For a mate who’s just got a new Garmin, best ways obviously a lab test but failing that I thought the usual way was to calculate it from a 20min functional threshold test? They’ve done this and have a figure of 185bpm, but I cant find any calculators on line to work out the max.

Realise its all a bit best guess but the age equation gives 191 (they sit at this easily during intervals) so wondered if there was another rough estimate tool.

Thanks

Go for steady long run and experiment at and around the pace you can still talk at. This will equate roughly to 70% of max.

I wouldn’t bother with max heart rate. Lactate Threshold Heart Rate LTHR is better for setting heart rate zones. Clicky

“Calculating” max is silly, just go harder and harder until you collapse. It is what it is. Try a couple of races with it on, you’ll find out what your max was soon enough.

20 minute test is a good test for AT. Max test, the best you can do is a series of really hard intervals after a good warm up and see what it gets to. Or go and race a crit or do some track racing.

Ah yeah sorry, LTHR is what I meant, this gave them 185 so they just work out the zones from this according to Friels blog post, cool, thanks!

Nope, there’s no shortcut, you don’t need a lab though, but a turbo is safer. If he/she’s got a garmin and a HRM just warm up well, go at 20min threshold intensity*, then after a few minutes when their HR levels off, start going up a gear once a minute untill they cant go on, then go up another gear and sprint untill they black out. When vision returns, it’ll have recorded their max HR. Mines on average 199, but drops a bit when I’m unfit to 185, and I can push it to 210 when I’m feeling superfit.

*fairly pointless measuring HR, mine takes 10min at treshold power to reach it’s threshold, if I tried to get it up there to begin with I’d be well over threshold power and knackered. Your heart rate goes up when the O2 levels in your blood drop and CO2/lactic acid rises, it takes a while for that debt to build up. Mines arround 165bpm, 185 isn’t abnormaly high, but I’d suspect if he did the test trying to keep a constant HR he built up quite an oxygen debt early on and the heart was then working hard to clear it rather than just supplying enough to maintain the threshold power.

Mines on average 199, but drops a bit when I’m unfit to 185, and I can push it to 210 when I’m feeling superfit.

Mine does the opposite, higher when I’m unfit and lower when I’m fit(er).

Mine drops off as I feel stronger too, I usually take this as evidence that I’m a actually a bit of a slacker who’s happy to go at the same pace for less effort!

Mines on average 199, but drops a bit when I’m unfit to 185, and I can push it to 210 when I’m feeling superfit.

Joe Friels suggests it should be the opposite – max HR drops when trained.

That’s been my personal experience too for max HR.