heart rate

digme

I do 3 x 3km runs every week at what i feel is a fairly high enough pace.
Is it possible to be running for months and not have great cardio?I'm asking as I used the heart rate monitor I got in lidl and it shows my max hr is 90% when I'm only going 9 kmph, I keep having to lower it down as I run and I ended up down at 8kmph and my heart was still 90% and climbing.

mloc123

3 x 3km a week will not build a cardio base. You need to do lots of long easy runs to build a base.

Pherekydes

How are you calculating your 90%?

digme

I got 180 minus my age.That's right isn't it?

I was bored off my head running at 8kmph though,would it take long before i can run at says 12kmph without going above 79%?

littlebug

it's 220 minus age. You can probably go a bit faster

it can vary widely from person to person though (e.g I'm 40 with a max of 204. ) so you shouldn't take 220 -age as a definite.

digme

Sorry little bug, I meant 180 minus age to be equal too 79% of max heart rate.That's right isn't it? I did the 220 minus age to set the watch at the start.

littlebug

You're confusing me now! (not hard to do)

Using the 200- age formula if for example you are 20 then your max would be 200.... then 79% of 200 = 158.

As I said though it's all speculation unless you know your true max hr... you could just have a naturally high max hr like I do.

digme

I seen it on some site yesterday it's all new to me.
Would there be any way I could figure out if it's wrong or not, as I want to follow a training plan I seen in a book that I bought recently.

littlebug

I was the same when I started looking at hr... easy runs seemd to be at a ridiculously high rate. one method to find out is by doing a warm up run, then run fr 3 minutes flat out, 2 mins recovery then another 3 flat out and the highest hr recorded is your max. (note this didn't work for me).
Some people do hill repeats, up fast and recovery back down, fast up again and record the max that way. I found mine out on the finish line of a race (at the point of near collapse ).

digme

I'll have to try both of those,otherwise i'll just get myself up in a heap lol.
You must have a heart of steel littlebug i only noticed u said yours is 204 at age 40 christ boy

Pherekydes

Here's how to calculate any HR percentage:

These figures are my own; you'll have to find your own Max HR (MHR) and Resting HR (RHR):

MHR minus RHR = working range
working range multiplied by percentage plus RHR = that HR percentage.

Example:

195 - 50 = 145

145 * 0.9 = 131

131 + 50 = 181 (This is MY 90% figure)

If you are using 220-your age, then your calculation might be:

220-40 = 180 (Max HR)

180 - 60 (say, for your RHR) = 120

120 * 0.9 = 108

108 + 60 = 168 (your 90% figure)

If you are starting out you can run at 60-70% and still build an aerobic base. 60-70% can feel ludicrously easy, but a lot of elite runners would do as much as 70-80% of their training at this level. There's an old saying that applies to a lot of beginning runners: your slow runs are too fast, and your fast runs are too slow. Beginners often make the mistake of running all their runs at the same pace. Mix it up.

Here's an article on heart rate zones

digme

Cheers for that info.


I just tested my heart rate on a threadmill today.

I did the threadmill stress test on this page here.

Increase the incline 2 degrees every 3 minutes and the speed by 1 mph
This goes on till you get to 12 degrees and 5mph.

My heart rate stayed at 196 when I was up at 12% and 5mph but it says increase the incline more if you can or if not increase speed.I never increased the speed but i could have gone for longer at a higher speed.
My question is do i just keep going till my heart rate stops increasing even if im panting hard?

Pherekydes

Bit of an odd question, but if it was the last lap of a 5k race and you checked your monitor and it said 196, but you felt you could squeeze out a little bit more, would you? The simple answer is to keep increasing your pace and your HR until you physically can not any more.

digme

Good point.I was put off by a sentence on the site where the author said that if your breathing really heavily your anaerobic or soemthing.I'll try the test again tomorrow so and see.