I am a healthy 58 yrs old woman. I race walk competively. I have been going faster lately. Sometimes my heart rate goes to 230 for 10-20 seconds. When I end my race walking trainings (4 miles average), my heart rate drops down quickly, no problem. Should I worry about the 230?
Hello thanks for posting here. A heart rate of 230 on exertion definitely requires evaluation. However first we need to evaluate whether you really reach that 230 reading. While running the heart rate detector may mistake your body vibrations and movements for heart beats and count them accordingly. Hence the heart rate may erroneously show a high reading. So you have to check whether it happens to you only or with everyone. Another thing that can be done is a treadmill test. It requires you to run on a treadmill, the speed of which increases gradually to a point till your heart rate reaches a target rate. This TMT test will continuously record your EKG while you are running so all aberrations and errors can be rules out. It will definitely show whether you really have a fast heart rate on exercising. If it documents very fast heart rate further work up can be done. Wishing you good health. Thank you