I've only hit my max (known) heart rate a few times in races. Usually I'm still about 8 beats or less lower than my known max by the near end of a race. Is that about normal? I know most people say through the thing away but I'm only using this thing for another few months and letting it collect dust again. Ty!
I wore a heart rate monitor enough in practice to know about what it was without looking, but only wore it once in a race, a 10 mile. My heart rate gradually increased from the start, was 149 at the mile, and reached the maximum of 174 at mile 9.
Despite running hard, constantly picking up the pace and battling a guy the entire last mile who kept trying to pass me, including a hard fought last quarter and full blown sprint to the finish, my heart rate stayed right at 174 and never exceeded it.
My heart rate likewise reached the maximum of 174 a number of times in practice, but never exceeded it.
Most races are really too long to hit true max. A well-paced 5K, yes, anything longer, Probably not.
You probably never hit max HR in a 5k unless it has a significant uphill near the end.
Best way to find max HR is to do a few very fast 800m reps or to do some fast hill reps of at least 90sec
What distance?
Never mind, just run as smart and as best you can.
Only in the mile or in a well paced 800m should you be close to your max heart rate.
Hr question wrote:
I've only hit my max (known) heart rate a few times in races. Usually I'm still about 8 beats or less lower than my known max by the near end of a race. Is that about normal? I know most people say through the thing away but I'm only using this thing for another few months and letting it collect dust again. Ty!
You don't seem to understand the concept. Max HR isn't something you try to hit or need to hit at the end of a race. How close you get to MHR in a race is irrelevant.
MHR is used to determine training zones.
That said, you probably will not hit max HR on races of 1 mile or shorter or races longer than 5K. You *might* hit HR on a 5k with a strong kick over the last 800m. In longer races, your heart is too tired to hit MHR. In shorter races, you don't have enough time to reach MHR.
fisky wrote:
Hr question wrote:I've only hit my max (known) heart rate a few times in races. Usually I'm still about 8 beats or less lower than my known max by the near end of a race. Is that about normal? I know most people say through the thing away but I'm only using this thing for another few months and letting it collect dust again. Ty!
You don't seem to understand the concept. Max HR isn't something you try to hit or need to hit at the end of a race. How close you get to MHR in a race is irrelevant.
MHR is used to determine training zones.
That said, you probably will not hit max HR on races of 1 mile or shorter or races longer than 5K. You *might* hit HR on a 5k with a strong kick over the last 800m. In longer races, your heart is too tired to hit MHR. In shorter races, you don't have enough time to reach MHR.
Got it! Thx
fisky wrote:
you probably will not hit max HR on races of 1 mile or shorter or races longer than 5K
Utter stupidity.
Spouting off nonsense from total lack of intelligence.
I'd say this poster actually has a point.I believe Max HR is about hitting Vo2max and staying there for several minutes as the HR creeps up from 99% to approach 100%. That usually takes a certain time and a big aerobic contribution.Now, you probably could hit it at the end of a mile (esp. if running just over 4-min and even paced). Likewise, if you are running slower than 14-15min for 5km that might be too long.Really an even paced 3km would probably do the trick (as well as estimating a good velocity/pace at 100% Vo2max). The effort of course in a 800m or 10km is still 100% and hard, but because of the nature of the energy systems (lactate build-up etc. in shorter races) and more conservative pacing in longer races, I'd imagine it's a bit harder to pull out a 100% HR rate. For sure you should approach at least 97-98% with a strong finishing kick, but again I think it's more a matter of being right at Vo2max for 3-4 minutes to creep up towards a 100% max HR. The 3km is perfect for that.
This is total nonsense wrote:
fisky wrote:you probably will not hit max HR on races of 1 mile or shorter or races longer than 5K
Utter stupidity.
Spouting off nonsense from total lack of intelligence.
I actually think that no one on this thread has any idea whatsoever what they are talking about.
Good mid distance runners have strong enough acid tolerance/pain tolerance to hit max HR in their target events. Long distance runners may need a little longer time. And untrained individuals are better off doing intervals.
Standard max HR tests for untrained individuals involve a good warm-up, some kind of tempo run (1-2 times ~5 minutes), a few minutes active rest and finally a hard 2 min max HR test. Testing max HR by running for 10+ minutes doesn't make sense for anyone.
+1
I especially liked the "MHR is used for calculating training paces."
All this time, I'd been led to believe it was for pumping oxygenated blood to muscles.
You should hit your max heart rate at one mile regardless of the distance of the race.
S. Canaday wrote:
I'd say this poster actually has a point.
I believe Max HR is about hitting Vo2max and staying there for several minutes as the HR creeps up from 99% to approach 100%. That usually takes a certain time and a big aerobic contribution.
Now, you probably could hit it at the end of a mile (esp. if running just over 4-min and even paced). Likewise, if you are running slower than 14-15min for 5km that might be too long.
Really an even paced 3km would probably do the trick (as well as estimating a good velocity/pace at 100% Vo2max).
