@quotewarz Might be that you’re walking in place, since that takes less effort than propelling yourself forward in normal walking/running, and heart rate is an analog for effort. But if it’s working for you great!
How do I run in zone 2?
- Thread starter rbrbrb2
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- female fitness
@nox617 i feel like you've misunderstood my question or i haven't myself clear enough
i know walking in place takes way less effort than actual walking, i wouldn't even be able to actually walk 150/min cadence for 60 minutes, so yeah i know what i am doing easier and that's exactly what's my question is about: how come doing something this easy can put me in zone 2?
btw when i say "easy" i use that term relative to what i see others doing, but jogging in place is not that easy for me
i know walking in place takes way less effort than actual walking, i wouldn't even be able to actually walk 150/min cadence for 60 minutes, so yeah i know what i am doing easier and that's exactly what's my question is about: how come doing something this easy can put me in zone 2?
btw when i say "easy" i use that term relative to what i see others doing, but jogging in place is not that easy for me
@quotewarz Oh, I see, I must have misread! It could just be that you don’t have a strong cardiovascular base yet, which will improve with time. I still can’t stay in zone 2 running without walking some, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of either. It’s just that if you keep working you will get stronger 
shelbyville87
New member
@rbrbrb2 I started HR training on a treadmill in March. I'd been running since 2015 but read 80/20 as part of a coaching certification so I thought I'd try it. I am sharing my stats to make others feel OK about theirs! Before this, most of my easy runs were 4.8-5.2, and my 10K pace was under 11 min/mi.
March: Zone 2 was 3.8 on the treadmill with walking breaks every 5-10 minutes. I stopped running outside bc I couldn't keep my HR down. I didn't do any zone 1, and did some intervals here and there. I ran 3-4 times a week.
August: started training for a half, doing a more structured 80/20 plan (5 days a week, lots more speedwork than I had ever done before) that I modified. Zone 2 is now 4.2-4.3, zone 1 is 3.4, no walking. My zone 2 HR doesn't spike anymore and I can run outside in zone 2! My speedwork gets faster and easier. My legs NEVER hurt, unlike every other time I've trained for a half.
All of this to say, IT TAKES TIME and you have to go slower than you want! I ran a lot before I started this and it was really hard in the beginning. Give yourself some grace and patience. If you stick with it, it's really worth it!
March: Zone 2 was 3.8 on the treadmill with walking breaks every 5-10 minutes. I stopped running outside bc I couldn't keep my HR down. I didn't do any zone 1, and did some intervals here and there. I ran 3-4 times a week.
August: started training for a half, doing a more structured 80/20 plan (5 days a week, lots more speedwork than I had ever done before) that I modified. Zone 2 is now 4.2-4.3, zone 1 is 3.4, no walking. My zone 2 HR doesn't spike anymore and I can run outside in zone 2! My speedwork gets faster and easier. My legs NEVER hurt, unlike every other time I've trained for a half.
All of this to say, IT TAKES TIME and you have to go slower than you want! I ran a lot before I started this and it was really hard in the beginning. Give yourself some grace and patience. If you stick with it, it's really worth it!
@shelbyville87 Thank you, it is frustrating to try and run slower. Thank you for sharing
christan4lyfe101
New member
@christan4lyfe101 That’s awesome, I’ve done 4 munros this year and I don’t remember my hr in any of them as we took loads of breaks how high is he aiming?
how high is he aiming?christan4lyfe101
New member
@christan4lyfe101 Wow that looks amazing!
@rbrbrb2 Hello!! I'm an experienced runner and ultra-marathoner, and thought I would chime in.
- I agree with walk/running as a great approach! and even now, when I do HR training, I have to walk the hills bc my HR will jump up
- How do you feel while you're running? could you carry on a normal conversation the entire time without getting out of breath? could you breathe through your nose while running?
- What kind of HRM do you have? chest is most accurate, and if you're using wrist sometimes that can lock on your cadence and override the HR. I have this problem, and my cadence is high, so it will sometimes report a 180 HR when really, I'm doing 180 steps per minute
- how did you determine your HR zones? agree with all others, the standard 220-age is often wrong.
@catzetier I use my garmin to measure my HR, and when I’m on the treadmill I will periodically hold the sensors to see if they are both reporting the same HR, they are usually within 2-3 beats of each other. I certainly could not carry a conversation, and I try and control my breathing by breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, but for any runs over half an hour I usually end up doing a sort of double breath in, big breath out, and that rhythm helps me keep going.
It’s usually my calves or joints that cause me to stop running, not my cardio, so I feel like I’m not pushing my cardio because I’m not huffing and puffing, so I don’t understand why my HR is so high, though I do sweat a lot. I want to run the longer distances (20km+). It’s my dream to run an ultra, I can’t even imagine lol.
It’s usually my calves or joints that cause me to stop running, not my cardio, so I feel like I’m not pushing my cardio because I’m not huffing and puffing, so I don’t understand why my HR is so high, though I do sweat a lot. I want to run the longer distances (20km+). It’s my dream to run an ultra, I can’t even imagine lol.
@takkula I agree with @takkula, if you can't carry on a conversation, you're definitely not in zone 2. You are pushing your cardio, you may just have a natural endurance to keep going.
And also -- it may take you more time and practice to have different paces. Learning to run easy vs hard can be difficult. And as you mentioned in your post, keeping your form when running slower can be hard. You could do warm ups and drills to help with that.
As for treadmill running. I have been told that running at an incline of 1% will approximate road running. I hate treadmill running, it always feels harder to me.
And also -- it may take you more time and practice to have different paces. Learning to run easy vs hard can be difficult. And as you mentioned in your post, keeping your form when running slower can be hard. You could do warm ups and drills to help with that.
As for treadmill running. I have been told that running at an incline of 1% will approximate road running. I hate treadmill running, it always feels harder to me.
testament7
New member
@rbrbrb2 I've been working on my zone 2 runs recently, and it's such a struggle to get that slow and maintain it at first. So far I've found a few things work for me: running with a friend where we intentionally have a conversation so we have to go slow to be able to talk in full sentences, listening to a podcast instead of music (I always find myself pacing the beat and that speeds me up too much), running somewhere beautiful where it is a joy to slow down and just take in your surroundings. When I first started working on the slow pace I immediately got really bad knee pains into my shins and calves. I've read that slow pace can actually put more pressure on your joints and feet than speedwork, so I have been really focusing on my mobility exercises in my warm ups and crosstraining. The zone 2 I'm aiming for at the moment is approx 130bpm (different for everyone!) and at that rate I am walking up any hills, and my pace is about 8.5-9mins/k - about a 45 minute 5k run.
@zorah It's cool that you commented on this, because it's from four month ago and it's shown me just how much it works! I adapted the bpm I was aiming for after a bit more reading so my zone 2 heart rate is now in the 140s. But I am also much faster at that rate now! I went from 7.30-8 mins/km in the 140s to now 6.45-7.15 mins/km in just a few months