Peak heart rate zone during exercise

[ManicZanic]

So I am not the most fit person in the world and have just started going to the gym to run on the elliptical machines about 2 weeks ago. I tried using the Microsoft band and had a hard time getting it to register my runs on the elliptical so I switched to the charge HR. In my runs I usually set the machine to 1 min interval training for 1000 call which takes me about an hour to complete at a pace of 60 strides per min.

Recently as in my last 2 runs my heart rate will reach the peak heart rate zone and stay there for the majority of the run as in 45min out of 60 with the remainder in the cardio zone. I do not feel exhausted at the end of my run and have felt no major issues other than my feet go a bit numb after a few min which makes me stop for a second to wiggle them around and get back to my run.

Should I be concerned with my heart rate staying in this zone for upwards of an hour or will this just strengthen my heart allowing me to loose the extra 100 lbs I have sticking to my sides.

Thank you.

[shipo]

Ignore your heart rate zones; Fitbit bases your zones on the widely discredited 220-Age formula for calculating Max heart rate (zones are some percentage of Max).  Instead concentrate on your breathing as follows:

• If you are gasping for breath with collapse immenent, slow down, you're going way too fast/hard.
• If you are breathing hard but can sustain the pace/level of exercise for say 20 minutes, you are working out at a good race/tempo pace.  This pace is typically considered too fast for normal workouts.
• If you are breathing in such a way where you can carry on a conversation in short sentences, that is a good pace for training.

[JohnRi]

Large periods of time, many hours, can in theory lead to heart failure.  Especially in someone that is in poor shape.

An hour, that's nothing to worry about.  In fact I suspect that as you get into better shape, your heart rate will drop and you will burn fewer and fewer calories doing the same exercise.

When I first started walking, my heart was in the 140 BPM range.  Now it's rarely over 106 BPM. 

So keep at it! 

[Lovelylbb99]

I was 96% in my peak zone the in 32 min of my run. Is that ok?

This is my first 3 miles for a while. I usually never get in my oeak zone but I feel great after. 

[shipo]

@Lovelylbb99, short answer, your zones are wrong.

Long answer:

The 220-Age formula is based upon gross averages and is wrong as often as it is correct for any given individual.  The easiest thing you can do is to bump your Maximum Heart Rate in your profile to something closer to reality for your body.

[Lovelylbb99]

My heart 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android