My Max Heart Rate

From the recent stress test in medical check up, I was asked to run until my max heart rate using.  Even when I reach my max heart rate, I feel that I can still proceed with the run and my heart rate continue to increase.  So, I started to find out more about the max heart rate calculation of 220-age.

After some search in the internet, I realized that the general formula is the average of all human being regardless of health condition and living habits.  According to an article, the true max heart rate for a healthy man is higher than what is calculated from the formula.

Further search suggested that we can find our own max heart rate.  That is very good.  I followed what is suggested in Runner's World article, Learn to Find Your Max Heart Rate, and come out with my own max heart rate.  It turns out to be 188 bpm, which I think is more accurate.  There's another formula in calculating max heart rate, ie. 205-(0.5*age).  Using the formula will give my max heart rate of 185 bpm, which is close to what I got myself.

So, I will use 188 bpm as max heart rate and 72 bpm as resting heart rate to formulate my training zone target.

Here's the training zone suggested in Runner's World.

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: One to two minutes slower than marathon pace
% Max heart rate: 65 to 70% [148~154 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max heart rate: 75 to 85% [159~171 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 5 to 6/moderate
Talk Test: Full sentences
Tempo Run (threshold zone)
Pace: 20 to 30 seconds slower than 5-K pace
% Max heart rate: 88 to 92% [174~179 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max heart rate: 95 to 100% [183~188 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't...talk...must...run...