The effort of course in a 800m or 10km is still 100% and hard, but because of the nature of the energy systems (lactate build-up etc. in shorter races) and more conservative pacing in longer races, I'd imagine it's a bit harder to pull out a 100% HR rate. For sure you should approach at least 97-98% with a strong finishing kick, but again I think it's more a matter of being right at Vo2max for 3-4 minutes to creep up towards a 100% max HR. The 3km is perfect for that.
This is total nonsense wrote:Utter stupidity.
Spouting off nonsense from total lack of intelligence.
Canaday's statement that Vo2max pace is probably best suited to reaching Max HR makes sense from an energy systems standpoint. It can also make sense from the central governor standpoint if you look at it in terms of your brain's allowance of energy production, as the various part of the body (leg muscles, cardiac muscles) fatigue. VO2max pace would be the balance where the brain allows the maximum HR because the fatigue of the different parts of the body is balanced to a perfect end point.
Positive splits....... wrote:
You should hit your max heart rate at one mile regardless of the distance of the race.
I'm not sure maximum effort is equal to maximum heart rate, but I don't know much about the heart rate training scene/science.
Just seems unlikely to me that one could or should hold their maximum heart rate for 5+ minutes.
I have a feeling that a lot of "untrained individuals" probably also stop this "max test" before 100% is even close to being reached with that kind of protocol. Obviously a lot of this comes down to pain tolerance and experience of what your body can handle.I recently did a Vo2max test that lasted 9-min. For the last 1-2min my heart pretty much stopped creeping up...and even in the last 3-4min it was only going up by a few beats per minute. However, I think I wussed out mentally before it actually hit 100% (and was too overcome with lactate). It was really freakin' hard and I registered a heartrate quite a bit higher than at the end of any "hill repeat workout (3-4min reps)" or even something like 8 x 1km with the last one being "all out" with a finishing kick. I'm sure you can get a quick HR spike and get most people at least in the high 97-98%'s of HR with that method though...so really it's close enough. For training purposes it really doesn't matter that much as long as you are close. Just like absolute Vo2max doesn't really matter that much when we can look at Running Economy and actual race performances. I believe for well trained individuals and those with a higher "practiced" pain tolerance it's going to take a longer, steady climb to approach 100%. My theory is that the vast majority of runners (especially those that don't race mile-5km in college) aren't going to know their 100%. People like to guess on that based on "hard workouts", they like to use the terribly inaccurate formula [220-age], and they like to also "guess Vo2max" based on what their Garmin watch tells them. It's not a bad indicator to look at some training parameters on, but again (like absolute Vo2max) it is a number that needs to be taken into context. Let me be clear though: A 100% "effort" isn't always mean 100% max HR....especially in a race situation.
former lab assistant wrote:
Good mid distance runners have strong enough acid tolerance/pain tolerance to hit max HR in their target events. Long distance runners may need a little longer time. And untrained individuals are better off doing intervals.
Standard max HR tests for untrained individuals involve a good warm-up, some kind of tempo run (1-2 times ~5 minutes), a few minutes active rest and finally a hard 2 min max HR test. Testing max HR by running for 10+ minutes doesn't make sense for anyone.
This is total nonsense wrote:
fisky wrote:you probably will not hit max HR on races of 1 mile or shorter or races longer than 5K
Utter stupidity.
Spouting off nonsense from total lack of intelligence.
I've worn HR monitors for over 20 years. I've run at the U Cal - Davis performance lab to determine my MHR of 189 at the time.
I'll stand by my statement.
I've hit MHR many times with a long kick at the end of a 5K, a few times on multiple reps of 800m, and after multiple long hill reps of about 3 minutes each.
I was unable to elicit MHR in the performance lab in runs less than 10 minutes. I've never hit MHR in 800m or 1500m, although I've gotten within maybe 3 beats. I've never gotten close in 10k or longer, probably because my heart was too tired to ramp up that extra few beats.
Assuming the OP is not a top level collegiate or pro runner, his experience would probably be similar to mine.
I was curious to know about how close I 'should' be getting. The honest truth how many of really truly know what our maximum HR is? I think if someone performed a max HR test 3 times they would probably get 3 different values. Of those values i would probably just average it.
My known MHR i would imagine is not my true max HR. It was just the highest I ever got it that day so I just claimed that as my reference point.
Even during a 5km race I've worn the monitor to look at how it changed over time. In my race I about nearly got to my LT HR zone in about the first 800m. After that it got up to about 85% of my known max up until about the 4.5km mark. I began my kick and it would get up to about 95-97% of my known max by the 5km mark. I guess this is about normal? Granted I felt lactate early in the first mile and was dealing with it throughout the rest of the race.
I'm asking since i have this HR info and trying to see if I can do better or if my central governor is limiting me than I think it does.
Hr question wrote:
... I think if someone performed a max HR test 3 times they would probably get 3 different values. Of those values i would probably just average it.
Use the highest one, not the average. It might not be the max, but it might be. Clearly the lower 2 aren't.