Max heart rates and the fuzzy stuff around them.

[carbon29er]

Agreed, but I was referring more to people who might have an abnormal or unknown medical condition such as heart disease, artery restriction..... You don't want to find out the hard way

Then again maybe it's the best way to find out, kick the bucket doing something you love doing. Not quite the Private Benjamin type of "in the saddle" though.

[Andymann]

Thanks for the input everyone. Can anyone recommend a cardiologist I can go to in the Cape Town CBD or Table View areas, and how much a Max HR test is likely to cost?

Or you could go to Neil from Dinamic Coaching in Cape Town who will rather do a lactate test, and from those values, work out your HR zones corresponding to your increasing lactate levels, and depending on what outcomes you are expecting from your training will tailor an individual training program for you.