Cadence/Speed/Hr Q

[SadieKate]

The heart rate calculation of 220 - age is complete and total nonsense. It is not based on any science and should be ignored. (It is loosely based on the fact that newborns have a normal heart rate up to 220 - which is true. To which there is nothing to say but "so what". This has abolutely nothing to do with the maximal exercise heart rates of adults.)

You can find lots of discussion here about testing for your own max heart rate with maximal effort.

Go through your Polar book. The software should set up the computer with the max HR based on your age and gender but that is just an estimate. Each one of us has a different max HR. To get accurate you need to do a field test. I think roadbikerider.com had one. Sally Edwards has them. Every coach who works with an HRM has one.

Sheesh, doc, thanks for making it look I said the 220 thing was a rule set in stone.

[doc]

Sheesh, doc, thanks for making it look I said the 220 thing was a rule set in stone.

SadieKate - Please do not take that at all personally. It is one of my pet peeves (i.e. it's my issue not yours). The 220 - age thing is offered up like law all over the place and I try to debunk it whenever I can. Used to be one could find the 220-age poster in every gym and in every aerobics class room etc.

As for perceived exertion, now that has been studied. Research has shown that when the exerciser can no longer speak in sentences, that is, he/she has to take a breath every few words, they have passed their anaerobic threshold.

What others have said about HR varying with altitude, a night's sleep, dehydration etc is also true. But perceived exertion will be still be "correct" despite those individual and day to day changes.