HEART RATE

On Apr 10, 6:18 pm, Andrew Price wrote:
On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:12:40 -0700 (PDT), datakoll

wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/he...ST.html?adxnnl...

"As for my husband, he knows that my fixation on whose heart rate is
higher is ridiculous. Still, I wish I knew what he thinks his maximum
is and how he knows it."

I was always told the rule of thumb was "220 less your age" - until I
came across this formula today:

210 - (half age in years) - (0.11*(weight in kg)) + 4

Unless you're Chalo when he still weighed 400 pounds plus, and maybe
even then, the new formula puts all the brackets about 9% of the old
number higher up the scale. My Ciclosport HAC4 HRM broke after only
three years, so I replaced it with a cheap Sigma PC9 HRM. The HAC4 had
to have the max respiration rate and the breakpoints of exercise
regions fed manually; I did it by the old formula. The PC9 does it
automatically, and as usual I just busked the new equipment with a
hack and a prayer rather than RTFM (I have sixteen shelf-feet of high-
level computer software manuals still shrinkwrapped -- if I need a
manual, it is too difficult for me to use), so I missed the bit where
the PC9 automatically set up a 9% higher max than I had on the HAC4,
with the brackets correspondingly shifted. It's important, since I
regulate my entire riding regime not by cadence or even traffic
conditions ("Coming through!") but by putting my heart rate on 80 per
cent of max and holding it there; in short, I go for the max that
falls within the endurance/aerobic bracket, just short of generating
lactic acid in that useless bracket from 80-85 where you take all the
pain you masochists yearn for but gain none of the power benefits that
are supposed to pay for the acid burn. Shortly, in as little as a week
or two after I fitted the new cheap HRM, the Sigma PC9, I noticed that
I spent less time on favourite rides, and less time in each bracket
too, but that I was riding faster -- and feeling better for opening my
lungs out that extra bit. Since then I've lengthened all my favourite
short rides by around ten per cent distance, so that the time taken is
the same as before but the benefit is greater. So, on the whole, I
think that, for me at least, the new formula is A Good Thing. Since I
paid zero attention to the world class sports medicine authorities
working with the teams I played on when I was young (kick own arse for
wasting opportunity), I'd be interested in hearing which heart rate
brackets RBTers favour and why.

Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html