Sunday Long Run: Max HR - The Missing Piece
Sunday Long Run: Max HR - The Missing Piece
First off I want to apologize for my weeklong absence, I was out with the flu then suffered a pretty good head injury via falling during a trail run. The last 7 days was basically limited to shit posting on X.
Back to regularly scheduled programming…
Finding your max HR can actually be hard for most people. It requires another “gear”—one you aren’t used to pulling out of your bag.
This is why when someone does not know their Max HR, I usually give them the 220-age test, then either add plus 5 or 10 based on how active/athletic they are/were in their past life.
As past athletes tend to have higher heart rates, especially those that started young.
Note: Max heart rate cannot be changed, and is mainly driven by genetics. There is more of a correlation to natural athletes competing early in life as a product of their environment and having a naturally higher heart rate already versus having a high heart rate *due* to this activity.
Example:
30 year old male, played soccer from high school to college, consistently outputs 5 hours a week of cardio + strength.
Without knowing this person’s exact max HR, I would estimate with 220-30 = 190.
190 is the “population average” for a 30 year old, but we’re dealing with a past (somewhat high level) athlete + currently somewhat active.
As a rule of thumb, I count every year they were an athlete (high school to college in this case), then add it to their 220-age calculation. For this case, we end up with an estimated HR of 198.
While this is *not* ideal, and crude even, it allows us to at least factor in history of the athlete to help determine heart rate zones for training.
The true way to find your max HR is through an actual test. The good news is that this test can be done by yourself—no need for a lab or special monitor (not counting a chest strap if you want).
The bad news, expect some pain. It’s best to “schedule” this test on a day you already have a high intensity workout planned, or just make one around it. You can consciously track and try to find your max HR, or just have a hard session and review the data later.
The two best ways: (Both involve incline)
Incline treadmill sprints
Outdoor hill sprints
Why I love the incline treadmill sprints:
The treadmill invites you to push intensity past what you are comfortable actually outputting. This is needed for finding your max HR, as most people have issues getting into zone 5. Using the treadmill simplifies this, it does the hard part for you—keeping pace.
Whereas if you’re outside, you’re fighting gravity more and the knowledge that you can just *stop* running at any point. Sprinting on a treadmill is very much “burning the boats”. It’s much harder to slow down and stop mid sprint! This makes it perfect for our test.
When working at high intensities, a chest strap heart rate monitor is best because there is naturally a lot of fluctuation up/down between sets. This is what separates the chest from wrist watch—very easy for the watch to get “confused” during these fluctuations and lag behind.
Anyways, I suggest 100m hill intervals, .06-.12 miles on the treadmill, for finding your max HR. Get a long warmup in so your body “understands” what is going on and there is less variability between reps. Run 10x. By the end you should have a good idea of what your max HR is.
Continue making a workout at lower threshold levels or cooldown with some long Zone 2.
So why does it matter?
Far too much I see people driving off of resting heart rate as a metric for fitness. While for much of the population this is great, I’ve seen plenty of instances where runners with RHRs above 50 actually have the same output ability and fitness as runners in the 40s.
The only difference was their max heart rate.
Runner 1:
Max hr: 205
RHR: 55
Runner 2:
Max hr: 195
RHR: 45
BOTH have the same PR in the 10K.
What this also means is that their heart rate reserve is the same also. (HRR = Max HR - RHR).
From there we can take their heart rate reserve and extrapolate running zones, this is called Heart Rate Reserve %.
Runner 1’s Zone 2 (blood lactate threshold) would be:
HRR 70% zone2 = ((205 - 55) * .7) + 55
= 160 BPM (or lower)
I would consider this person to be a “higher heart rate runner”, where someone looking from the outside in would be perplexed at this blood lactate threshold number.
Runner 2’s Zone 2 (blood lactate threshold) would be:
HRR 70% zone2 = ((195 - 45) * .7) + 45
= 150 BPM (or lower)
This is more of a “normal” middle aged person’s blood lactate threshold.
Finding your max HR and using heart rate reserve is only one piece of the puzzle in understanding how to run smarter, but it helps put your ability into perspective. Sometimes your “low” HR zones are much higher than others!
Articles Inbound:
Measuring what matters.
New surprise plan!
When and why (or not) you may need a coach.
Happy Sunday!
-BTR