Forums >Running 101>max heart rate I must be having a heart attack.
Why is it sideways?
You are actually dead right now. Sorry to break the news.
#artbydmcbride
It is highly unlikely,.....but perhaps that formula you are using to determine your max heart rate is....inaccurate. And, running your first 5k in over 7 years may get you close to your max.
You are probably not dead...yet...if you can still post on RA.
Runners run
Is it true that if you die in your sleep, you won't know until you wake up in the morning?
I've got a fever...
I'm 32. tht puts my max Hr around 188.
Why 220-Age is a bunch of crap.
The common formula was devised in 1970 by Dr. William Haskell, then a young physician in the federal Public Health Service and his mentor, Dr. Samuel Fox, who led the service's program on heart disease. They were trying to determine how strenuously heart disease patients could exercise. In preparation for a medical meeting , Dr. Haskell culled data from about 10 published studies in which people of different ages had been tested to find their maximum heart rates.
The subjects were never meant to be a representative sample of the population, said Dr. Haskell, who is now a professor of medicine at Stanford. Most were under 55 and some were smokers or had heart disease.
On an airplane traveling to the meeting, Dr. Haskell pulled out his data and showed them to Dr. Fox. ''We drew a line through the points and I said, 'Gee, if you extrapolate that out it looks like at age 20, the heart rate maximum is 200 and at age 40 it's 180 and at age 60 it's 160,'' Dr. Haskell said.
At that point, Dr. Fox suggested a formula: maximum heart rate equals 220 minus age.
But, exercise physiologists said, these data, like virtually all exercise data, had limitations. They relied on volunteers who most likely were not representative of the general population. ''It's whoever came in the door,'' Dr. Kirkendall said.
In addition, he and others said, gauging maximum heart rates for people who are not used to exercising is often difficult because many prematurely stop the test.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
ok I'm fairly fit but just from work. I just started running for the first time in 7 yrs. I'm 32. tht puts my max Hr around 188. I ran a 5k this weekend and my pulse stayed in the 183-185 range. is tht normal or is my max Hr off. seems unlikely 5k pace would be almost 100% Hr.
I'm 45 - my HR averages around 190 for a 5k. Max heart rates varies a lot from person to person - estimating it from a formula is inaccurate - if you want to know what it is then you need to test it (google for various ways to do so).
i would think if i'm out of shape though, that my max rate would be lower than if i'm an elite athlete even though resting pulse is lower. Now today I ran quarter intervals and my pulse barely touched 185. That's quite weird. Please don't flame me judge, judge me, attack me, etc, but I'm thinking it's because I drank a 5 hr energy before the race. They were handing them out. DON'T GIVE ME WARNINGS OR HATE ME FOR MY DECISIONS. I MADE THE DECISION DESPITE THE HEALTH RISKS AND I RISK MY OWN CONSEQUENCES SO DON'T FLAME ME FOR MY DECISION. But that's the only conclusion i can come up with unless my max HR is a little bit higher than the formulas predict. I've used like 3 different formulas.
So you weren't having a heart attack.
In other news, you ran a 5k on Saturday or Sunday. Today is Monday and you ran quarters. Why?
My understanding is your max HR doesn't really change too much with fitness. Your resting HR, and therefore your HR reserve changes quite a bit. As for the difference between a race consisting of a sustained effort of a quarter hour or more and a workout consisting of intervals lasting less than 90 seconds each, well too many confounding factors to name, really, not the least of which is race magic, a.k.a. adrenaline.
(I answered that as if you're serious even though my troll-o-meter is giving me some suspicious readings.)
"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
Jack Kerouac
I blame the leercheaders
No, you wake up in mourning.
So you weren't having a heart attack. In other news, you ran a 5k on Saturday or Sunday. Today is Monday and you ran quarters. Why?
Because the only days I have time for the track is mondays and wednesdays. So I have to make time on those days. It was saturday morning. That's almost 60 hours rest. Maybe not optimal but it is the best I can do.
A Saucy Wench
On the plus side this thread has generated some cool related ads.
In the spirit of my usual self
You max HR doesnt change - only your ability to hang out near it for longer periods of time. So either you are fitter than you think or your max HR is higher than you think
5 Hr energy will not change your max HR. It will only change the HR used at other effort levels.
The max HR formula as applied to an individual is complete and utter bullshit as already explained. There is a woman I know who is around 40 and regularly gets her HR above 210. She is on the extreme end of the bell curve.
The only way to know what your max HR is for sure is to test it. It is unpleasant and often results in tunnel vision, blacking out and/or vomiting. Kind of cool if you are into that sort of thing. But since you have just run hard 2 days in a row times this week probably not the kindest thing to do to your legs.
Nobody here is going to flame you for running a 5K undertrained. Unless you keep doing it and then ask why your times arent improving.
MTA: and there is nothing wrong with skipping a track workout following a race. just saying.
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
My understanding is your max HR doesn't really change too much with fitness. Your resting HR, and therefore your HR reserve changes quite a bit. As for the difference between a race consisting of a sustained effort of a quarter hour or more and a workout consisting of intervals lasting less than 90 seconds each, well too many confounding factors to name, really, not the least of which is race magic, a.k.a. adrenaline. (I answered that as if you're serious even though my troll-o-meter is giving me some suspicious readings.)
No I was serious except for the heart attack part and that answer sounds about right. Just from everything I've read my max heart rate is approx 188. 185 would be like 98%. There's no way that's possible even with adrenaline. Perhaps my watch is off a few beats or my max HR is faster than the predictions as another user stated. but even if my max HR was 205, that would be 90% for 1/3 of the race and high 80's for 100% of the race.
It's bizarre though as when I did my intervals today and my HR never quite reached 185 I don't think or perhaps barely reached it, I had chest pain like my heart was about to explode from pushing the intensity so heard. The race though, although I was tired, I had no cramping or chest pain. I guess adrenaline and crowd support helped with that.