Riding for hours in Z4 -- are my HR zones off?

[OreoCookie]

@mcalista

I think it is fairer to say that 220-age represents the average of the population as a whole, but like most ‘averages’ the MHR for any one individual can be significantly different from this. Indeed, the standard deviation for the age-based formula is 13.

I didn’t know the standard deviation for this, thanks for my nugget of information for the day.

@mcalista

I’d suggest using the Karvonen formula for calculating zones, which takes into account RHR and MHR. And using 190 as the max HR. https://www.topendsports.com/fitness/karvonen-formula-calculator.htm

Let me ask you something: how useful do you find heart rate zones in practice (no matter how you compute them)? Sure, they roughly track power zones and knowing that my heart rate at this particular load is higher or lower than normal (i. e. normal for you) certainly is helpful to me. But given their inherent variability and the fact they are a lagging indicator, how do you use heart rate zones?

@mcalista

In this case, there is a fair bit of evidence that @Samus’s MHR is higher than that predicted by the formula. Also, at 52, her RHR is lower than the assumption is the standard zone formula.

What conclusions can you draw from that?

PS This is not meant as me nitpicking your post or anything, I’m genuinely curious.