0lder men - what is your maximum heart rate?

220-age is useless.  Do the test.  HR ranges are INCREDIBLY individual.

And yes, z1 and z2 feel ridiculously easy for most people.  We have an ingrained desire to run too fast on easy days.

As for me - I'm 50 years old.  I have no idea what my max HR is (not sure what max HR would really be used for), but my running zones (from field test here on BT) are:

Z1: up to 141

Z2: up to 150

Z3: up to 158

Z4: up to 166

For a race reference, I ran my last half marathon at 163 average, with the last few miles at 170.  I ran my last 5k at 174 average, with the ending HR at 185.

Your mom does track intervals? How awesome is that??

I can remember hitting 178 routinely on a hilly course when I was your age.  Max heart rate is not a particularly useful number by itself.  People are quite different in max heart rate.

Everybody wants to know how much and how fast should they should train.  It is useful to have a normalizing number to characterize the differences in athletes.  A lot of research suggests that your running speed at lactate threshold (RSLT) is a good key for setting up training.  Here's a decent article that I pulled up.   http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=11033&PageNum=2

In this article, their field test RSLT without drawing any blood is just the speed you can sustain for 30 minutes.  From that number, a coach can design a training program that will be somewhat calibrated to your ability and conditioning.

There are lots more of theories and recommendations. I am sure you will get more from your question.  Good luck. 

The "Age... minus" calculations aren't very good for determining max heart rate. I'm 50 and I hit 180, 181, even 183 BPM on a hard run for a spike. I had heart surgery and a stroke too.

An easy run for me is an average of 150 BPM +/- 5 beats per minute. A smokin run is just north of 175 average heart rate.

I'm of the school of thought you should not compare heart rate metrics. You are what you are. It's like comparing shoe size or height. There isn't too much you can do about it. It's highly contingent on your stroke volume or the effective size of your heart. If you have a smaller volume heart you may be acclimated to higher heart rates- a heart like a humming bird. If you have larger stroke volume then its probable your caridac rate is lower but you're moving the same amount of blood, just more volume per beat.

I am also 53 years old.  As others have noted the 220-age is a generic formula and is not an accurate formula for everyone.  For a 53 year old the 220-age equals a Max HR of 167 bpm.  In a 5k earlier this year I averaged 170 bpm over the last mile.

I did this Max HR test on my treadmill earlier this year:  1) 5 minute warm up at a moderate speed 2) 3 minutes increasing speed each minute to raise HR 10 bpm 3) 1-2 minutes at maximum effort until my HR quit rising.  The result of this test gave me a Max HR of 184, 17 bpm higher than the 220-age formula.

Here's a good article on Heart Rate Training and easy field tests to determine your zones for both cycling and running:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=633

46 here - max rate that I have been able to get on a run is 168.  And that is doing 400 repeats at 5:10 pace, which for me anyway, is flying.

My HM pace (8:00/mile) is usually in the mid 140s.

Everyone is different

I'm 64. Been active for 40 plus years training for four plus years with HRM.  My max is 175 with absolute maximum output (trying not to be chicked).  Stress tested last year...Doc set up for 160 max heart rate... when I got to 160 12 minutes into the test no problems he said ok keep going... got to 170 at 15 minutes and he said no problems no need to continue.

Another doc (a runner) was more interested in recovery rate time <3 mintues from 170 PBM to <120 PBM.

Bottom line general charts are useless.  Keep your own chart over a couple of weeks different workouts different activities then you will start to define your Max.

At 58 My tested Max is 173... I can run for quite awhile at 168/ 170 but anything over 170 for more then around a minute and it will be Pukes ville on the side of the road for me very shortly.

I actually inadvertently tested this again a couple of weeks ago I was doing a 5K , over the last mile I was running right at 168, it finished with a short  150 ft climb up a steep hill to the finish. I crossed thru the  timing blocks stopped bent over to catch my breath and promtly before I knew it  left a deposit on the ground, thoroughly embarrased to say the least, havent done that in years, review of HR data confirmed I spiked at 176 going up the hill, that  little push up the hill was enough to do it.

Wow that's great at 64, I am just hoping to stay where I am at and maybe just get a  bit higher to say maybe 176/178.