HOW TO CALCULATE HEART RATE ZONES FOR RUNNING ♥️
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Heart rate training is another tool to use besides pace and perceived effort!👇Below are the steps to figure out your heart rate zones👇
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1️⃣ CALCULATE YOUR MAXIMUM HEART RATE. The easiest way to do this is to subtract your age from 220. This is not always accurate because it doesn’t take your genetics or current fitness into account, but it works as a ballpark number. (The most accurate way to figure out your max heart rate is through a stress test administered by a medical professional in a monitored setting) 👩⚕️
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2️⃣ DETERMINE YOUR HEART RATE ZONES. To keep it easy, we will use three zones: Aerobic training zone (50-70% of your max heart rate), tempo/threshold zone (70-85% of your max heart rate), and interval/speed zone (85%+ of your max heart rate). Just multiply your max heart rate by the minimum and maximum percentages in each training zone to get your heart rate training zones
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👇WHY WE LIKE TO PRESCRIBE PACE RANGES INSTEAD OF HEART RATE RANGES👇
♥️Because a lot of runners rely on their wrist-based heart rate monitors (not always accurate) and not many runners know their true max heart rate, we find heart rate to not be the most precise measure of where we want athletes to be training at. Heart rate can be great to keep an eye on, but it’s not the end all-be all
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♥️We find pace to be a more cut and dry measure as it relates to recent race times or time trials. By using a VDOT calculator, we are able to plug in a recent race time/time trial to get appropriate pace ranges from easy runs all the way down to interval workouts!
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👇THE TAKEAWAY👇
💥Using pace, perceived effort, and heart rate is a great way to ensure you are training in the correct zones throughout your training cycle. With any of these measures, remember that many outside factors can affect our running (hydration, sleep, menstruation, life stress, etc.). Not every run will be right on target for pace, perceived effort, or heart rate so looking at the trends will be more important than picking apart every single run!
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