Garmin 310 XT heart rate monitor

Clearly the MHR may vary a lot between athletes and the general formulae are just guide-lines. It is relatively easy to determine the max hr. Here's an example for running (ref. completerunning.com originally posted by Mark Iocchelli), but also works for cycling and probably for paddling too, exept for that uphill bit

Before you do this, be sure to check things out with your doc..

1. Strap on a heart rate monitor.
2. Warm up by running for 10 or so minutes at medium running speed.
3. Build speed for another few minutes.
4. Approach a long, 500 meter medium-grade hill while still building speed.
5. Run up 500 meter hill as fast as you can.
6. Fall down when appropriate (i.e when your body tells you it’s time to fall down).
7. Enjoy heart fibrillations and “rad” out-of-body experience.

Some people get to MHR by running progressively faster laps on a track—a method, however, using a long hill challenges you in the two dimensions of speed and strength.

There are of course many variant for different diciplines, but the only reliable method to determine your MHR is to push your body to max.

the MHR alone is not very usefull for working out the best HR-zones for various work-outs. iIt is much better to do a lab-test (tread-mill or bike) or a field test, an example of which is described here: www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=633

happy paddling

Another easy (straightforward) method is to find any bit of open space, park, oval, track, pathway or road. Warm up easy jogging 10-15 mins, then do a series of repeats as below. Heart rate monitor helps but a watch with a seconds hand and carotid pulse enough.

Take an approximate distance of about 400 metres and using a base rate of 5 minute kilometre pace (yours could be naturally faster or slower than this), run for 2 minutes at about 85% (that's 400 metres at 5 min/k pace). Rest for let's say 1 minute, though the actual time is arbitrary. Repeat same distance aiming for same approximate time, this time reduce rest to 50 secs. Repeat 400 metres again at about 85%, this time reduce rest to 40 secs. Aim for a total of four or five repeats. On the last repeat after very little rest (10 or maybe 20 secs) this time run 200 metres as hard/fast as you can. Generally speaking during this last interval you should be exceeding your VO2 maximum (maybe more properly your aerobic threshold) and going into oxygen debt. That is you simply cannot go any faster, may probably have to slow down because you just cannot catch your breath.

It is at the completion of this interval that you take your pulse immediately for 30 secs. Multiply this number by two (duh) to give you what should be very close to your maximum heart rate.

This is a similar version of the Conconi test cited by swimskier with reduced rest instead of increased load/elevation.

Haven't done max test for ages but 10 years ago at 52 my max was 185 and my VO2 max (heart rate after which I would go into oxygen debt) was 175. One or two beats over this for any length of time and I would just have to slow down no matter what, shy of coming into the chute with 100 to go neck and neck with someone kind of thing. As mentioned previously in this post the 220 minus age is only rough.

Once you've got that max heart rate, all you need to do when monitoring your training and racing is go by your % max. This % will also vary from discipline to discipline. For me running I could sustain my speed at around 173 beats per minute for let's say 10 k's off the bike in triathlon (40-45 mins). My sustainable max on the bike however was about 10-15 beats less than this at around 160-165. In the boat at the moment I'm not strong enough yet to sustain much more than 80-85% over a distance, just don't have muscular endurance yet to properly hold myself together, but that will come with time.

Hope that helps. Though it's easy it still friggin hurts.

My HR went off the clock the other day while running. I later found that the zip of my jacket was tapping on the sender unit and giving an incorrect reading!

Only other issue was salt buildup in the two lower buttons i.e. START and LAP. This caused the watch to randomly pause, start,stop, switch off etc. Regular and careful rinsing cured this problem.