Accurate Way to Determine Maximum Heart Rate

I regularly get to my HRMax during some of our most intense WOD's. Basically every time I puke after a workout, I know I gave it my all and am pretty sure I hit my HRmax.

It's tricky. I'd say the best way is to wear a HR monitor, run a solid 5K race, and sprint with suicidal intensity in the final 400. The hardest kick you can muster, starting a little earlier than you think you can hold it. That's what I did back in February (it was actually a 4-miler that ended with a final lap on the track) and I notched my max (191) for the first time in a while. It took that sick kick to do it.

If you're looking for a non-running way of assessing it, then try and replicate what I've described above, but on a stationary bike: warm up w/easy spinning for at least 15 minutes (like a pre-race warmup); do a 20 minute tempo-intensity stretch; and finish with the hardest 60-90 seconds you can muster--a flat-out, balls-to-the-wall killer rep.

There is no way to determine MHR without an all out effort.

I suggest that you forego trying to determine MHR and and use Joel Friel's Heart Rate Zones instead. MHR in cycling will be lower than running. You need to use the running method.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/05/quick-guide-to-training-with-heart-rate-power-and-pace.html

Using this approach, you don't need to know MHR to train in the right zones. It's actually a more precise method of training than setting a zone based on MHR.

The gold standard for highly trained athletes is an 800 all out. For average athletesm run an 800 all out, wait 2 (?) and run a 400 all out.

Better than an all-out 800 is a slightly negative split 800, but still very close to your top race effort. Best is an 800 on the roads where you can do the first 400 flat and the last 400 slightly uphill.

Friel is right that figuring out your LT is more important than knowing your MHR from a perspective of figuring out training paces. I've always thought his HR-based lactate threshold test was a bit ridiculous, though. He says you should run 30 minutes solo, flat out, and that this will be essentially your 1-hour race pace because you won't be able to push yourself as hard when running solo. That just can't be right. I think pretty much any serious runner can do 30 minutes at LT without feeling subjectively like they're going flat out.

Nowadays, if you really want to know your LT and your zones, you could pick up the BSX Insight lactate threshold tester. It's a little pod you pair with your phone. It shines lights into your skin to measure muscle oxygenation, which correlates with lactate threshold. You do a little test on a treadmill and it gives you a bunch of training zones.

What's the shortest distance you can run flat-out and reach your max HR? Does Merritt reach his max during a 400, or even Bolt at the end of a 200?

maybe in the 700m range, or basically 90 seconds all out

800 dude wrote:

Nowadays, if you really want to know your LT and your zones, you could pick up the BSX Insight lactate threshold tester. It's a little pod you pair with your phone. It shines lights into your skin to measure muscle oxygenation, which correlates with lactate threshold. You do a little test on a treadmill and it gives you a bunch of training zones.

I have the BSX Insight. It works, at least I have numbers that seem correct and useful. The numbers are not something I could have gotten without such a device.

HOWEVER... running fast on the treadmill was not a fun experience. The second time I used the test, I used this site to create an mp3:

Much better on the track than the treadmill.