I am 39, 6’2 and 180 lbs. I have a competition rowing background (but 20 years ago !) and believe I am quite fit. My concern is related to my heart rate in racing.

In my last 2 races (15kms flat water) after the departure I quickly reached 195+ bpm and couldn’t lower it for most of the race if I wanted to keep the pace ! At the end I did good, in my standards, top 10 in 100+ racers field. I end up in both races hitting the wall the 1h10 and struggling in the last 30mn (unable to make the difference in the final sprint,etc…)

Reducing effort, aka reducing speed…yes but…it appears my heart rate doesn’t slow down gradually until I come back to my training mode (and can be160bpm) but at considerable cost of speed.. This gap between 160 and 190 but I cannot manage to stay in. From there I am lost in explanations and solutions. I have considered:

– Increasing my paddle size form 94 to 100 to slow stroke rate ? (against every recommendation in the business !!)

– Focus on specific exercises to lower max HR ?

– Nutrition not to bonk ?

This is a good question and a question we hear all the time.

Before I can get to your answer, I want to focus on part of your question first. You say that you have a competition rowing background but that was 20 years ago yet you believe you are quite fit. I am sure there is more of the story that you are not telling me but my question to you is how are you determining that you are fit?

The reason I ask is that we see loads of people who are fit but their fitness does not translate to paddling. For example, you always see guys at the  races that are totally ripped but after a few minutes they are off the back. Gym fitness does not always translate to aerobic fitness. As another example, we see athletes from other endurance sports come to paddling and find that their fitness does not translate. I would not be surprised if a world class cyclist came in dead last in a paddle race. Aerobic fitness from other sports does not always translate to paddling – particularly at high intensity efforts.

What I am saying so far is that you might need to recalibrate your expectations and don’t beat yourself up. If you have not been paddling and focusing on paddle racing, your fitness might not translate. Becoming a good paddle racer takes time.

Now – assuming that you are focused on your paddle training and that is not the issue, lets get to your real question which is “why is your heart rate so dang high?”

As you can expect, without knowing more about your training, your background, seeing you in the race, knowing more about the pace of the race, etc. etc. etc. and assuming you do not have a cardiac arrhythmia (I am not joking, please get checked by your doctor an elevated heart rate that is unrelated to effort could be a first sign of cardiac disease), it is tough to say. That said, this is a common question and here are my common answers.

1. Training and racing are different: I know of loads of athletes who do not go hard enough when they are training but get swept up in the thrill of competition at an effort they cannot simulate when training alone. If this is you and you are currently training alone,  you might try training with other paddlers to help simulate what you do on race day as it is possible that you are just going out too hard at the beginning of the race. Given your competitive rowing background this is likely not the case.

2.  Train your race efforts: specific workouts such as the following

• short 10min warm up
• then 6-10x 1 min all out sprints with 1-2min active recovery
• then go into a normal interval or tempo workout

this simulates these race starts and gets your body accustomed to actively recovering during the race.

3. Change your equipment?  I agree with everyone else. I do not think this is an equipment issue. You can try a 100 paddle but I think your risk of injury is grater than the benefit of lowering your heart rate.

4. Go slower to get faster: this is probably where you should put your effort even though it is counterintuitive. Think about it, you say that you are blowing up at 70 minutes and cannot stay with the sprint at the end. Is that because your sprint is too slow? Of course not, you can sprint that fast at the beginning of the race? You cannot, however, put out that effort at the end of the race because you are tired. Well, that tells me that your aerobic engine needs some work. You need to be able to get to the sprint in good shape before you can even think about the sprint. Here is some more information about this topic.

5. Nutrition? In as much as your race day nutrition before the race (be sure you eat before the race) and you are not glycogen depleted or dehydrated going into the race, my bet is that nutrition is not the answer to this one. You should not bonk because of a nutrition issue at 70 minutes. If you are bonking at 70 minutes and your nutrition is solid before the race, you are likely bonking because of a lack of fitness at that intensity.

I guess what I am saying is that there is no specific workout you can do to lower your heart rate. A high heart rate is generally related to fitness (or a pathologic arrhythmia). Getting more race experience, working on your fitness (primarily your aerobic foundation) and NOT going out so hard at the beginning that you max out is really all I have to offer you. There is no magic secret to brining your heart rate down other than work, work, more work, and racing smart.