HRmax

With my HR monitor being the basis of my running program, I've been a bit up in the air since the advent of medical supervision that requires me to take a medicine that lowers my HR. I wonder what my new HRmax is.

From my own experience over these months, I suspect it's in the neighborhood of 168-170, though it may be marginally higher. I believe I've pushed it a bit higher at least once--will need to double check my journal.

The traditional formula for calculating an estimate is
HRmax=200-age
which would put my HRmax these days at 156.

Some new research is suggesting this formula is not particularly well-grounded in empirical data. A more accurate formula is
HRmax=205.8-0.685(age).
This would give me a calculated HRmax of 162, with an error factor of +/-6.0.

I believe this is much closer. I believe I'd be safe to base my running efforts on the 168 of my own experience.

In the meantime, I'm putting a call in for the PA at the cardiologist's office, to see what her take is on the effect of the meds on HRmax.

This comes to me now because young Finnegan is beginning his running career, and I'll be loaning him my Polar HR monitor to run with. I wonder what his HRmax is?
HRmax=205.8-0.685(12)=198+/-6.

I'm curious to see how his experience is. I think I'll run him a bit at the upper end to see how accurate that might be.