Running is the one exercise I am consistent with. Even if I have a gap, I will return to it. Over the summer I did a heart zone training plan. Why? Well, after buying a Garmin watch – and running my usual 5km – I noticed that my heart was continually working at maximum. This didn’t seem good at all, so I decided to do a running plan that prioritised a healthy heart. Welcome to the world of heart-zone running.
If you’d rather watch than read, here’s a short video where I talk through my experience with heart zone training.
Why use Heart Zones
Heart zone training isn’t just for elite athletes. It’s widely used in endurance training because it helps balance effort and recovery. Research in exercise physiology shows that spending more time in lower intensity zones (often called Zone 2 training) supports aerobic development, improves cardiovascular efficiency and helps the body use oxygen more effectively.
Although I’d heard of Heart Zones, I didn’t know much about it. I thought it was for ‘serious’ runners and athletes. Not me surely?! But then I found out that heart zone training is applicable whatever your level of training using the ratio 80/20 – that is training 80% in heart zone 2 and 20% in heart zone 4. It’s based on your personalised heart rate and not that of Mo Farrah or Keely Hodgkinson (lucky for me). The benefits include:
- Improved cardiovascular and heart health
- Improved fat burning (good for weight loss)
- Faster recovery between exercise
- Builds endurance
All of this sounded good to me. For all my running so far, I didn’t think I’d improved in any of these areas. I could run faster, but was I any healthier or fitter? Afterall, one of the main goals that keeps me running is to stay healthy as I age.
So what is a Heart rate Zone?
Heart rate zones are commonly used in sports science to guide training intensity. They are based on a percentage of your maximum heart rate (HRmax), which gives a personalised way to measure effort rather than relying on pace alone.
When it comes to exercising, there are 5 heart zones, ranging from a warm-up to working at HRmax. The important thing I learnt is how your body and heart responds in each heart zone:
Heart zone 1 – 50-60% HRmax. warm up.
Heart zone 2 – 60-70% HRmax. Easy. Easy to recover from. Fat burning
Heart Zone 3 – 70-80% HRmax. Moderate. Aerobic, fat burning, starting to burn carbs and protein
Heart Zone 4 – 80-90% HRmax. Hard. carbs and protein burning
Heart Zone 5 – 90-100% HRmax. Maximum. Burning carbs and protein
So, I could quickly see why running in heart zone 5 was not helping me at all; why I wasn’t feeling fitter and why I wasn’t particularly experiencing much weight loss. I needed to change that and run smarter.
If, like me, you’ve ever wondered how your body adapts to exercise and load over time, it links closely to how soft tissue recovery works. Using heart rate zone helps me to be smarter with my running.r
How to calculate your individual Heart Rate Zones
Your first step is to find out what your HRMax is and it can seem a little daunting on how to do that. This is because there are a lot of different formulas, some are more accurate than others. All of them involve a bit of maths (not my speciality), unless you use a web-based calculator (there are many).
The most commonly used is the Fox Formula: 220 minus ‘your age’ to give you your HRMax. The Tanaka Formula is ‘your age’ x 0.7 and then subtracting that from 208. Meanwhile, the Hunt Formula – for people who are active – uses ‘your age’ x 0.64 and subtracting that from 211. There are websites that will help you calculate your HRmax and I did try them (but it’s really possible to do it yourself). They may ask you if you are on certain medication, like beta blockers, but they will give you a general indication of what your HRmax is.
To be more accurate, you will need to do Stress Test either on a treadmill or the road. This involves running flat out for a certain period of time and then checking your pulse or, if you are wearing one, using a chest rate monitor (predominately designed to be worn by men I found).
These formulas can seem very scientific and confusing. The stress test is more specific to you and, therefore, more accurate, but I couldn’t be certain I could do it correctly very easily. So I started with the Fox Formula and input the results into my watch. Easy. I’d cracked it. I was ready to start. Wrong! It turned out I needed to factor in one more thing – my resting heart.
While formulas like the Fox and Tanaka methods are widely used, they provide estimates. Research suggests individual variation can be significant, which is why perceived effort and consistency are just as important as exact numbers.
