HR…
It’s something that we get a little bit excited about because some of our fancy watches have the functionality to tell you all about your HR. It’s also really interesting to look at when you are doing sessions like your 2x5km and you are seeing your HR absolutely skyrocket.
Beware though, HR can be a bit mercurial and can be influenced by things like hormones, mood, weather, tiredness or fatigue, caffeine, menstruation, dehydration and of course human to human. We are all complex and interesting creatures.
The old 220-your age is a bit outdated and antiquated. Let’s move with the times and avoid that one. There is another formula of 211- 64% of your age, however the bestest and most accurate way to find your real Max HR is to get out there and do some testing. There is also a formula by which Gellish showed good correlation to stress testing results using MHR = 207 – 0.7(age). There’s a few formulae out there but to find true Max HR let’s give this a go.
Max HR testing. Treat this like a race. Ensure that you are fueled and rested, hydrated and feeling strong.
Kerry has covered Max HR before but normally the best way of finding your MAX (think ouchy thoughts) is to go out, WARM UP FIRST, and then do some hill reps hard. Often you will max out around the 3rd or 4th rep.
Another option is to WARM UP and then go out HARD for 10 minutes. When I say hard I mean as HARD AS POSSIBLE. Give it everything, and make that last 30 seconds the final flogging. Cool down afterwards and then check out what your max HR was. Give it a couple of days in between and then give it another go and see if the reading is the same. Use the average result of the few days to find your Max HR. If you have a faster friend who can help you then rope them in and get them to put their bossy pants on that day so that they really push you. 