Maximum Heart Rate

Rory aged 43 yrs from the Ireland asks:

I am confused. My max was determined on the road this year and cannot be increased. I thought my Max was set and unalterable except by age but not by training.

The Coach Responds

Not at all. the max is a "trainable rate". it is not really found until you are very fit. it goes through a path like this. when you are unfit it is likely to be, lets say, 170. you just cannot get it over that b/c the lower levels of your cardiovascular system and your blood delivery systems are not up to it. in fact your heart is not at its max, it is just that every else gives out first trying to deliver.

After a period of aerobic and sprint training (mixed and not terribly systematic), you then will notice that when you take a exhaustion-lactate test, that your max HR is say 180. that is your max is now higher, b/c you can push yourself more. but you would notice also that your exhaustion came at say 45 minutes (using a typical stress test with sequential development of the stress), and your lactate curve was steep and you may have got to 8. and that your HR curve became very steep very quickly.

But then after the end of my macro 1, you might find that the HR has dropped a little to 176 or 178. it just cannot go beyond that during a test. but at the same time, your lactate level is now 9-10 (that is you can tolerate higher levels of lactic acid), you last 51-53 minutes, and your lactate curve and your HR response curve is much flatter and curved. that is you start to go into the first threshold (and work aerobically) after a longer period at higher watts, and are pushing much higher watts at the end even though your max HR is lower.

Many riders cannot believe this and think that the target of training is the max HR. not at all. the target is to reduce the IAT1 level - to work harder at lower levels, not easier at higher levels. it is a subtle point but an important point. the goal of all endurance training is to get you to tolerate higher levels of lactate, higher output levels at lower HRs. the training predominantly in macro 1 and 2 concentrate on this goal and so your max HR drops b/c there is less focus on the extreme top end.

During the fourth macro, you work the top end, but only occassionally. so when you do the lactate test, the curves are even flatter, the test lasts longer and you can usually go right through to say 182 (given the scale of things here - the numbers are based on my sort of movements).