Target Heart Rates

So i guess my target heart rate is somewhere 100-170 with the max being 200.  So how do i incoperate that while running i know i should be in the 100-170 range but i generally push myself up to 180 or 185 bpm, do i need to be that high, is it unhealthy?

You really don't want to push past 85% of your max which is the 170, so you don't need to push that hard.  Just try to keep it around 160-170.  When you are working at 85% its more your cardiovascular system, and closer to 65% is good for fat loss.

so what happens if you go up to like 185? i can always run faster so i push myself to that limit when i do my HIIT routine, other than that i stay in my 170.

What is a HIIT routine (sorry I am new at this).  Nothing will really happen if you go up to 185 I just wouldn't make it an all the time thing, and not the entire workout.  I just don't think there is any benefit from being at 185 instead of 170.

its just interval training, like sprinting for 30 secs then i bring it to a normal jog for 30 secs then back up to a sprint for 30 secs till i hit 20 mins (with a 4 min warm up) 

I found this blurb on the FitTV website.

Your Target Heart Rate, from 60 to 80 percent of the maximum your heart can beat, should be your goal 3 to 5 times a week for 20 to 60 minutes (excluding warm-ups) to maximize the health benefits of cardiovascular activity, including losing weight. People who exercise regularly do build up endurance, but they gain little additional value when their heart rate goes above 80 percent of their maximum. Besides the strain and injuries that can result, the heart is simply working too fast for any benefit, and your body cannot replenish oxygen that quickly. Similarly, regular exercise below the 60 percent mark has little sustainable impact ? though for beginners, it's a good place to start.

So if the research states that around 65% is good for weight loss and 85% good for cardiovascular benefits, does that mean that you won't lose weight if you're regularly at 85%, or will you lose more? 

This last question has always puzzled me as well... If I go to the max will my heart benefit and will I ALSO lose weight?

At 60%, a larger percentage of the calories you burn will be fat. At 80%, a larger percentage will be glycogen and carbs - BUT you will be burning more total calories, so you will probably still be burning a larger quantity of fat than you did at 60%.

Basically, they say that because if your goal is fat loss, you don't NEED to be regularly pushing to 80% or above. If you're trying to improve performance, though, you aren't going to get much benefit plodding around at 60%.

If you're doing HIIT, you do want to be getting to around 180 or 185... about 90% or a little over. Basically, your sprint interval should be as hard as you can go - if you don't feel like you HAVE to slow down when you do, it's just interval training, not HIIT. I wouldn't do that more than once or maybe twice a week, by the way... too much risk of overtraining.