Anywhere between 80 to 90% of your maximum heart rate which would be 160-180 bpm. So I guess your goal would be to stay above 160 for one hour. After an hour expect it to slide a little lower.

 

consider the situation

When one is racing a 1+ hour events what should your heartrate be around in terms of min. and maximum % of max HR? My max. HR is 199 and am going racing tommorow. I'll try to use the HR monitor for the first time during a race...

When racing, my HR is always 5-10% higher than training at the same effort. I assume adrenalin and the competition elevate it. I always take this into account when trying to pace myself.

For a 1 hour race, you should be right at your aerobic threshold, roughly 85-90% of max. I always add in 5-10% on top of that.

 

When one is racing a 1+ hour events what should your heartrate be around in terms of min. and maximum % of max HR? My max. HR is 199 and am going racing tommorow. I'll try to use the HR monitor for the first time during a race...

yup, what others have said.

while racing i try to keep my HR between 85%-90% of max. sometimes i'll see 91% but i try not to let it go much higher than that for any length of time or i know i will blow up.

my max HR is 201 and in my last race my ave HR was right around my LT (175 ish)

rt

 

I never look at my hear rate monitor when I race. I take it along and record the race, but I put tape over the unit so all my attention is on the race. After the race I download the information and see the race information. Your HR will always be higher then normal in a race due to nerves etc, so the data is not correct.

 

my max is 186

and I average 175 (94%) for my races. I race expert, so that is 2 to 3 hours in length.

 

my max HR is 201

holy crap!! very impressive indeed!!

is that something that got better/higher with years of training??

 

Max is about 210. In a race its usually about 180 with occasional spikes to 190 or 200.

 

Unfortunately no!

Your heartrate gets lower every year you age.

 

Your heartrate gets lower every year you age.

So then I'm guessing that all the different formula's for calculating MaxHR are basically a guessatimate............

Is the only way to accurately find your max HR to go all out until it won't go up anymore? My max is supposed to be around 192 but on one occasion I actually surpassed that on and hit 200.

 

My normal racing HR is somwhere between 174 bpm and 180 bpm. I have had a race this year where it averaged 185 and another where it averaged 171. Last weekend's race of 2:23:19 came with an avg HR of 179. Don't know my max HR but I think its in the high 190's.

 

Unfortunately no!
Your heartrate gets lower every year you age.

So they say.

But that is not what I have seen. My max has remained steady at around 196 for the last 10 years. I am also able to train at a higher hrt rt now and maintain that elevated level during races. The hill climb this year, my average was 183 and the next race that had climbing + descents the avg was 178.

 

Part of the heart rate thing confuses me.

It would seem that the less your heart has to pump for a given power output and cadence the better. Take two rides and asssuming that distance, terrain, power output, cadence and speed are the same, wasn't the ride at 160 bpm more efficient than the one at 190 bpm?

Is the max heart rate just a measure of how hard you can go before you croak? Instead of ralking about max heart rate, why don't we talk about average heart rate at a given power output over time?

I guess I want to understand the relationship between max heart rate and efficiency.

 

Max known HR is 182. Stays 160-175 most of the race it seems. 47yrs age.

 

59 years old
Max = 175
LT = 164
Race Pace (2 hours or less) = 90-92% Max

I do intervals weekly, ride a 45-60 minutes threshold ride weekly, and "play" the rest of the time. Typically ride 5 days per week. I have the time -- retired but also old.

 

holy crap!! very impressive indeed!!

is that something that got better/higher with years of training??

hehe, nah, i'm just partly related to a hummingbird.

i think that for the most part max HR may be a genetic thing and as someone else mentioned, in general, max HR decreases with age. that said, i also think that training can help maintain a higher max HR. obviously, if you're significantly overweight and not exercising at all your max HR will be lower than if your are in excellent physical condition and training regularly. my max HR has actually gone up a 1 bpm over the last 5 years.

oh, and to answer your question about finding your true max HR, the answer is yes, you have to go until you drop to find it. i found my when i did a VO2 max test and then saw it go 1 bpm higher at a race earlier this year. if you saw 200 bpm and you think it was legitimate then maybe that is your max.

rt

 

I'm with -dude- on this one. I race expert 19-29. Most races are 2-3 hours long. I maintain 92-94% of MHR for most races. And that's the actual average for the entire race. Course terrain plays a big role, though. Some courses are just too technical to allow a steady LT push.

I set my Polar S725 to beep if my HR drops to 90% so I know when to push harder. For 6+ hour endurace events, I set my alarm to 85% and average around 88% for the race.

- Jeremy -