Thoughts on Target Heart Rate?

[goldfinch]

I think as long as you seem to have found by trial and error what's a safe HR zone for you, stick with that and don't even worry what your max might be.

It's true that just like any "predicted" formulas, the "predicted" HR tables might be true across large populations, but not much use for individuals. It's also true that whatever your max, it does go down as you age. When you're 100% and you want to start getting really strong really fast, then you can do a test ... for now, it seems like you already know what you need to know.

From what I have read the predicted HR tables are not even that accurate for large populations. Here is an article that discusses a study of a large number of healthy women and their maximum heart rate: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...mens-workouts/

It suggests using the formula 206 minus 88% of your age.

However, the result is as you say only based on averages and the number may be too low or too high, depending on the woman.

Anyway, 220 minus age is too high. On average. At least according to this one study. Though the sample size was really quite large.
In my own case, if I do a hard set of intervals with a personal trainer (which I did last fall, hated, and quit) my heart rate maxed out at 158 and for very short time periods. Oddly, this is exactly the number I get with the 206 minus 88% of my age.