To HRmax... and Beyond! (Read 551 times)

I had an interesting time doing a little hill running today. I'll skip all the boring details but the main part is that I went over my estimated (typical calculation) max heart rate of 175 in a sprint up the hill. My HRM says I hit 181 bpm in the 100-yard sprint that is roughly a 15% grade uphill. Man, that really wiped me out! I never fully recovered from that spike and managed, with a lot of resting and walking, to stagger through another mile. My last 5K, I kept the rate under HRmax, with it going to around 170-175 bpm in the final mile, and to 178 the final few hundred feet. That was an easy recovery compared to today's run. It's amazing how much of an effect that one all-out climb up the hill had. Any comments? I'm thinking I could probably use to try some interval training if I can get over my laziness...

Estimated HR max can be 20 beats off or more! HR Max is a very individual thing, and the guestimators are worthless for most people. I would go to the track and do a couple of 800s all out (there is lots of info on how to do this) and get your true max that way. You aren't going to hit your true max in a 5K, unless it is at a dead sprint to the finish which leads to your near-collapse!