High heart rate on easy runs despite my pbs

This is false. Heart rate varies wildly day to day based on weather conditions, time of day, recovery state, fueling, and much more. Lactate is much more consistent, and practical!

Before he goes off and buys another strap, the first thing he can and should do, as stated earlier in the thread, is simply check it against a manual pulse measurement.

No, heart rate training is extremely useful, but ONLY IF THE DATA IS ACCURATE. The ubiquity of a simple wrist monitor in the hands of everyone has unfortunately made it quite easy to get bogus data, consequently resulting in random yahoos deriding heart rate training.

A strap, rather than optical measurement on the wrist, is essential to get good heart rate measurements, and the chest strap with electrodes straddling the heart is the gold standard for commercially available off-the-shelf heart rate measurement equipment.

Pure stupidity. Anyone that has done lactate testing knows it too can vary based on those things, and more so, related to its propensity for corrupted measurements.

Get in touch with Will Goodge. He seems to have it figured out.

If you look at enough data on Strava, you'll see that heart rate varies from individual to individual, so there's not much point in comparing to someone else.

I've seen runners who are faster than me with easy run heart rates higher than my typical threshold heart rate.

But are all of those people on Strava actually using a strap??

The answer is most likely, no, so their data is questionable at best, and likely, periodically, garbage, without using a strap.

A chest strap is cold on a cold morning. It doesn’t always feel comfortable. It sometimes rubs the skin raw in places. It is a hassle to deal with. It sometimes gets misplaced or forgotten and left at home.

There are a whole host of reasons the majority of runners don’t use straps, besides them not realizing that their data is typically bogus if they didn’t use a strap. But that doesn’t dissuade them from putting that bogus data up on strava.

Either you have bad data (bad strap, watch issues) or you are aerobically underdeveloped. You don’t need to bike. Just put in more volume w/ your HR sub 75% of max HR and you should get much better. In my experience, decent runners who are aerobically underdeveloped have the most potential for improvement.

Agree with you, but running at 5:40/km? :D..

There are at least a couple of mainline thoughts on what you say regarding aerobic development. But the disparity in thought is due to the confusion on what physiologically is being developed.

Unquestionably, running VO2max sessions can rapidly develop one cardiovascularly, particularly since the heart muscle will rapidly adapt in size with each session. A bigger heart, with bigger stroke volume can flush the tissues with more blood at rest.

However, it is the mitrochondria development being primarily addressed with the voluminous , slower time-on-feet aerobic runs.

Whether you use a strap or wrist, isn't it somewhat logical that if you are consistently using the same method to measure and you see variance, that something is not kosher? FWIW,. I had a conversation with Roy Bensen and while he stated that the chest strap is more accurate, he also said to make sure your watch was on tightly if you are using the optical measurement.

Heat and hydration levels affect heart rate dramatically so that needs to be a factor.

I've always had a high heart rate, one of those guys in college who would hit 210 and now in my 50s I routinely hit 170s on a not super hard run. I've found that running by feel and monitoring your heartrate together and drawing conclusions based on both works pretty well for me. Plus sometimes you just need to entirely ignore your watch and just run easy and don't worry about it. Remember this is supposed to be fun.

The heart rate is a good metric, but, as others pointed out, there can be a very large variation between individuals. Absolute values do not mean much. I would also add that max heart rate measurements can sometimes be wildly inaccurate (usually underestimated because it is not that easy to reach max heart rate).
What is meaningful is the variation of YOUR heart rate between different training periods, It your heart rate used to be 140 at 5 min/km and now it is 155 at the same pace, that is a symptom that something is off. If it has always been 155, that may just be your physiology.
If easy runs feel easy, I would not worry about the heart rate, as long as it is consistent. At your age, to get below 150, I had to be basically walking.

I've never met an elite-level runner who focuses on heart rate in training. But I have met many hobby joggers that do.

Because their heart rate is low on easy runs despiste 4:00 to 4:10/km pace..

If you are sleeping, hydrating, eating properly, and genuinely taking your easy runs easy, it should sort itself out. I wouldn't stress about it on the day to during workouts.

Over years of training I have found out for myself, the biggest benefit for monitoring heart rate is when I'm sleeping.

If I see my average resting heart rate and lowest BPM of the night start to creep upward over a 2-4 days thats probably a good sign that I'm either pushing too hard, about to get a sick, and I am more run down in general. In those situations I just throw in some lower volume or lower intensity days, focus on hydration, extra sleep, etc and it sorts itself out and I'm back to normal. If I keep pushing through it, workouts begin to fall apart, I get over fatigued, and dig a hole for myself that will take longer to get out of and will be detrimental to training.

A stitch in time saves nine.

You're putting the cart before the horse here.

They don't use heart rate simply because it isn't that useful to training, especially at easy paces. They're going by feel. Just like my college teammate, their heart rate at their easy pace could very well be 150-160bpm too.

But again, you're operating off the assumption that your heart rate is too high, likely because most 'heart rate zones' published online place 155 bpm in a higher zone - when, in reality, you cannot accurately place any one heart rate within a 'zone.' There is simply too much individual variation, and preset heart rate zones cannot accurately predict the appropriate effort. You said it yourself!

"im not tired or having breathing issues"

Boom, case closed! You're running plenty easy enough (in fact with a 15:19 5K you could easily do your easy running closer to 7-7:30/mi), but you have a preconceived notion about what "easy" heart rate should be. That notion is why I have such a big issue with heart rate-based training. 155bpm is your easy run heart rate, and you know that because... you're running easy!

Yes, heart rate can inform, but it shouldn't dictate.

Go to a cardiologist for a basic heart exam. U need to rule out Afib

I did a ECG and a stress test on a treadmill, doctor said everything was perfect and i was in a great shape/healthy