Max heartrate - Fitbit questions

[Honey Badger]

I recently traded in the new Up3 for the FitBit Charge HR. I've been curious what my HR is on my runs. It has gotten up to and holds at ~180 BPM and if I do the calculation my max heart rate s/b 160-ish, I think.
I forget most of what I knew about max HR, but obviously my max is not 160 because I am typing this, therefore I am still alive.  I've been running pretty faithfully for about 2 years now. I have weeks that I've slacked off, but always pick it back up.  I only run about 3 miles per day and try for 4 days per week, at least.
I have a nice low resting pulse.  It gets down to ~56 BPM.

Can someone help me out with what this is doing to me and/or should I change anything?  I don't run fast, probably average 10:30 MM, sometimes less, sometimes more. Should I try to slow it down even more?

Thanks!

[Ice Cream]

How old are you? 

I used to run with HR monitor. The formula did not work for me; I was way over what it suggested.  I stopped using the HR monitor for 2 reasons.  1. It cut into my skin and was very painful.  2. I found that I did not like to monitor constantly.  It felt limiting and unnatural.  I now run according to what feels comfortable.  If you run 3-4 times a day, you have a day off between runs most days, so you would have no real issue with recovery runs, which should be lower HR.

RHR depends on the individual.  Mine is 41. MHR is also dependent on the individual.

[merigayle]

I only ran with a HRM when I was pregnant to keep my HR under 140, (130? i forget) and that was HARD as you have an elevated HR in pregnancy. 220-age does not seem reasonable once you hit a certain age (like over 30!).

[radial]

As I understand it, there is a good bit of individual variation among people as far as maximum heart rate is concerned.  The various formulas for predicting maximum heart rate represent averaged results from studies of large groups of people.  They work great if you happen to be average, but not so well if you aren't.  Think of it like your height.  The average height of caucasian female Americans is around 5'5", but that doesn't mean that any particular caucasian female American is going to be 5'5".  To figure out exactly how tall you are, you have to measure yourself.  Same with maximum heart rate. 

[Honey Badger]

Thank you for the replies.
I'm healthy and no known issues. Just wanted to confirm my heart is not going to asplode on me. 

[iwuzwilson]

I recently traded in the new Up3 for the FitBit Charge HR. I've been curious what my HR is on my runs. It has gotten up to and holds at ~180 BPM and if I do the calculation my max heart rate s/b 160-ish, I think.
I forget most of what I knew about max HR, but obviously my max is not 160 because I am typing this, therefore I am still alive.  I've been running pretty faithfully for about 2 years now. I have weeks that I've slacked off, but always pick it back up.  I only run about 3 miles per day and try for 4 days per week, at least.
I have a nice low resting pulse.  It gets down to ~56 BPM.

Can someone help me out with what this is doing to me and/or should I change anything?  I don't run fast, probably average 10:30 MM, sometimes less, sometimes more. Should I try to slow it down even more?

Thanks!

The rule of thumb is 220 - your age. However that's a broad guess, maybe +/-10 bpm.

To test for maximum heart rate use a HRM and run something like 2X2-3 minutes (with a 2-5% grade if you can) or 1X 5 minutes about all out, as if you were in a race.

If you are running 10:30s and for 3-4 miles at a moderate effort and are not breathing hard (like hypoxic hard, e.g., as in a 1 mile to 5K race) then you would be probably be in the range 60-80% of maximum.