I’m a female college xc runner, and lately on really easy runs (8:30-8:40 pace) my average HR is only 120. I noticed it on my gps watch and then checked it manually and sure enough it was only 120. For example I went for an easy 3 mile run today and my heart rate didn’t exceed 130 and averaged 122 bpm. I feel like this is way too low and am kinda concerned. Is this normal?
Low heart rate on easy runs?
Training Advice/Discussion
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Easy runs are meant to be easy.
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An easy run should be longer than 3 miles, unless you have a major championship the next morning. I'd check it after 5 or 8 miles. It will probably go up.
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runner20 wrote:
I’m a female college xc runner, and lately on really easy runs (8:30-8:40 pace) my average HR is only 120. I noticed it on my gps watch and then checked it manually and sure enough it was only 120. For example I went for an easy 3 mile run today and my heart rate didn’t exceed 130 and averaged 122 bpm. I feel like this is way too low and am kinda concerned. Is this normal?
Be curious to know what your 5k time is. Assuming female college runner then common range here would be 16:xx-18:xx. For someone like that, 8:30 pace is well into recovery territory.
In general if you're a 190-200 typical max HR near end of races kind of person, that's towards the lower side, but still recovery is recovery. If I had to guess, and you spend large portions of races above 190bpm and are running recoveries like this I would guess you're a 16 or 17' gal for 5000.
If you're someone who tends to only max 150-170 then it's still normal, but usually indicates closer to an easy pace rather than a hard pace. If you're this kind of person, I'd be expecting 18'-20' fitness.
Either way, 120bpm during an easy run is a very normal thing. -
I have no name wrote:
An easy run should be longer than 3 miles, unless you have a major championship the next morning. I'd check it after 5 or 8 miles. It will probably go up.
For an easy jog less than an hour I wouldn't expect much HR drift. For harder workouts or ones well over an hour, drift is normal; especially if it's hot and/or you're not replacing fluids. -
To answer the question above, my 5k PR isn’t anything great, it’s 18:20 (on the track) and 18:40 for xc. My max HR is around 200. My resting HR has decreased a lot lately and is 33 bpm, which also concerns me a little. I’m not sure if that would affect my heart rate on runs or not
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runner20 wrote:
To answer the question above, my 5k PR isn’t anything great, it’s 18:20 (on the track) and 18:40 for xc. My max HR is around 200. My resting HR has decreased a lot lately and is 33 bpm, which also concerns me a little. I’m not sure if that would affect my heart rate on runs or not
That resting HR by itself nor the running HR are worrisome whatsoever. Typical athlete values. Also guessing from these posts, you're probably a high stress type. Most people aren't worried about their HR when it's within normal values like 120 when you're running.
Odd things would be if you had sudden drop in HR (i.e. one week those runs were 160 and now they are 120), were feeling poor, having palpitations, etc.
In all likelihood you're just getting fitter and likely to pop a PR soon. -
That's not crazy low. I run sub 100bpm at 8:00 pace if I'm half fit. At my best I could run 7:15 pace at 100bpm.
But that doesn't say anything about the ability to run faster at higher HRs. Trust me on that. I am often unable to get my HR high enough to run tempos when I am running high mileage, lower quality phases. -
Yes its too low. I would look up on parasympathetic overtraining..
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runner20 wrote:
I’m a female college xc runner, and lately on really easy runs (8:30-8:40 pace) my average HR is only 120. I noticed it on my gps watch and then checked it manually and sure enough it was only 120. For example I went for an easy 3 mile run today and my heart rate didn’t exceed 130 and averaged 122 bpm. I feel like this is way too low and am kinda concerned. Is this normal?
What's your rest HR? -
It’s not too low, ignore that fool.
My max is 193, recovery for me is usually -
I was saying....
Recovert for me goes from 120-130 depending on sleep, streds, time of day etc.
Also, if it lowers it’s a sign of fitness gains...eg
8:30 last year was 135 average
8:30 this year is 125 average
You’re welcome 😇 -
Try to speed up a little to 8- 8.05 pace on your easy runs and you will see your heartrate will come up to a good level. I don`t agree with runners and coaches that say you can`t run too slow.
runner20 wrote:
I’m a female college xc runner, and lately on really easy runs (8:30-8:40 pace) my average HR is only 120. I noticed it on my gps watch and then checked it manually and sure enough it was only 120. For example I went for an easy 3 mile run today and my heart rate didn’t exceed 130 and averaged 122 bpm. I feel like this is way too low and am kinda concerned. Is this normal? -
You need to figure out your max hr (warm up and then do an all out 800 m on the track. Rest for 45 seconds and do a 400 flat out. Your hr at the end should be about your max (don’t use the conversions). Once you know this data, do easy runs between 70 - 75 % of this max hr (this is in line with what Hadd says about easy runs).
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runner20 wrote:
To answer the question above, my 5k PR isn’t anything great, it’s 18:20 (on the track) and 18:40 for xc. My max HR is around 200. My resting HR has decreased a lot lately and is 33 bpm, which also concerns me a little. I’m not sure if that would affect my heart rate on runs or not
All of your heart rates have come down because your plasma volume of your blood has gone up. This is a normal response to distance training. -
Lasse Viren would sometimes jog at 80bpm.
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Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both yes and no.
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Not low at all. Most of my easy runs are at around 115 to 120. Anything from 95 to 140 can feel easy for me.
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Everyone is different. I'm a 17:xx runner. Max is +- 190, a short jog with my aging dog at 8:30-9 pace would fall around 110-115.
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runner20 wrote:
I’m a female college xc runner, and lately on really easy runs (8:30-8:40 pace) my average HR is only 120. I noticed it on my gps watch and then checked it manually and sure enough it was only 120. For example I went for an easy 3 mile run today and my heart rate didn’t exceed 130 and averaged 122 bpm. I feel like this is way too low and am kinda concerned. Is this normal?
This is actually very good.
runner20 wrote:
To answer the question above, my 5k PR isn’t anything great, it’s 18:20 (on the track) and 18:40 for xc. My max HR is around 200. My resting HR has decreased a lot lately and is 33 bpm, which also concerns me a little. I’m not sure if that would affect my heart rate on runs or not
200 is in Lasse Viren territory. You're in good company. My resting heart rate was 33 to 35 at age 20.
