[Scott Johnston]

Brian, I don’t think you should concern yourself with heart rate. After all, the race is won by the fastest athlete, not the athlete with the highest heart rate. You have seen significant improvements in your pace even though this year, in January, February, and March, each race has gotten longer. The whole point of training for endurance is to improve your performance irrespective of what your heart rate does. I can’t explain the variability in your maximum heart rate that you see, but I just don’t think it’s relevant and that you should just focus on improving your performance and not fixate on heart rate.

I hope this helps.

Scott