dammit should have done 1 when i was unfit. so anyone got any good ones? ones that dont require too much pain and suffering over a prolonged period of time?
dammit should have done 1 when i was unfit. so anyone got any good ones? ones that dont require too much pain and suffering over a prolonged period of time?
Why do or care about a max heartrate test? I thought it was irrelevant, and the more important rate was your lactate threshold… i.e. when you go anaerobic.
how do you determine that? feeling? going hard?
i remember how hard threshold pace was in swimming (lactate threshold)…
i think max hr is very important. i use it to figure out my aerobic zone. the easiest way is to enter a 5k and run like hell. pain and suffering is mandatory if you want to find out your max. just do it - it will take 20 minutes or less.
The easiest test is take the average for the last 20 minutes of a 30 min TT effort. Call it your LT,AT or whatever you want and use that heartrate number for training. Yes, it’s not exactly correct but it’s easy and simple and close enough. The key is to not go out too hard and blow up before the end. It will likely be 60-90% or your max heart rate.
a friggin hard 400-800m run would find yr max hr wouldnt it?
how do you determine that? feeling? going hard?
i remember how hard threshold pace was in swimming (lactate threshold)…
Get a VO2 Max test… my training buddy is the exact same age, and our lactate thresholds are within 3 beats of each other, but my max is 15 beats higher (mine’s unusually high, as is my daughter’s and as was my grandfathers) … it’s the LT number, not the Max that’s important for training purposes.
c’mon you could at least do 1600 couldn’t ya?
well a 1600 is prob not gonna be at max heart rate cos ill be pacing myself, whereas i’ll most definitely reach it in a 4-800.
vo2max testing…i might actually think about getting that tested. wel if i had the money hah.
Knowing your max is not all that usefull. But if you want to know just go to the track and run around and keep increasing your pace every 200 until your heart rate doesn’t go any higher. a couple of 800’s should do it. Basing your heart rate training on your LT would be more accurate than basing it on your max heartrate. Your LT will go up relative to your max as you get fitter.
do a 1600 and I doubt you’ll max out, you will probably get fatigued before you get a chance to max out. Try a bunch of 400s after a good warm up.
warm up like 20 min and then get on the track and do 5x400. first 3 at a regular 400 interval pace with around 1-2 min rest. #4, go for it, #5 see what you have left. add around 5bpm and you’ll have a good estimate.
Remember that your running max will probably by higher than your biking max will be.
This is a test I used about 10 years ago in college on an indoor 200m track. After a decent warm up: using a heart rate monitor start running very slowly, at the end of each lap take a split (with heart rate). Run each lap 2 seconds faster until you cannot go faster (or fall over ;-).
I recorded a 212 using this method, resting HR at the time was about 40 bpm. If you run it evenly you can graph the heart rates recorded for each lap and find inflections in the line on the graph that will estimate AT, etc. (at least that’s what they told me at the time)
I would be interested to do it again now to see how much change there is, being ten years older and with a few years away from the sport. Although I guess I would have to break down and get a HRM, I’ve even been too lazy to get a watch - have to check the car clock before and after I run to get the time 
Might be time though since I signed up for IM AZ
There is a fair amount of room for error by using max hr to determine your zones depending on how you are determing them. A physio who can measure your lactate levels would be a much better way to go. Anaroebic threshold ranges from about 82% of max hr to 92% of max hr. If you are going to use Max HR and do not want to pay for the physio test, then I would try the Karvonean (sp?) method. It is a better method than say 60% of max HR, but probably still flawed.
Anybody know where I might go in Dallas to have real clinical testing done to find these values?
The treadmill is great for this. From what I understand a hard 400, 800, or even 1600 doesn’t work as well because your heart rate continues to trickle up as you get more tired over the course of a longer workout. When I had the test conducted I did a 15 minute warm up then raised the speed of the treadmill 2 notches every 2 minutes until I was barely holding on. I reached my max hr (Lactate level 7) around 40 minutes total running.
I don’t know how useful knowing your max hr is or not, but I can’t believe someone hasn’t suggested using a hill to find it.
Find a long, steep hill and run up it as fast as you can. Repeat as necessary.
You are right but to your comment of " Get a VO2 Max test "
You got the $650 it costs here to do that?
this link might be helpful. And you could pay your assistant $650 smackers 
http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/coni.htm
You are right but to your comment of " Get a VO2 Max test "
You got the $650 it costs here to do that?
That’s crazy… here they range from $55 to $75. Find a local college, and their kenisiology (sp?) department should have the equipment to do it… and probably for cheap.
I’ve done the hard mile repeats like you say. Why is it my maximum heart rate always is a little higher than I thought? Why is this?
Some here say, it is fixed with your age, weight, and so on; and that is that. Others here say, it’s not fixed, its dependent on what kind of shape you are in. It moves.
I disagree with both groups.
What’s frightening to the heart tends to be relative to that person at that time. I refute established physiological and cardiological facts that the maximum heart rate is fixed.
I contend that it is as much environmental, psychological, as it is physiological.
If you ran a 5k hard as hell, I think you would merely just THINK that was your maximum heart rate, because some book said, go run this, and that hard, for this long, and so on. Its probably still not running as hard as you can. The desire to penetrate further or longer into a self imposed “hell zone” exercise like this, to get this number, would only be a function of how much you want to suffer to get this number. Therefore, to me, it is never fixed, but dependent upon how self-mutilating you are.
Were you to say, fall from a tall cliff, or be locked into a life and death fight with a cougar or bear, for your life, for fifteen minutes, praying to god, waiting on a park ranger, I bet it would be much higher than that 5k you ran. But who takes their Polar watch with them during such episodes? If you were kidnapped by hoodlums and forced to run a 5:05 pace for six miles, if your life depended on it, and you believed that, I bet you might could do it, if you did not have a heart attack during it. Your maximum heart rate would be higher than that 5k, you ran.