The Quick Guide to Running Heart Rate Zones

Understanding your running heart rate zones, before, during, and at peak exercise will help you become a better runner. It’s why you see more and more running watches incorporating this feature even in the base models.

Heart rate training prevents you from running too hard or too easy, allowing you to recover better, enhance performance, and reduce the risk of overtraining.

Step 1 is understanding YOUR personal heart rate zones for training and then more importantly how to effectively use them. Because running data without a purpose is just another number to fret over.

What are Heart Rate Zones for Running?

In between our resting and max heart rates lies a range of 5 heart rate zones that correspond to workouts of varying intensities that range from very light to very hard.

The MOST accurate way to find your zones is to do a VO2 Max test, but that’s not often accessible for many so instead we try to generalize either with an rate of perceived exertion or through running heart rate.

Below is an example of a test I did…wayyyy back in 2010 when I was super sick. My HR was quite a bit higher than it is now when I run in those zones, which is one of the ways that HR training can help you monitor fitness.

As your fitness improves, you’ll be able to run the same  paces at a lower HR, which means your body has become more efficient.

Most training plans include a variety of workouts targeted at the different zones, like easy days, tempo runs, speed work, and long slow distance.

Incorporating workouts of varying difficulties teaches your body to more efficiently use its aerobic and anaerobic systems.

There are five training zones that can help you dictate your exertion level based on your BPM (beats per minute).

Rather than training at a pace that feels hard or easy, you let your heart rate determine the speed and the quality of the workout. Your body knows when it’s working hard, even if you think the pace means it’s not.

What are HR Zones?

Following is a overview of each zone and examples of how it might be used. Please note that none of these apply if you are doing Low Heart Rate training, that is 1 max HR and no zones.

Zone 1: Very Light – 50 to 60 percent of MHR

Reserve Zone 1 for your warm up and recovery runs where low intensity is the goal.

Running in this zone feels like you could keep going for hours and is excellent when we start running and are building a base. It’s a great way to build stamina, allowing you to exercise multiple days without accumulating a lot of fatigue.

Zone 2: Light – 60 to 70 percent of MHR

Most of your long runs and easy runs should fall in Zone 2.

These runs aren’t as easy as Zone 1, but you can still maintain a conversation and should not finish the run feeling completely wiped out. This is the hardest zone for many endurance athletes because they may often feel the pace is too slow, but it’s exactly what the body needs to build endurance.

Your marathon pace will likely start in Zone 2 and move in to Zone 3 or 4 by the end of the race.

Zone 3: Moderate – 70 to 80 percent of MHR

This is your tempo run pace, used to develop speed and strength and provide the most cardiovascular benefit.

Runs in Zone 3 should last about 30-45 minutes. The pace is comfortably hard; conversations are limited to a word or two at a time.

This is the Zone that too many runners do their easy runs in, which results in overtraining.

Read more about why we call Zone 3 Gray Zone training.

Zone 4: Intervals or Fartleks, 80 to 90 percent of MHR

Zone 4 teaches your body to run at its lactate threshold. You should be working on fast twitch muscles and find this is a hard effort you could only hold for up to a 5K or for mile repeats depending on intensity.

This is the effort where your body relies on carbs for quick energy.

Zone 5: 400 repeats or finishing a race, 90 to 100 percent of MHR

This is your maximum effort and should last under five minutes per session. You would use this pace as you near the finish line of a race or during shorter speed workouts, like 200- and 400-meter repeats.

This HR Zone Chart gives you a good breakdown of the above listed zones.

What is a Good Running Heart Rate?

The average heart rate varies from person to person and is based on a number of factors, including:

• Age
• Fitness level
• Medications
• Stress levels
• Gender
• Genetics
• Caffeine intake

Research has also shown that dehydration, temperature, altitude, and even time of day can affect heart rate by up to 20 percent.

What that means is that heart rate can change from one day to the next, so take an average of your heart rate in the beginning so you can learn more about how your body reacts to different stress.

This can also make HR training frustrating for many runners because they are suddenly doing easy runs at a much slower pace, but in return the body is recovering faster and ensuring you have energy to go hard on speed work days.

How to Calculate Maximum Heart Rate for Running?

Everyone has both a maximum and resting heart rate. Knowing both will help you get the most from your training by targeting heart rates that fall in between your minimum and maximum heart rate.

Now that you know your resting heart rate, it’s time to calculate your maximum heart rate.

There are a few different calculations you can use.

For the math, we’ll use a 40-year-old woman as an example.

Fox formula: 220 – age = 180

Tanaka formula: 208 – (age x 0.7) = 180

Gulati formula: 206 – (age x .88) = 170.8

**Women may find more accurate results using the Gulati formula. Other formulas are derived from research on men, and seem to overestimate the max heart rate for women.

