on giving 106%

I went to my usual spin class this morning, and it was the hardest that class has ever been for me. I don't know if the instructor was feeling mean today or what, but it was just one interval after another without much rest between...completely kicked my ass. Of course, I also forgot to eat before I left, which is not so good. One of the many things I've learned about myself in the past couple years is that I bonk mightily when I exercise on an empty stomach.

Anyway, I usually average about 75-80% of max HR in these classes, with my peak hitting anywhere between 92 and 99%. Today's peak? 106%! Which is, of course, impossible. All that really means is that my max HR setting in my monitor is set too low.

What's funny is that when I put the number in manually, I was worried I was setting it too high. By the age method (220-age), the watch told me that my max is 187. I knew that wasn't right, since I see higher numbers than that pretty regularly. So, I did what the average non-scientific exerciser would do, I think--I added 10 to that. :)

This class is the first time in a long time that I've felt like I was really pushing my limits. I could very well have hit my true max today, and if that's the case? It's somewhere around 208.

I guess this shouldn't surprise me. On longer rides where I'm not really pushing myself much, I generally average about 70-80% of max on my watch. I've worried that I've been working too hard without realizing it, so I've been purposely slowing the pace of my club rides to keep my HR in the low 70s. However, if my max HR is 12 bpm or more higher than I thought it was, then those numbers were right where I would expect them to be based on how I felt (65-75%, roughly).

Hmm...something to think about.