Are You Making These Heart Rate Run Training Mistakes?

3-Zone vs 5-Zone Heart Rate Training Explained

First up, let’s hit the basics. A few words we’ll be using:

• Heart rate (HR) — how many times your heart beats per minute. It increases the harder you work, to get more oxygen flowing around your body.
• Anaerobic training — when you’re using more oxygen to exercise than you’re able to take in. Also called the ‘red area’.

Obvious stuff out of the way, first. Since your heart beats faster the harder it’s working, your heart rate is your number one tool for insights into your training and performance. You can find out your heart rate by using a smartwatch, but you’ll get more accurate readings by using a chest-strap heart rate monitor.

The classic 5-zone heart rate training model was developed by Polar heart rate monitors back in the nineties when chest strap heart rate monitors first came out. The company needed a way to help runners use their heart rate data with their training, and the zones as we know them were born. If your MHR is 180, then a HR of 90 beats per minute is working at 50% (of your MHR).

Here are the 5 zones in the basic 5-zone HR training model:

• Zone 1: 50% — 60%, aerobic
• Zone 2: 60% — 70%, aerobic
• Zone 3: 70% — 80%, anaerobic threshold zone
• Zone 4: 80% — 90%, anaerobic
• Zone 5: above 90%, anaerobic

That’s a lot of zones, and we’re just going to get super honest: the differences between zones 1 and 2 (and 4 and 5) don’t make a big difference to the average running. So a big shout out to Steven Sealer, who reduced the model to 3-zones:

• Zone 1: 50% — 70%, aerobic
• Zone 2: 70% — 80%, anaerobic threshold
• Zone 3: above 80%, anaerobic

For most runners, it really is that simple. To get started using HR in your training, calculate your maximum heart rate and take 70% of that. Go out and run with your heart rate monitor and get a feeling for what that’s like. You want to learn to read your body and know what these heart rates feel like.

Zone 1 is aerobic and you can breathe easily. Zone 2 isn’t really enjoyable, you’re breathing heavier — but you can keep going for about half an hour or so. Zone 2 is what we call the grey zone. If you’re running and you really can’t keep it going for more than a lap and your breathing’s through the roof, then you know you’re in zone 3.

Why do you need to learn how your body feels in these zones? Let’s be honest, you don’t want to be staring at your watch the whole time you’re running — you have to watch the road, too! Just like when you’re in a car and don’t stare at the odometer the whole time you’re driving. You get a feel for what the car feels like when it’s going 30 miles per hour, and you just glance at the odometer occasionally. It should be the same for your running.

We’ve been talking about how different HRs feel, and it’s important to note that this is different from perceived effort, which is another way to measure exertion when you’re exercising. The Bo scale of perceived exertion is based on a score of 1 to 20, and it’s a valid scientific tool used in research and hospitals. A 20 is full out, absolute max.

So, an easy run might be a 6 out of 20, just jogging along. A marathon pace might start at a 10, but finish at a 20 at the finish line because everything in your body hurts. But this perceived scale is different from heart rate, because it includes other factors such as tiredness and muscle fatigue. It can be used in conjunction with heart rate as another measure, but HR is our go-to for training.

In the full podcast episode, we dive into more details and have a few more side conversations, which may or may not be your thing.

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