My new (again) Heart Rate Training Zone

I have been having difficulty to determine my max heart rate.  Initially back in Dec 2012, I concluded that my max heard rate was 188 bpm.  Then, back in Jan 2015, I noticed my heart rate of 196bpm and thus determine that my max heart rate was 196 bpm.  However, starting 2016 and 2017, I started to read my heart rate of even more than 200 bpm, which I started to doubt the reading.

After talking to a colleague who has been running for more than 30 years, he told me that very likely my heart rate monitoring device is having issue.  I didn't immediately got a new heart rate monitoring belt until I misplaced it.  I then get myself a new heart rate monitoring belt.

With the new belt, I found out that my heart rate is more consistent now.  With the very high stress in the Station 4 running of Penang Round Island Relay with uphill, I found my heart rate of 186 bpm.  After checking the old post in 2012, where heart rate monitoring belt was new, to know that my max heart rate was determined as 188 bpm, I now think that my max heart rate of 186 bpm is more accurate now.

With that, the new training zones are with follows:-

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: 1~2 mins slower than marathon pace
% Max hear rate: 65 to 78% [120~144 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max hear rate: 80 to 89% [148~165 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 hear rate: 88 to 92% [163~170 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals Run (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max hear rate: 95 to 100% [176~185 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't... talk... must... run...

I will be focusing to increase my weekly mileage to be more than 40 km before working on speed, I will be mostly training at Easy pace with max heart rate of ~144 bpm.  Only with I managed to increase my weekly mileage to be more than 40 km or around that, I will pick a day to train for Training Run and Tempo Run.  Again, during that time, has to work harder on the core strength too!