I would say don't worry about it. Some people have a higher MHR than others. I believe that it is Spencer Smith who also has a relatively low one. He has done OK with it, hasn't he?

certainly at the low end, but by itself not much to worry about. Standard deviation of HR max is +/- 15, which means that 2/3 of the population are withing 220 - age +/- 15, with the rest being outside of that. You're certainly close to that.

Of course, make sure you did hit your 'true' max. How'd ya do it?

Josef

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Josef
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there is a new formula for max heart rate from runner's world "205 minus half your age", but in your case it comes out to be the exact same as the old formula.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

Ahhhh a new formula...that's just as wrong as the original formula but for a different set of people.

~Matt

can you explain? i know that the formulas are only estimates and you would have to do testing to actually get your max but you said that both formula produce the wrong answers, so besides testing what should we be using?

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

I ran up a long hill as fast as I could until I had to stop and walk. Basically it was up and down non stop for about 4.5 miles and I pushed as hard as I could.

first of all, 4500' is not mountains and at that altitude it will not impact anything. As for the low max heart rate, is not that important. Its all about VO2 max and LT. My MHR is 145. Its funny to see when I'm at the club pounding away at a 7:00 minute mile on the treadmill and my heart rate is 130-133. People think I must be really fast but a 7:00 minute mile is a really good effort.

It's mountains when you live at 500 ft. The reason I posted the altitude was so no one would think I was running in Denver or somewhere high enough that the o2 would actually be a factor. Don't know why it bothers me but for some reason I feel like a wimp with my low max hr

I bet in a competitive situation you could top that...

Yeah, so? Sounds to me like you might have simply happned on your lactate threshold heart rate and not max heart rate. As others have said, stop worrying about max heart rate and instead try to determine your LTHR on the bike (it will be different for swim and run) and then with that number in hand, you can analize just how much overhead you have between the floor and the ceiling. Think of it this way, a max HR of 200 is useless if average training tempo requires someone to work at 180 bpm whereas a LTHR of 172 would be pretty good if you typically maintain 100-120 bpm at training tempo - gives you another 50-60 bpm to work with when things start to get hard!

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ok so have you got a link for a test to find LT for the bike and run. If it helps sadly(I suck at hills on the bike and run) it took 45 minutes and I had an avg hr of 152.

i'd say don't worry much about it. i kinda freaked when i found my hr was a bit higher than normal...205. but there's really nothing you can do about it. it's genetic.

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70.3 is the cousin to OD........ Ironman has no relatives! -Simon Lessing

Both poduce wrong answers for a different people. IOW one formula might work for one group and the other formula may work for another. Neither will work for everyone.


"so besides testing what should we be using? "

IMO nothing. The ONLY accurate method is testing. Sure 220-Age or 205- (1/2 age) may be accurate enough (I was going to put work here but it really doesn't work for anyone just is less off for some than others) for 75% of the population, but what happens if you're in the 25%. You won't know until you test.

I happen to be in the 25%, 36 yrs old and have seen HR as high as 201-203 as recent as last year. One formula would put me at 187 the other at 184. Doing a track workout the other day I hit 192 at something less than 100% effort. It was HOT though.

~Matt

Heart rate does not matter. The power you produce aty any given heart rate is what matters.

I have a low heart rate too. The older I get, the more it drops. I am pretty sure that my current max is 173-174 (I am 41). I am going pretty darn hard in the 150's and about as hard as I can go in the mid 160's. It might take the top of a hard climb on a hot day to find that 173-174.

So what's the best way for test? Doing stress tests? My hr on the run is ~200 and on the bike it's 190. So what methods do you use to estimate zones? Percentages of of max hr? I calculated my lthr to be ~ 164bpm but I don't put much credance towards to that. I w/flower my avg hr was 166bpm with no problems.