Teething problems with Heart Zones
As I set off on the first run of my 12 week plan I honestly had no idea how challenging it would be. Until this point, most running apps are really focussed on how fast you are running. They tell you fast you are per km, what your splits are, what your pace was and how you compared to other runners. You are rewarded for speed.
So, it came as a shock to find my watch repeatedly telling me that I was running too fast for my heart and that running at all was a bad idea. I was frustrated, more than a little angry and ready to give up. And this was only week 1! This is when my resting heart came to my rescue.
Your resting heart is how fast the adult heart beats per minute. It’s normally between 60-100bpm while resting. Sitting still for 5-10 minutes and then taking your pulse can tell you what your resting heart is. It is an indicator of heart health. Regular exercise can lower your resting heart. Think of it as a reserve that your heart can tap into to help out during exercise. Luckily, my watch keeps a record of what my resting heart is. Once I entered that, my percentages for each heart zone changed. Suddenly I could run.
Taking it to the VO2 Max
In addition to my resting heart, there was one other unexpected thing that came to my rescue and that is the VO2 max reading on my watch. VO2 Max tells you how much oxygen your body is using during exercise. It indicates your endurance levels and indicates how fit you are. Before the plan, my watch had stubbornly indicated my VO2 levels as fair, occasionally good. However, at my lowest ebb, when I seriously considered lying about my HRmax because I just didn’t seem able to run, I noticed that the VO2 max had suddenly gone from good to excellent. It brought me up short and made me realise that the plan was actually starting to work.
VO2 max is a well-established measure of aerobic fitness and is often used to assess cardiovascular endurance. Improvements here are a good indicator that your training is having a positive effect.
Heart Zone 2, it’s harder (and easier) than you think
For me, it’s literally about the change of pace. Instead of running like a dervish (or Dill the Dog if you remember the Magic Roundabout), I discovered that I had to get used to running slowly. To begin with this was really slowly, much slower than any other runners I came across. I was no longer a hare but a tortoise. But week by week the running started to become more consistent. I found that the pace I used to have in heart zone 5, I could more easily do in heart zone 3 or 4. The plan revolved around shorter recovery runs, longer runs, interval runs and threshold runs.
Interval running involves running in different heart zones (usually zones 2-4) for certain number of minutes and then repeating. Your heart learns to work and recover repeatedly, making it stronger. You can literally feel the benefits on subsequent runs and your VO2 Max levels. I found that my heart health dramatically started to improve and I’ve become a committed convert.
For threshold runs your heart work almost to HRMax before it recovering. The first time I had to run for 60 minutes in heart zone 2, before switching to Heart zone 4 for 10 minutes was daunting. But I was able to do it without any trouble and enjoy it
The long run is just that – running for 60, 70 or 80 minutes in zone 2. I didn’t think I could do it. It was with some shock that I found I could run for almost 9km easily in heart zone 2! Just how did I manage that? The plan built endurance and that is essential for any runner.
Recovery runs are designed to do exactly what they say. Run for a short time (about 20-30 minutes) the day after a long run. I found that they both helped me recover from the long run and acted as a preparation for the other runs that would follow.
Over the course of the 12 week plan I had to learn how to run 4 times a week whatever the weather was. I did and could run in the rain (who knew). The structure of the plan became easier to follow week by week. Each run was demanding in its own way and acted as the building block to a stronger heart and a fitter, healthier me.
How I run now
Running in heart zone 2 has become the norm for me. I still follow the same structure of the plan: recovery, intervals, threshold and long runs. The long runs have become a particular joy. They are a sign of my heart’s growing endurance. I will pull on my running gear and waterproofs even if it is raining rather than think ‘not today, no way’. I’m happy to run at my own pace, rather than compare myself to the next runner that passes me. I’ve become a contented, smarter runner who no longer worries whether their heart is up to the run.
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References
- American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription.
- Seiler, S. (2010). What is best practice for training intensity distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.
- Midgley, A. W., et al. (2007). Criteria for determination of maximal oxygen uptake. Sports Medicine.
- Tanaka, H., Monahan, K. D., & Seals, D. R. (2001). Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
If your body isn’t responding as you’d like to training, having some hands-on support alongside your running can make a real difference.