Max Heart Rate

Question
I have done all the Calculations, I am a 20yr old male who runs at least twice per week, and My main distance race is the 5K. I bought a heart rate monitor because my resting heart rate is 56, and I want to track progress for working towards a faster 5K and beyond. My question is that I run my 5k's at 195bpm and can maintain that for the entire race(22min), now that is listed as my MHR. Is it bad to be able to run at 195 for that long? if so, How do I increase speed and time without having a 195 heart rate?

Answer
hey ryan,

no worries here.  you'll see that there are formulas like 220-age....or 205-1/2 your age...to predict max heart rate.  These are accurate to within +/-15 beats.  So...yours is between 185-215, quite a wide range.  There is no problem running at 195 for you....fitness doesnt impact max heart rate much at all...and I'm guessing your max is really closer to 205-210.  Here's how to test.  Do a 5-10 warmup.  Then do 6 hill repeats up a fairly steep hill of about 2-3 minutes each...jogging at a good pace down the hill, blasting up the hill.  Whatever your heart rate is near the end of your 5th or 6th is your max.  After, you've established your max HR, multiply that by 0.9, which is your ideal 5K heart rate.............i'm guessing it all works out to about 195.

Larry