I'm going to have my annual physical in a month and wanted to know my max heart rate. I did this test to determine it-
Warm up thoroughly so you start sweating.
Do two intervals, each four minutes long. During the intervals you should be too short of breath to talk. Intersperse each interval with three minutes of active rest.
Do the third interval, but two minutes in, increase your speed even further an run until you're too exhausted to continue. Your HRmax will be the highest heart rate you reach. The heart will reach a plateau at which it cannot beat any faster, regardless of how much you increase the workload.
Maximum heart rate calculator
www.ntnu.edu
It was ten points higher than the standard 220 minus age formula. 168 rather than 158.
I did a 13 mile run earlier this week at a steady pace. My heart rate went steadily went up. First mile 120, then went to 130 for a couple of miles, then settled in at 140, always running at a steady pace. The second half of the run was at a slightly faster pace and my HR was 145 with some spikes to 150. That's 85-90% of max HR. For an hour.
I've been reading about the longevity benefits of what is called zone 2 training compared to what I do on my long runs which is in zone 4. Zone 2 has significant health benefits and as soon as you move out of it you are using different metabolic processesand lose the benefits.
Should I be doing zone 2 runs? They would be painfully slow for me, walking basically. I might do zone 2 on our weekly hikes.
Anybody informed about or targeting zone 2 for training?.
When I was doing long distance triathlon - aka IronMan - almost all of my training was in zone 2.
Here’s the dirty little secret of zone 2 benefits. You have to train for a long long time consistently
and exclusively in that zone to achieve its
maximum potential.
First I’ll give you the drawbacks of this. The main drawback is that whenever you go over that zone you are
somewhat regressing. Typically this isn’t a problem if you are committed to zone 2 training
and you don’t do any other physical activities that elevate your heart rate above this zone. So where the problems arise for us surf bros is when you go surf and you get caught inside for a 10 wave beat down you have gone out of the zone. Every now and then it’s fine but let’s say El Niño actually kicks in and you’ve getting blasted at ocean beach for weeks on end you kind of threw your zone 2 plan out the window for the time being.
Ok, now that that is out of way the and assuming you aren’t a totally committed psychopath that feels an unquenchable need to swim/bike/run for 140.6 miles as fast as your body can do it, let’s talk about the insane benefits that you can achieve with a normal person commitment to the protocol…
Here’s what you do….(full disclosure, some of what I say below might be slightly off since I haven’t been training this way for awhile).
YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT. Track your progress over time and you’ll see amazing results.
First figure out your resting heart rate and your max. From there you can reasonably figure out your VO2 max. You can find out the formula online (it’s been awhile so I can’t rattle it off the top of my head right now). Zone 2 is found as a percentage of VO2 max. At first a rough estimate will work but as you do this your resting heat rate will decrease - assuming you’re above 50 bpm - and you VO2 max will increase which may change your target rate.
Down and dirty you can just say 180 minus your age (you seem pretty damn fit so you’d add 5 to that). For me right now my zone II is 132 bpm Using this calculation.
Note: Heart rate zones can be different for different exercises - especially at first. For me my target rates were slightly lower for cycling vs running until my cycling fitness increased, then I adjusted it up. Put simply the max heart rate I was able to achieve on the bike was about 10 bpm lower than running because my legs just couldn’t push it hard enough on the bike.
Note II: You
can use training zones without a heart monitor by using RPE but I believe better results come from using a HRM.
Now, you’ll want to train in zone II
exclusively for several months. This is where the patience comes into to play.
But here’s what happens…
…Say you start running at 10 min mile pace at zone II and anything above that you get out of that zone. Well that’s your pace. If your heart rate goes up after a couple miles, sorry, you have to slow down.
Your pace at zone II will increase over time. For me, my zone II pace started out at around 10 min/mile and after a couple months my pace was at 8 min/mile, then 7. At that point I added intervals and my zone II pace on race day was 6:45. Yeah, 6:45 min/mile at zone II. Could I keep that up for 26.2 after after a shampoo and a 112 mile blow dry? No. Eventually you have take off the strap and just run.
If you do it this way you will be a fucking cardio monster.
Now you can increase your top end race day speed quicker by just doing intervals but there are a couple issues with that.
1. Interval training is hard on your body.
2. The gains are short lived.
Training in zone II exclusively for extended period of time will better condition your body to handle interval training better and your gains will be more durable over time.
Put it this way….
Just intervals - high rev turbo charge 4 cylinder.
Zone II + intervals leading up to ‘race day’ - super charged V8.
Both can be made to go fast, the v8 will be more durable and require less time at the mechanics.
Oh,
avoid training in zone III. Your intervals should get you quickly into zone IV and back down to zone II or I during the rest phase of the workout. If you’re in zone III before kicking the pace back up you need to adjust your interval intervals.
Zone III is the sh!t zone. No zone II benefits and no zone IV benefits. Unfortunately most people spend way to much time in zone III.
Seems like a pain in the ass but trust me, if you can get through the first couple months - probably even less given your current fitness level - only training in zone you’ll start seeing results and you’ll be amazed.
If your runs turn into walks in order to stay in zone II then you’re fucking walking.
After writing all this I feel like I need to take a couple month off from jiu jitsu and kick boxing and just start running in zone II.
Good luck.