Dan, My questions concern training and competing with a heart-rate monitor. First, I have read many different things concerning estimating your VO2 max and desired intensity levels: 220 - age for MHR; 205 - 1/2 your age for MHR (Dr Ken Cooper); [(220 - age) - resting heart rate] * desired intensity level + resting heart rate; and I have also read that all of these estimations are too high and that most people will not have a MHR above 170. What method is most accurate? Second, at what heart rate intensity should I run the 3-mile (5K) run for competition? I am 34. I have tried running the 3 miles in the 180's (220 - 34) and have found that I burnout and start slowing down in the second half. Should I be able to run the race just under my VO2 max (assuming I calculated it correctly), or should I shoot for a percentage of my VO2 Max? During races should I start of running at an intensity that would raise my heart rate to its ideal level rapidly or gradually increase intensity until my heart rate reaches the desired level? Last, I have been weight training with my heart rate monitor and have found that during intense workouts, my heart rate gets pretty high. Can heart rate be used to determine rest times between sets? During strength training, should I let my heart rate drop to a certain level before the next set? Thanks for the help.

Good questions. Out of the 3 methods you mentioned the most accurate method for estimating your MHR would be the last one in your question. This method for estimating your MHR is known as the Karvonen formula. It is usually looked on as the most accurate method because it takes into account more than just your individual age but your individual resting heart rate level as well. Your resting heart rate level can be used as an indicator of your overall fitness level and incorporating it into the equation makes it more individualized (accurate) for you. It’s important to note that each of these methods are estimations so your individual MHR may be more or less than what was calculated for you using the various equations. This is where “high-attention-to-detail” people get irritated, including myself! They want to know the exact number their heart rate should be at to coincide for various percentages of the V02 max, anaerobic thresholds, etc. What’s best to do is to use these equations as guidelines to help design our training programs and eventually learn a race pace for a particular distance. Using the equations as guidelines to help set heart rate parameters for training or competing is still the most practical thing to do. Most of us will simply find it difficult to have a direct air exchange test performed in order to find out our V02 max and subsequent heart rate ranges that would coincide with the various percentages of our V02 max. It’s hard to know what training at 70% of your V02 max is when you are actually outside running so using percentages of your heart rate is the next best alternative. I like to use the terms “consistently inaccurate” when using heart rate equations. Calculating 85% of our Karvonen based MHR is probably not 85% of either our MHR or our V02 max. But the numbers given to us can be used as a guideline from which to base our training. If we understand that heart rate estimation formulas can have inaccuracies we can move forward in our communication for establishing your particular heart rate range for competitive 5k’s, training paces, etc. This range incidentally, when used over time will provide the basis for establishing an actual race pace, which is something that all runners who are serious about their training need to become familiar with. Your pulse rate during a competitive 5K run should remain at or below 90% of your mathematically estimated MHR. And, if you’re not as experienced in competitive running (meaning you’re like me!) you may find that running at 80% or below would be ideal for the majority of the race. You will obviously go above this range as you build up for the final kick of the race but, this is for a finite and much shorter time span that can only be established through experience! These ranges are purely guided by fundamental physiology. Because of the length of a 5K race, although relatively short in the world of running, it is simply impossible to run “in” your anaerobic threshold for the entire length of the race. Experienced or elite performance runners can push themselves up to the 90% range of the MHR/V02 max without incurring a huge lactate buildup, but doing so is somewhat rare at this high percentage range. In fact, running at 90% or above will push the majority of the human population into their anaerobic threshold levels and make burning out towards the end of a 5K race inevitable. You found this out in your case as well. Using the basic 220 – age equation equals 186 beat per minute for your MHR. If you are pacing in the 180’s like you say, mathematically you are “way into” the 90% range. Even with the inherent inaccuracies of the equations you can see this is pushing the envelope for a 5K distance. You will have to experiment with these guidelines that the equations will provide and staying at 90% or below is best to start with. This is what training is all about! As you run various training distances and races record your times and corresponding heart rate ranges to “find out” what percentage you are the most efficient at. This also goes for how quickly you should get to your most efficient heart rate range. Some people like to start fast while others like to end fast. This is purely an individual thing that through diligent monitoring in your training runs you will establish for yourself! Using your heart rate to establish the length of your rest periods between sets in regards to your strength program is great but it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Basically, longer rest periods mean more recovery and ultimately the ability to use greater amounts of weight. Depending upon the breakdown of your training year, you will want to vary the amount of rest between sets to accomplish different goals. In a time of the year when you are not “peaking” competitively for a 5K race you may want to use rest periods as high as 3 minutes to maximize strength. As you approach a more competitive period you can reduce the rest period time to 30 seconds or less to maximize muscular endurance.