High heart rate during running & knee pain

kmayne

I have been running on a treadmill since January. Once I got past the wheeziness of being out of shape limiting my running, I discovered a knee issue that has my running limited to 4-5 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking, and alternating that for the duration of my workout until the pain gets too intense. I have found that lengthening my stride delays the onset and has helped me slowly build endurance. To have a comfortably long stride at a natural feeling pace, I ran this morning at 6.4 mph for 15 minutes (with (2) 1-minute walk breaks) and ZERO knee pain. That was huge for me! The issue I now have is that my heart rate peaked at 181 and I started to feel light-headed. Like I said, I have been running and slowly building speed for 6 months, so I sorta think I just have a high heart rate. Has anyone else experienced this? Do I just deal with it? Will my heart rate go down as I get used to this speed? Any other suggestions? Thanks!

hbrittingham

I would get fitted with a good pair of running shoes after having your gait analyzed at a running store for the knee pain.

The high heart rate doesn't seem all that high while you are building your endurance. When I was doing the C25K, there were times when my heart rate would hit almost 190 during the running portions. Now I run 3-4 miles and it hovers in the 150s-160s. But if you are dizzy and think it could be a health issue, you may want to check with your doctor and get the okay to continue working out.