The Running Mike

Mike’s Guide to Heart Rate Training Part 3: Putting the Heart Rate Zones into Practice

OK, so at this point, you should have a good idea what your HR is and what the zones are.  As a refresher, let’s take a look at the heart rate zone chart:

Believe it or not, you want to spend a good amount of time in zone 1 and 2.  You would think that going slower is easy. . .  However, THIS IS VERY DIFFICULT TO DO.  When you first start doing this, people will pass you and you don’t even feel like you’re getting a great workout. Mentally, we know we could be passing those same people and push much harder.  It’s really important that you stick to this, trust me in that it will pay off! 

Although it will feel quite different physically, the key is that you are changing the way your body processes and consumes energy.  The human body has a very limited amount of blood glucose (sugar) but in comparison has an almost endless supply of fat.  Think hours/days of energy from fat versus minutes from glucose only.

Your body will burn a combination of fat and glucose – the key is to make it more efficient at converting fat into energy! In these lower heart rate zones you burn more fat than the blood glucose (sugar) in your muscles.  The more time you train at these levels, the more efficient the human body becomes at utilizing fat for fuel! 

Key weekly workout: Endurance Run 

This is usually the long, slow distance run you do every week.  Stay in the lower part of zone 2 (ideally in zone 1)and take your time running this one. Should feel super easy and like you’re just taking it easy.  This helps your body be more efficient at using fat for fuel.

Key weekly workout: Speed work

On the other end of the scale is the workout designed to increase your VO2 Max.  This is intentionally putting your heart rate into the higher zones to essentially improve growth of capillaries, strengthen the heart, and make our muscles more efficient at consuming oxygen. 

There are lots of great things that come out of speed work (improved form, etc.) but it is also the key workout for improving VO2 Max.  You’ll want to run 3 to 4 minutes in zone 4 and 5, slow jog for 2 to 3 minutes (try to get HR back to zone 1 if you can) and then repeat.  Now the Ifs:

• If you do this at a track, aim for 800 (2 full laps) repeats.
• If you’re new to speed work, repeat 3 to 5 times. 
• If you’re an experienced runner, do the interval 6 to 8 times. 

You should be pretty wiped out after the speed workout.  This takes a lot out of you so unless you’re working on something specific, only do this once a week. 

Key weekly workout: Tempo Run

Every Week you should try to do a tempo run where you put your Heart Rate into Zone 4 and try to keep it there. If you’re just starting, run 2 to 3 miles in Zone 4 (and work up from there).  Experienced runners should run 3 miles in zone 4, then 3 to 5 minutes of an easy jog/walk (getting the HR back into Zone 1) and then 3 more miles in zone 4. 

The Tempo run is goaled at increasing your Lactate Threshold (LT).  I don’t think I’ve talked about LT very much.  There is a point during intense exercise when the human body is producing more lactic acid than it can consume and convert to energy.  Lactic Acid is actually a good thing, but when more is getting produced than can be utilized – muscles become fatigued. (Here is one of the better articles I’ve found on the process: http://www.runningplanet.com/training/lactic-acid.html) 

Strength Training

My forth key workout is actually strength training which I try to do on rolling hills or on a trail.  I currently live in a part of the country with few hills, so I tend to only do this once every couple weeks. It’s easy to turn this into a repeat of speed work heart rate zones – but my real aim is to build more strength in my legs and improve foot stability (uneven ground/trail). 

Yes, most weeks I actually run 5 to 6 times, so think of these additional runs as super easy recovery runs.  I try to keep them in zone 1 as much as I can.