Discussion: Max HR

You pushed up to 200 bpm during a race that was 5 hours long? Wow! Your intensity always amazes me. I need to push it like that; I usually play it too safe (or just can't handle intensity like that and still be able to hang in there for the duration)

Nah, I just have a small engine that revs high. If you and I ran together I'd always be 10 bpm or more higher than you at the same intensity. It's even worse before I warm up and settle in.

My resting HR is never all that low even when I'm at peak fitness.

It sure played havoc with the old "220 minus your age" maximum formula back in the day.

And it obviously still does!

You look and race like you are 20, so the formula seems correct.

When he was 40, I dragged him to an exercise physiologist because he kept hitting max HR close to 210. Without even looking at 'Bent, the EP correctly guessed that he'd been exercising regularly since his high school days. To paraphrase, his explanation was that HR is normally limited by muscles crapping out before HR gets that high but he sometimes sees people who've been fit since their youth where that doesn't happen, and that allows the HR to creep higher. He suggested that 'Bent stick to HR max of 200.

If I tried to keep to the old zones based on 220-age, I'd basically have to walk.
I use Reserve HR zones which are based on my measured max and resting HR.

Interesting. I remembering actually reaching a max HR of 207 bpm during some max HR drills when I was in my early 30s, but I definitely did not have a fit youth.

I think the old 220 formula might have been about right for me in 1994 - the year I couldn't exercise much. My max hasn't moved much since I started back to my normal program in 1995 and started using a heart monitor.

I didn't really consider taking my rest heart rate into account setting my zones. They are all much lower than 'Bents anyway.