Maximum aerobic heart rate

Murph_D

Having read this Mark Allen "Working your heart" article just recently, I decided to dig out the HRM. According to Allen's formula, my maximum aerobic heart rate is 128 bpm or so (I'm over 50). This apparently is the zone I need to be during LSRs, to to teach my body to burn fat. But as I suspected, 128bpm does not seem achievable for me - even running very slowly (6:30/km = 10:24/mile ) my heart rate is 147 or so.

Perhaps this is because I've only been running for 18 months or so, but to stick to 128 I'd be doing a brisk walk! What's the story - should I be doing my LSRs even more slowly or do I need to see a cardiac specialist? :eek:

Clearlier

murphd77 wrote: »

Having read this Mark Allen "Working your heart" article just recently, I decided to dig out the HRM. According to Allen's formula, my maximum aerobic heart rate is 128 bpm or so (I'm over 50). This apparently is the zone I need to be during LSRs, to to teach my body to burn fat. But as I suspected, 128bpm does not seem achievable for me - even running very slowly (6:30/km = 10:24/mile ) my heart rate is 147 or so.

Perhaps this is because I've only been running for 18 months or so, but to stick to 128 I'd be doing a brisk walk! What's the story - should I be doing my LSRs even more slowly or do I need to see a cardiac specialist? :eek:

[/QUOTE]

The general thrust of the article is pretty good albeit a bit simplistic however the instructions on how to calculate the appropriate heart rate are just plain wrong. Everybody is different and giving a manual calculation instruction verges on the irresponsible (but is really just stupid) in my opinion.

How to actually calculate the appropriate number? That's not one I'm confident of to be honest. I know my own body from having observed data over a few years and have a reasonable idea of where my numbers are.

• You could follow the same plan and learn through trial and error.
• I believe that there are services out there which will measure your threshold level and your VO2 max which would give you some hints or
• you could follow one of the protocols online to determine your max heart rate and work off percentages from that.

Murph_D

Clearlier wrote: »

[*]you could follow one of the protocols online to determine your max heart rate and work off percentages from that.

What percentage are we talking about?

Clearlier

murphd77 wrote: »

What percentage are we talking about?

I'm not that confident in my knowledge here so if anyone knows more please don't hesitate..

My understanding is that there isn't a 'magic' % at which you teach the body to burn fat. As you run harder the % of fat used for energy is reduced as the body uses various carb sources and vice versa.

There's a strong argument for doing some long runs without eating beforehand. The idea being to run out of glycogen. It's tough the first couple of times but your body does adapt (or so I'm told).

I'd be interested if others with more knowledge than me could chip in. I'm sure there's more to it that I explain above.

rom

read http://www.angio.net/personal/run/hadd.pdf

Clearlier

rom wrote: »

read http://www.angio.net/personal/run/hadd.pdf

While I think that this is a good document that is well worth reading and I have recommended that others read it in the past there's no doubt in my mind that Hadd makes a lot of errors in what was just a message board thread (therefore understandable) and while his calculations about heart rate are better than the OP's original link he does mix up %'s and hard numbers so I would be wary of following his numbers precisely.

Ceepo

murphd77 wrote: »

Having read this Mark Allen "Working your heart" article just recently, I decided to dig out the HRM. According to Allen's formula, my maximum aerobic heart rate is 128 bpm or so (I'm over 50). This apparently is the zone I need to be during LSRs, to to teach my body to burn fat. But as I suspected, 128bpm does not seem achievable for me - even running very slowly (6:30/km = 10:24/mile ) my heart rate is 147 or so.

Perhaps this is because I've only been running for 18 months or so, but to stick to 128 I'd be doing a brisk walk! What's the story - should I be doing my LSRs even more slowly or do I need to see a cardiac specialist? :eek:

First off, i would say you dont need to see the Cadiac Specialist, which is always good ,

I am no expert on this but i do train of HR most of the time and have done for years, so with that in mind i'll give you my 2 cent worth,

1, do you know your max hr ?
2, when Mark Allen speaks of max aerobic pace, of course this will vary for everyone, but i would think he is not far of in his calculation's, i know that might seem strange as his way of calculation is strange,
3, max aerobic pace, for fat burning, is the pace you can run at before you start to burn gylcogan, ok i agree it is hard to determine what that is without some kind of scientific test. but would be around 60% of max or under.
So if your max is 180, and your resting HR is 50, this is a nett of 130,
60% of 130 = 78, add back on rest hr gives you 128 bpm.
Bearing in mind i am only guessing you max and your resting hr, but done this as an example
4, You may be right in saying the pace you are running at, is slow for that hr, but you have to separate the two as running at that hr will give you a different pace everyday you go out. One is HR the other is pace,
5, running at hr can sometime seem hard as if you stick to it to the letter you will find that if fact you are running very slow at first, but in time your pace will pick up at the same hr,
just to add when you are running at your zone pace, aim to avg that over the course of the run as opposed to keeping in at that for every step of the run.
Imo most people train to hard, no maybe that's wrong , train to hard all the time, easy run's shoulds be done easy, imo someone running 5 min mile pace in racing should be doing there easy runs at 90 sec min slower in training and a sliding scale after that for the rest of us mortal beings.

I think the best thing to do is go out and find your currant Max HR, work out the % for your zones


Hope you get something from this

Murph_D

Ceepo wrote: »

I think the best thing to do is go out and find your currant Max HR, work out the % for your zones

Thanks Ceepo (and others).

Well my max appears to be 181 (measured during an all-out kilometer after a good warm up). My resting HR seems to be 70 ( I get quite a lot of variation in measuring resting HR but that's what I'm working off for now).

That would put me at about 136 (60%), 147 (70%), 158 (80%), 169 (90%).

Not everyone seems to agree on the width of the the zones but going off 60-70% for aerobic, 147 seems to be right. So Friday's run (149 average HR) was just out of the range. Today I did a longer slow run, pace 6:25/k, average HR 155.

So I guess I will try to run the LSR's at 147 or below and see if the pace increases over time.

But anyway, enough about me... Thanks!

Ceepo

murphd77 wrote: »

Thanks Ceepo (and others).

Well my max appears to be 181 (measured during an all-out kilometer after a good warm up). My resting HR seems to be 70 ( I get quite a lot of variation in measuring resting HR but that's what I'm working off for now.

That would put me at about 136 (60%), 147 (70%), 158 (80%), 169 (90%).

Not everyone seems to agree on the width of the the zones but going off 60-70% for aerobic, 147 seems to be right. So Friday's run (149 average HR) was just out of the range. Today I did a longer slow run, pace 6:25/k, average HR 155.

So I guess I will try to run the LSR's at 147 or below and see if the pace increases over time.

But anyway, enough about me... Thanks!

No problem

just to confuse you more, ha ha

http://www.calculatenow.biz/sport/heart.php?rhr=70&mhr=181&submit=Calculate+Zones#zones

TFBubendorfer

murphd77 wrote: »

Well my max appears to be 181 (measured during an all-out kilometer after a good warm up). My resting HR seems to be 70 ( I get quite a lot of variation in measuring resting HR but that's what I'm working off for now).

Assume your max HR is at least 185 from that - I would be surprised if you managed to go up to your true max in only 1 km. As an aside, I never got even close to my max HR in training; no matter what I do, I cannot push myself as hard as in a race. My highest HR reading came at the end of a 5K race that had an uphill sprint finish.

A resting HR of 70 seems awfully high. Are you sure about that?
Make sure you measure it first thing in the morning, before you had the chance to do anything else. If you are sitting down at some stage later in the day, your HR will always be higher than your real resting HR.