Originally Posted by asgelle
Not correct. 220-age applies only to the average max heart rate for a large population. It has no relevance in predicting maximum heart rate in any individual. Therefore, anything based on that formula can't be applied to an individual only a population. So all 43 year olds might want to train at heart rates that average out to141 bpm, but there's no telling if that's correct for you.
+1
Try the Carmichael field test (link below). It will give you a decent baseline, and you can use it to track your progress. Note that it's more than a little painful to do.
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-171587.html