46 year old American male software engineer of Ashkenazic descent. 5'8.5" tall, starting weight 310 pounds. Blogging about the lived experience of making peace with food, good nutrition, fun, sustainable exercise, and mindfulness.
How to find your “Zone 2” without using a lactate [or heart rate] meter | The Peter Attia Drive Podcast
Even without a max-heart-rate test, I still really like using a monitor and predicted max heart rate as a gauge. However the age-old test is whether you can carry on a somewhat halting conversation during the training. My old coach, who was an English teacher, used to say "more in the manner of Hemingway, than Joyce".