the heaviest exertion. The highest I ever saw it about eight years ago was 198 bpm (I was in better shape then). When I slow down and stop the rate returns to normal fairly quickly (although it stays a little higher on average for the rest of the day - 75 to 80 bpm at rest) My resting pulse rate when I wake up is around 57 bpm. I had a stress test done about a year and a half ago and the doctor said that I'm in great shape but my pulse rate in that test never got close to what I get it up to now. I don't experience any pain or discomfort while I'm exercising or afterwards (just tired). Am I risking heart damage from stressing my cardiovascular system like this? I do have another appointment for a physical in October. I wonder if wearing one of those holter monitors during one of these hard rides would be a good idea. My family does have a history of heart trouble but I know that they had poor eating habits and didn't exercise regularly.

[CCF-M.D.-CRC]

Dear will,
A rapid heart rate by itself is not necessarily a bad thing as long as the heart is otherwise healthy.  The main concern with a middle aged male who exercise sporatically is undiagnosed coronary artery disease.  I think if this has been excluded then there is little harm in having an elevated heart rate during exercise.  Of course for training and overall heart health more frequent episodes of slower heart rate for longer periods of time is better than sporatic faster heart rate for short periods.

[doninsantafe]

I'm a 63 year old male -- I have exercised regularly (mostly running and racewalking) for the last 30 years.  My resting HR is in the low 50s. I believed for a long time that more is better. When I switched to racewalking about 6 yrs ago - to treat my knees better -- I set a goal of 4 miles at 8 min/mile pace, which I achieved, but it got my HR up into the 175++ range regularly (several days per week).  I have not continued this intensity of exercise, but still felt like I had to feel some distress when I worked out.  About two years ago I had some eposodes of light-headedness after exercise, almost passed out a couple of times. I also started getting more episodes of rapid heart beat, which I had at times of anxiety, but very infrequently, before.  My cardiologist diagnosed it as SVT, not a big problem.  Recently, I have started feeling weakness after 30-40 minutes of what I would ordinarily call monderate intensity exercise -- still race walking.  I started wearing a heart rate monitor a week ago, and I find I have to stay below about a 11.5 min/mile pace in order to keep my heart rate below 140 -- HR drifts up during continuing exercise.  If I get much higher, I start to feel weak.  I also have some evidence that I sometimes get a "double" heart beat during moments of anxiety.  I live at 7200 feet altitude, and this may make me more susceptible to these events.  I had a treadmill stress test yesterday, and my ECG seemed normal (I haven't heard back from the doctor yet), with a heart rate of over 160 for a couple of minutes.  My systolic BP got over 220, which worries me.  My solution is to back off the exercise intensity, and my relatively minor symptoms seem to go away.  My own conclusion is that the repeated high HR during exercise has limited my ability to do intense exercise now, and it may have something to do with my increased tendency for tachycardia/arrhythmia.  This is hypothetical, but makes sense to me.  If I had it to do over again, I'd be less competitive and follow the rule to be able to carry on a conversation comfortably while exercising -- at least most of the time ;).  Overall, I'm blessed with excellent health. Best regards to all the good people who make this site possible and who participate in it.

[gretchen44]

A related discussion, pulse when exercising was started.