I’ve always felt that just taking my age from 220 and then aiming to be in the zone between 70 to 85% of that wasn’t right for me. I don’t run fast or push myself very hard but am always around or over 90% of this value in my runs and feeling fine. The attached calculation based on your heart rate reserve which references your own actual resting heart rate is very reassuring to me as I’m always in that zone when I run. Just sharing in case anyone else finds it useful.
Written by
Maurs12
Graduate
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I’m 53 and today’s run heart rate was 152 which is at the top of my narrow range. So that’s 91% of my max heart rate but it’s 85% of my HRR . My resting heart rate is 63.
As Tim alludes to... 220-age for your maximum is a crude approximation (the same as 180-age is). In reality, and as shown by my own max HR (179 when 220-51 gives 169), your max HR is very likely quite different to your theoretical 167. So basing your zones on that calculator may give you erroneous information.
Going by the numbers you give, 91% of maxHR or 85% of HRR is actually quite a big effort and should leave you feeling quite breathless after 20- 30 minutes. You're basically doing a 'tempo' or 'threshhold' run (according to your numbers and those zones).
BUT.... and this is important - you say you feel fine (great!), which gives rise to a few possibilities:
(1) your max HR probably isn't 167
(2) your measurement of HR (by your watch or other means) isn't as accurate as you think. If you're going by a Garmin or Fitbit or other wrist-based optical heart rate monitor, be wary that they can give give VERY dodgy numbers.
- and therefore a possibility that actually you ARE running at 70-85% of your max HR but don't realise it.
Far better to focus on the fact that you feel 'fine' and that you're not pushing yourself
Yes - you’re right - thanks for this - I think both of your suggestions may apply - I don’t feel I could be comfortable/happy going slower- I do 5K in just under 40 minutes feeling fine - so it ain’t broke!
I think I’ll give the hill sprints a go and see what my max heart rate is - or what Fitbit says it is just out of curiosity. I’ve had the odd peak of just over 167 in runs where I wasn’t flat out so suspect it’s my true max HR is higher than that.
To expand on 1 point above - Fitbits are, sadly, notoriously unreliable with regard to heart rate. I really wouldn't put too much store in them. If you really want to know your max HR,
- jog/run for at least 10 mins as a warmup
- do hill sprint #1 - you need to give it full beans, proper gasping, proper tight chest
- take your HR measurement after hill sprint #2 - measure it the old fashioned way: pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 to give you bpm.
I'm tad younger than you and I run to HR and time (not pace or distance). I use the Maffetone MAF formula of running to a maximum of "180 minus age", (with suitable adjustments).
So while my max HR might be around 179 (220-51 = 169, but I've measured mine doing hill sprints), I stick to an HR or around 125 bpm (which is 70% of 179) for my jogging .
It's a tried and proven way of building aerobic endurance and going so slowly means I can build my weekly mileage.
But it all depends on what your aims are and how much time you can devote to your running.
The formulae are crude and only return averages.........most of us are not average.
An easy conversational pace equates to approximately 75% of your maximum heart rate, which is the perfect zone to build the solid aerobic base required to run faster and further, which is why it is the pace at which elite athletes spend up to 80% of their training time..........no need for complex tech.
Yes, I’m running for 30 to 40 minutes every other day with just my Fitbit for heart rate info and happy as I am for now - I can see that the one size fits all is of limited use but feel that at least including your actual resting heart rate in the calculation seems a bit better than using no personal data other than your age. It is interesting to see how out bodies work snd adapt and I may experiment a bit and check out what John W does when daylight hours are longer.
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