Tom W

In the 'for what it's worth' and 'for fun' departments ...

I got my new Apple Watch on Friday so I decided to try it out during the races on Saturday and Sunday. Previous attempts to monitor heart rate using a chest strap failed due to RF interference from the car.

In the race, while pushing hard, my HR hovered in the 150 & 160's. During a double yellow it dropped back to 120s. I'm not too surprised by the numbers but, as a scientist, it's nice to see data. When I mountain bike up a fire road with a 5-6% grade, pushing moderately, I'm in the 150's. I go anaerobic at about 165 and my max observed HR is 185 (all numbers from when mountain biking). I'm 59 and moderately fit. My resting HR is ~59.

Coochas

I get very similar figures from my Apple Watch and when I wore my fancy Garmin device. Last time out at MMC with my FM I had an average HR of 140! My resting HR is high 50s and when I'm cranking on my bike I get to the mid 150s on a good hill.

I remember watching the telemetry during an Australian V8 Supercar race and most of the drivers were in the 160-180 range. Oh to be young again!

I may try my Garmin bike computer again as I'm curious to see my HR in high G corners compared to straights.

ProCoach

Cool! Looking forward to gathering Apple watch data at Indy this week and weekend! Thanks, Tom.

mikew968

In a practice day last friday while on track I was between 140-160. My max HR is between 180-183. I hit 160-175 regularly when on a road bike. My resting HR has been as low as 52-54 in the last year...pretty dependent on the amount of aerobic exercising I am doing.

smsarchitects

Very interesting stuff. All I know is my heart is pounding every time I get out of my car.

Would be interesting to know other vitals too, BP, calories burned, etc.

The end goal would be to statistically explain to my wife that racing IS exercise.......

Dave in Chicago

I've monitored HR throughout with a very accurate Suunto HRM. Average 130 the entire time. Never seems to come down. I think my Max HR is about 197, resting is in the 40's.

Funny, I met with top pro Rod Fuller for tour of top-fuel dragster at an event he was at. In our discussion we geeked out on HR's, mental prep, and such. He gets his down to resting rate just before launch. Amazing.

Personally, I think the elevated rate is key to keeping the brain well-supplied. Hyped up and hyper alert is fine with me…

Dave in Chicago
'92 968 E-Class

MarcD147

there was a live feed on youtube and they were following 2-4 cars closely and they had telemetry like heartrate and stress levels being live streamed..

going really fast on the Nur some kept their heartrate in the low 100s but when hitting traffic it went to the 150s

some of those guys had liquid nitrogen in their vains....

winders

One reason heart rate is elevated is due to the adrenergic activation caused by the stress of the situation. At least one study has shown that lapping at the same pace in a race versus solo has the heart rate quite a bit higher in the race. That same study did show that the heart rate was elevated well above normal when lapping solo. This indicates that track driving is a demanding activity...even more so when wheel to wheel racing is involved.

But we all new that last part.....

AtlJimK

Here is a test I did @ a DE a few years back when I first started down the slope. I also come from a cycling background and after hearing that J. Button's rate was over 180 for a whole qual session I was a bit skeptical. Granted this is a DE but it gets you in the zone. My AT is 170 so I was in zone 3 most of the session. What I found interesting was the fact that when I clear track and was pushing my HR was higher than in traffic.

https://vimeo.com/12399257

BTW: Please ignore the incredibly late apexing of T1..DE-line you know...

KOAN

I did the same measurements with my Garmin a few years ago, and it is interesting to hear that others had the same changes. Resting 60-65 bpm Race 165 bpm at the start!. Instructing 85 bpm. DE 95 bpm. My max is 160-165 for my age.

tasracer

i had a 160 reading and 230 kcal burned during a 12 lap kart race at pitt race last weekend

chrisc

I was giving a check ride & we had a fairly gentle "off". We were taken to medical as part of protocol since we made contact, although minor with a tire wall. They checked our heart rates and BP. While the heart rates dropped quickly to our personal norms the BP did not. The kept us both for some time while the BP stabilized. I felt fine but they insisted I wait. I had an extensive heart work up after that to make sure there were no BP issues & I was fine. The cardio pointed out that track stuff was not only exertion but also elevated levels of stress affecting BP, which he feels is as important to monitor as HR especially for us older guys.

Coochas

I've added some more data to myself. I was driving my FM at WGI the past two days. On the first day I was simply dehydrated and was averaging HR in the mid 140s with a peak of 171! I have never achieved 170 in a workout. My resting HR was not coming down and I could tell I was hot (mild heat sickness).
I hydrated like crazy but of course had the meat cake at the Seneca with a few beers. Yesterday my peak was about 160 and I was coming back to below 100 after climbing out of the car. My resting is usually mid 50s.

I would love to know how much of this is me working hard (a manual steering car with 2.3G peak) and how much of it is the adrenaline of putting it out there. I do know in my street car that my HR on track is usually only around 110 but I don't push it as hard or encounter the g-forces that I do in my track car.

axm

Harry's Laptimer now pulls in heart beat data from the Apple Watch. I can see the overlay in the laplist, not yet in the videos.

I am guessing he will have it in a future release, so we can create cool videos with the heartbeat overlaid on video .. just like the VLN

Dr911

Might be interesting to tease out a few variables as well by comparing readings on:

1. with or without caffeine on the morning prior to the track event
2. alcohol or no alcohol the night before
3. baseline blood pressure and heart rate of the driver prior to getting into harness w/ the fireproof suit/helmet/hans etc