How is your heart rate while foiling at full speed? I know I'm not as fit as I should, or used to be when younger (47 now), but on races or heavy sailing on the foil (Starboard 100, race foil 1000 wing and 9.0 Severne), after 8-10 pumps to get foiling on cr?tical conditions, my HR isn't getting down as I thought it should. My sessions go from 130 to 190 every time.

But when going with the small kit (Goya 95 and 4.7) I get much less HR peaks and average.

Maybe it's that I still can't relax foiling fast as I do on the shortboard....

But I was wondering how others are doing regarding this HR matter. Another foiling friend (same kit) 51 years and really trains cardio a lot, also gets hi HR when racing or just going to the limit.

I imagine you saw the meme with the three sailors, a muscle fit guy with the slalom tag, a well fit but more skinny guy (wave) and a big fluffy belly joe (foiling) (i think it was maciek rutkowski who shared it some time ago)

How about you?

For reasons, I had to wear a heart monitor for a few sessions last year and was actually surprised when just recreationally foiling who low my heart rate was. For those same reasons, I did a lot of serious cardio training last year and the improvement in my ability to pump and recover was marked. Where I used to pump a few times to get going and really felt it, after getting into serious shape, I could continuously pump race kit 10-20+ times to get off the water in light air and quickly recover to do it again. I'd also say, generally, that I feel I'm as fit as I have ever been as a windsurfer.

Pumping a big sail frequently (e.g light wind upwind with several tacks) requires a serious short term output of energy. Sailing frequently helps but doing stuff off the water is important, too. Cardio of your favorite flavor and some strength work (legs as well as arms) if you can.

I'm older than you so don't feel like you have to age out. Naturally the younger guys have an advantage but you still have plenty of time on the water ahead of you. However, if your heart rate isn't responding like it should (e.g stays elevated and you aren't recovering), do consult with an appropriate physician. You are starting to get to an age where things happen even if you've done the best to take care of yourself.

I'm 26 now, but did most my racing with the heart rate monitor at age 23-24. I also got between 120 and 200 depending on conditions (the more pumping, the higher the heart rate).

At age 47 your heartrate should be lower though, an easy formula for theoretical maximum heartrate is 220-age, which means your max should be around 170. A heart which is frequently pumping with a much higher frequency at your age could just mean you have a very young heart though.

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WhiteofHeart said..
I'm 26 now, but did most my racing with the heart rate monitor at age 23-24. I also got between 120 and 200 depending on conditions (the more pumping, the higher the heart rate).

back at your age i was doing heaps of riding and got very similar results. I'd hate to see what i get now.

from memory, its about how quick you recover after an effort. If your heart rate stays high when you drop the effort, then more cardio work required.

I am always surprised when I hear how high others heat rate is, mine goes to about 120 max, and drops quickly when not exerting myself. Now I do have low blood pressure, 105/65, maybe that is why? I am on a freeride foil AFS W95 with F and S series wings, it only takes me 2-3 pumps of the sail to get up, though I used to run larger sails and just pump the foil, that did not affect my heart rate as much.

I am 57 and sometimes my heart rate looks more like a heart beat trace. Here is my heart rate (grey) with my speed over laid. You can see my heart rate drops at every gybe.

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Sailrepair said..
I am 57 and sometimes my heart rate looks more like a heart beat trace. Here is my heart rate (grey) with my speed over laid. You can see my heart rate drops at every gybe.

Was this in competition or just free sailing?

Just freesailing, powered up with a 8.0 Patrik Foil+ and a Patrik Foil-comp 91

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Sailrepair said..
I am 57 and sometimes my heart rate looks more like a heart beat trace. Here is my heart rate (grey) with my speed over laid. You can see my heart rate drops at every gybe.

Heart rate is quite variable, but what you are looking at is probably an artifact, associated with the movement you do when jibing, or simply the bouncing over the water (ops, sorry, the beautiful flying over the water, you are on foil). My heart rate monitor, a garmin, shows all possible swings in heart rate when mountain biking. You need a stick on monitor to have any kind of fine grain precision, and even then there is a lot of noise. We used to struggle a lot to analyze heart rate data because of the large variability.

Anyway, to answer the original question. Last year I slalom raced 2015, 56 years old, my heart rate was peaking around 175-180. Now I am on beta-blockers, and it never seems to go above 155-160, most often well below, but I am not in a racing situation.

My doctor tells me I have natural beta blockers. At age 73 my rest rate is 60, and I have to REALLY work HARD to get it up to 100. We even found this out during an Army flight physical in 1969. (My hearing failed that physical, so I did not have to fly Hueys in Viet Nam--good thing as it turned out.)

Yesterday during a fairly gusty foil session on the Columbia, my hear rate got up to 82. What?

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segler said..
My doctor tells me I have natural beta blockers. At age 73 my rest rate is 60, and I have to REALLY work HARD to get it up to 100. We even found this out during an Army flight physical in 1969. (My hearing failed that physical, so I did not have to fly Hueys in Viet Nam--good thing as it turned out.)

Yesterday during a fairly gusty foil session on the Columbia, my hear rate got up to 82. What?

They should have made you a sniper, beta blockers were a doping agent in shooting sports.