These calculations are great for getting estimates, but what if you do a sprint workout and exceed that maximum?

This doesn’t mean that your heart is going to burst out of your chest, rather it means that the calculated number isn’t your true maximum heart rate.

How to Find Your Max Heart Rate?

There are a few different ways to test for your absolutely MHR, so that you can then better use the running heart rate training zones. If you don’t have that top number correct it’s going to skew everything.

Many of you who ask me about running with a high heart rate, are going to want to do this test to find your true max.

Lab Test

The best way to find out your max heart rate is on a treadmill at a lab through a VO2Max Test. This is expensive and a little nauseating, but honestly I love these kinds of tests and all the data. So I was happy to submit myself to it!

Track Test

1. Start with a one to two-mile warm up
2. Run a mile at tempo pace
3. Run 400m faster
4. Run 400m as fast as you can go.
5. The highest recorded number is your max heart rate.

Use a 5K

Another way to find out your max heart rate is to run a 5k all out. Go as fast as you can sustain over the course. Your highest reading, likely toward the end of the race, will be your max.

This is probably my preferred method for most runners because it’s the easiest way to really push yourself and you’ll also set a good baseline for your running paces.

How to Use Heart Rate for Training Training

There are two main methods of training according to your heart rate: the Maffetone Method and Heart Rate Zones.

Both will help train your body to run more efficiently, but in very different ways.

Low Heart Rate Training/The Maffetone Method

My preferred method of training because it forces people to build a base for running is LHR.

• This method trains your body to burn more stored fat for energy and perform endurance activities faster over time while remaining at the same heart rate.
• The goal during training is to never exceed that heart rate.
•  In the beginning, running may feel excruciatingly slow, but trust that you will get faster over time.
• After you build a solid base and are no longer progressing using just your MAX hr, you can start to add in speed work again for 20% of your weekly run time.

To calculate your maximum heart rate for low heart rate training, use his 180 formula:

180 – age = maximum HR for all workouts

There are nuances after that, but that’s the overall basic formula.

I’ve written many articles about low heart rate training. Start here to get a full understanding of how and why it works.

Target Heart Rate Zones For Training

As described above you can use Zone training to run your best race.

It’s going to involve finding a training plan that lists your workouts in Zones or understanding that 80% of your runs should be easy which means Zone 1 and 2.

That final 20% is where you work through the upper zones in those hard speed work days.

Resting Heart Rate for Runners?

Besides knowing your Max HR for running, it’s also important to know your resting HR as a runner.

This is quite literally your average heart rate while at rest.

• The most accurate measurement is first thing in the morning just after you have woken up and before you get out of bed.
• Many phones have a built in app that will record your heart rate using the fingerprint sensor, otherwise, you can go old school and use your fingers and a timer.
• With the first two index fingers, find the pulse on your wrist or your carotid artery on your neck and count the number of heart beats over 10 seconds. Multiply that number by 6 to get your resting heart rate.

For the average person, resting heart rate ranges between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm).

Seasoned runners and elite athletes tend to have lower heart rates, sometimes as low as 40 bpm. This is because their muscles are in top condition and the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood to the body.

Most marathon runners will find their Avg resting HR between 45-65.

What’s truly important is to monitor your resting HR over time.

• If your resting HR is increasing it’s a sign of overtraining or illness
• If your resting HR is decreasing it’s a sign of improved fitness
• HOWEVER, if it just keeps dropping say you’re hitting 40 and you aren’t feeling well it’s also a sign of overtraining

What Happens When Your Heart Rate is Too High?

Exceeding your maximum heart rate for long periods of time can cause health problems such as:

• Arrhythmia
• Chest pain
• Over training
• Discomfort (leading to not consistently running)

Furthermore, it will only hinder, not help, your running. Training consistently at a high heart rate won’t teach your body to burn fat for energy over long periods of time.

More importantly training at 75% of your MHR or higher won’t allow your body to recover or train the lactic threshold system.

Overtraining will likely lead to injury, burnout, and plateau during races.

Signs that your heart rate is too high include:

• Dizziness
• Difficulty breathing
• Inability to talk
• Cannot catch breath

If you find yourself pushing too hard during a training run or race, slow down, walking if necessary, and focus on your breathing until your heart has reached a slower rate.

Slowing down may feel counter intuitive, but remember, there’s a benefit to going hard on hard days and taking your recovery days easy peasy.

Measuring Your BPM with a Heart Rate Monitor

A heart rate monitor is a wearable device that measures and displays your bpm to another device such as a watch or phone. Most importantly, they give you actionable data to learn if you’re pushing too hard, or not enough during your training.

Do you really need one to train? No. Do you really need one to train with accuracy in order to achieve your running goals? Probably.

Click here for Part 2: Looking at the Best Heart Rate Monitor for Running – Comparing straps, watches and more.

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