I did an 8 mile run at 6:20 pace this morning, it was supposed to be easy, although the pace was a bit fast. My heart rate was 155-163 throughout, what does this show?
I did an 8 mile run at 6:20 pace this morning, it was supposed to be easy, although the pace was a bit fast. My heart rate was 155-163 throughout, what does this show?
It shows that your heart is beating and you are alive unless the meter is faulty, in which case you may be dead.
Noticed the other question. The heart rate that indicates an easy pace is the heart rate you have when running said pace.
So did it feel easy or not?
Yeah relatively, I do have a problem with pushing it a bit hard on easy days though haha so it's hard to tell
You need to go and actually run an easy run, then you will discover what easy feels like and it will feel different than what you did today
On the bike I use HR zones which are based on a test to estimate my lactate threshold heart rate. My max is high so my cutoff for the zones is pretty high, too, and the HR on your run would have been z2 to z3 for me (easy to moderate). At this point in my life I couldn't run 6:20 pace in those zone, however.
For running I use McMillan's pace zones and almost always keep my easy runs in the range given there. Jack Daniels VDOT should give you a similar range for an easy pace run.
About 60% of the difference between your resting and max heart rates.
Thanks for the information and advice dude
Easy = 65% - 75% of max HR. Find your max HR through a race of 1 mile to 5k
I would say less than 75 or 80% of your max.
If you want to use HR as a training tool, search for Joe Friel and heart rate training zones. The problem with most HR training zones is that they are a relatively wide zone of maybe 10 beats. For me, 10 beats would be about 50 seconds per mile difference in pace, way too much to be a useful training tool.
Friel shows how to do a 30 minute run at your 1 hour race pace to determine your lactate threshold. (I can't remember the term he uses. I'll call it AT.)
Example: Using the traditional formulas for range of training zones, my AT might be 155-167. Huge difference in training pace. You have to run it several times to figure out where in that range you fit. Using the Friel method, I've determined that my AT is at or very near 161-162 bpm. Over that HR and I'll have to slow down within a mile or so. Under that HR, I can run for an hour.
Your training run going from 155-163 indicates (probably) that you were running too fast. After the first couple of miles, your HR should stabilize and you shouldn't vary too much after that. OR... it could indicate that you aren't sufficiently recovered from the previous day. OR... you have a cold or flu. If your HR goes up a couple of beats by the end of the run, that's okay, but an increase of 8 beats (after the first couple of miles) indicates that for you on that day, this is not an easy run.
Anything between 70% and 80% of MHR should feel easy for eight miles.