It’s not often that you’ll hear a runner ask ‘What zone are you in?, or ‘What beats per minute are you running?’ It’s more common to hear ‘What’s the pace?’ as a way to gauge how intense a workout will be. But heart-rate training uses – yes, you guessed it – your heart rate or beats per minute (bpm) as a guide to hitting a certain running intensity. Instead of training at a specific pace, you use a heart-rate monitor to train at a specific effort level for a set amount of time.
The idea behind heart rate-based training is that you train your aerobic system without overstressing your skeletal and muscular systems, explains personal trainer Erin Carr. ‘[It] is a different way to be successful at running,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t have to be ‘no pain,
no gain,’ or going as hard as you possibly can, and it allows for continued improvements over time.’
Thanks to technology that’s both more affordable and more accessible than ever, heart-rate training is becoming increasingly popular today, says Joel French, senior director of science, fitness and wellness for Orangetheory Fitness, a group-fitness studio that offers heart rate-based interval workouts.
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‘Monitors are cheap and they’re very accurate,’ he says. ‘Back in the 1970s and earlier, they were only used by elite athletes.’ Now, anyone from recreational runners to professionals can track their heart rate, but the monitors are only useful if your
zones are accurate, too.
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How to find your heart-rate training zones
There are many different formulas that you can use to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) and find your personal heart-rate training zones. The easiest way is by using
an age-based equation – these are straightforward and easy to work with, as they offer a general guideline. The most common rule is simply 220 minus your age – so a 40-year-old would have a theoretical MHR of 180.
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The American College of Sports Medicine, meanwhile, suggests age-based formulas with a lower standard deviation, for example, the Gelish equation: 207 minus (0.7 x age) or Tanaka: 208 minus (0.7 x age).
French, however says that purely age-based equations may not be a good fit for everybody because there are too many factors that can affect their accuracy – such as gender, fitness level and genetics. Also, research has shown that dehydration, heat, altitude, time
of day and natural variation between individuals can all influence heart rate by up to
20 per cent.
The gold standard for finding your maximum heart rate is a treadmill stress test in a lab, but you can simulate one on your own with a heart-rate monitor. At a track, do a warm-up mile or two, followed by a mile at tempo (comfortably hard) pace, then gradually increase your speed over 400 metres before running a final 400m all out. The highest number on your monitor will be close to your maximum heart rate. Or race a 5K at your fastest pace (held consistently throughout), running the last one or two minutes as fast as you can. Your heart rate at the end should be close to your MHR.
Once you’ve established your estimated MHR, you can find your training zones by multiplying your maximum by a percentage. For example, if your max is 180, multiply that by 0.6 and 0.7 to find the range of zone 1 (108-126, for this example). Repeat for zones 2
to 4 with the percentages below.
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Each zone serves a purpose, and how much time you spend in each depends on your training goals. The average marathon runner, for example, will spend more than half the time training in zones 1 and 2 (longer, easier runs, often run at marathon pace) and less than half in zones 3 and 4 (tempo and speed workouts). If you’re completely new to running or returning after a break or injury, French recommends spending six to 12 weeks training in zones 1 and 2 to acclimatise before taking on intervals and harder efforts in zones 3 and 4. Experienced exercisers can often jump right in to intervals. French reiterates that this all depends on your health, performance, race goals and workout preferences. Consult a professional if necessary.
The different zones:
Get started with these heart-race zones created by Janet Hamilton, owner of coaching website Running Strong:
Zone 1
60-70 per cent: this is a very comfortable effort used for warm-ups and cool-downs.
Zone 2
70-80 per cent: used for the bulk of training, this relaxed effort allows you to hold a conversation.
Zone 3
81-93 per cent: this is a comfortably hard effort during which you can only speak in short, broken sentences.
Zone 4
94-100 per cent: often a 5K pace, this is a very hard effort that’s sustainable but only lets you speak a few words at a time.
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Sample sessions:
60% Recovery run – dead slow. It may feel biomechanically odd at first, but it’s important. 30-40 minutes.
60-70% Long, slow runs – up to 65% the body is teaching itself to burn fat as fuel (useful for marathons). Anything from 1-3hrs.
70-85% Fartlek – speedplay (moderate-paced runs with random fast bursts). 30-60 minutes.
70-85% Undulating route – peak at 85% on the climbs. 30-90 minutes.
85% Anaerobic threshold run (or ‘tempo run’) – this teaches your body to run hard for long periods. Approximately 10-mile to half-marathon race pace. Sample session: 1.5 miles at 60%, then 15-20 mins at exactly 85%, then 1.5 miles at 60%.
85-90% Approx 5K-10K pace. Sample sessions: 6 x 800m peaking at 90% in each rep; 5 x 2000m peaking at 85% in each rep.
95% Peak heart rate at 400m rep pace (not full-out race pace). Sample session: 12 x 400m with 200m jog recoveries, making sure recovery heart rate drops to at least 70%.
NB: you can’t usefully use a heart rate monitor to pace intervals below 1000m – rather, the figures above 85% are a guide to what you can expect to reach at the end of each repetition.
What are the benefits of heart rate training?
Heart-rate training prevents you from running too hard on your easy or recovery runs, reducing the risk of fatigue and overtraining; it also helps you to recover. By recovering properly during your easy runs, your legs will also be fresher for your next hard session or race. Equally, you will be able to accurately track your effort in interval sessions, when you want to be working at a higher intensity. Heart-rate training is particularly useful for tempo runs, when getting your exertion level right is important for benefitting from the workout. Training to heart rate also helps you moderate the influence of external factors such as heat and humidity, which require your heart to work harder.
But remember that the change doesn’t happen overnight. Once you’ve dedicated the time and slower miles, the results can be impressive.