HR Max 172?

by Juraj
(Ireland)

Max HR :

"Hi Marius!
I am 38,182cm ,and 78kg .I have already finished 4 marathons last one in October 2010 in 3:32.Last year I did only 3 half marathons PB 1:35. Two weeks ago 4th March I finished my first 10km in 44:30 HR average 162. Now I want to go back to marathon training and I chose the 3:15 plan. I'm gonna train in heart rate zones. I've done the HR Max test on treadmill and my max HR was only 172 and that confuses me because I don't know how to work by your efforts. Could you please tell me if it's normal to have max HR so low and if I could still do the marathon in 3:15.

Thank you and all the best, Juraj"

Answer: Hi Juraj, and thanks for your questio.

First of all - your max HR has nothing (or very, very little - if anything) to do with performance ability. It is just a relative measure for you as an individual, nothing more. So a low max HR is by not means at all an obstacle to run 3:15 :)

It does sound a little bit on the lower side though, and looking at your 10km, the right max level for you may be closer to 175-77. But you'll have to just start doing workouts by using this MAX and then adjust it on the way if you during the very hardest sessions (especially the 45/15 ones) go higher.

I wish you all the best,

kind regards,
Marius