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Heart rate

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J2R
J2R
30 Mar
12:31pm, 30 Mar 2025
5,951 posts
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J2R
I'd be inclined to agree with Dvorak here!

If you want to get a good idea of what your HRmax is, within a couple of beats (which is really all the accuracy you need), here's what I'd do. Find somewhere with a hill. Do a warmup as if for a 5K race, then run a couple of miles, away from the bottom of this hill and back, at maybe 85-90% of your 5K race pace, meaning you're putting very decent effort in but not overtiring yourself. When you're a few hundred metres from the bottom of the hill, accelerate and hit the hill hard and keep pushing until you feel you've reached max effort, at which point make a note of your heart rate. You'll find that your HR shoots up as you go up the hill, and you will see a figure closer to your true max than you will see in any race, because you've hit the hill fully primed without actually being tired. Add a couple of beats to that and you can probably count that as your HRmax, near as dammit.
Chrisull
Chrisull
30 Mar
12:59pm, 30 Mar 2025
22,757 posts
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Chrisull
I reckon the modern Garmin calculations save all that faff. (and the bleep test was still the most accurate measurement for me, the hill running ones I could never get might heart rate as high as I did on the bleep test - something to do with it being more motivating trying to get back by the bleep than throwing yourself at a Cornish hill)
SPR
SPR
30 Mar
1:35pm, 30 Mar 2025
47,385 posts
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SPR
I'd want to know exactly what Garmin is doing before I trust it for something like that. I'm not 100% saying it doesn't work but I turned it off when I got it in 2022 and at that point it had downgraded my max to lower than what I had seen the year before.

I agree with J2R's method, I just wouldn't ever be motivated to do it. Unless I was doing a race where I wanted to not run at 100%

I don't think it really makes a difference in terms of training with that difference though.

My current max is set at 6 beats higher than I've seen racing recently and 3 beats higher than what I got in 2021 and 2020. Funnily enough the 194 I've seen this year is the highest I've seen since the 2021 197 so if I was downgrading based on races, I'd have gone lower (191 is the highest I've had before the 194 this year. I only started wearing HRM in races again when I got the Polar Verity Sense/ OH1 in 2020 but 15-17 years ago before I stopped wearing them, I did see 210s a few times when I was just getting into running.
HappyG(rrr)
HappyG(rrr)
30 Mar
2:22pm, 30 Mar 2025
52,293 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I assumed the over 200s I've seem a couple times were device errors!:-) G
SPR
SPR
30 Mar
2:28pm, 30 Mar 2025
47,386 posts
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SPR
I'm pretty sure mine weren't, I checked the traces.

The 232? Now that I didn't even bother checking 🤣
J2R
J2R
30 Mar
5:56pm, 30 Mar 2025
5,955 posts
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J2R
SPR wrote:I agree with J2R's method, I just wouldn't ever be motivated to do it. Unless I was doing a race where I wanted to not run at 100% I don't think it really makes a difference in terms of training with that difference though.


One thing I should have said is that this is a relatively suffering-free way of doing this. You don't have a steady ramping up of misery until you can't stand it any more, instead you prime yourself thoroughly then maybe 30-40 seconds later you have your answer.

I would agree it's not vital for training to be that precise, though, as long as you have a good idea within a few beats what your HRmax is.

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About This Thread

Maintained by Elderberry
Everything you need to know about training with a heart rate monitor. Remember the motto "I can maintain a fast pace over the race distance because I am an Endurance God". Mind the trap door....

Gobi lurks here, but for his advice you must first speak his name. Ask and you shall receive.

A quote:

"The area between the top of the aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold is somewhat of a no mans land of fitness. It is a mix of aerobic and anaerobic states. For the amount of effort the athlete puts forth, not a whole lot of fitness is produced. It does not train the aerobic or anaerobic energy system to a high degree. This area does have its place in training; it is just not in base season. Unfortunately this area is where I find a lot of athletes spending the majority of their seasons, which retards aerobic development. The athletes heart rate shoots up to this zone with little power or speed being produced when it gets there." Matt Russ, US International Coach
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