Max HR and average HR

jlohcook

What's the ideal average Heart rate while running?

I'm doing max 177, averaging 143, for 5km at 37 mins. Am I pushing myself too much or I can push myself more? My target is to hit 5km in 30mins end of this year. Advice please?

babeinthemoon

I really like this calculator: http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/heart-rate-calculators/hrzone

Once I had my Max heart rate & the proper aerobic% plugged into my HRM I felt much better about my last run. It was a 25 min run, and I was in the aerobic zone for 22 of it. My HRM said that I peaked out in the anaerobic zone... but it couldn't have been for long, since I know I was not quite in zone at the end of my warm-up, so I probably was only out of the aerobic zone for a minute or two at the end of my run.

Edit to add:
Resting heart rate should be taken right after waking up before you even sit up in bed. Take your resting heart rate for at least 3 days and average it. Or, if you want to cheat, and you have a HRM, wear it to bed. Then when you wake up, hit the snooze on the alarm clock, start the HRM up and snooze for 5-10 min. I did this, and my low HR was about 55 and the high was around 70... but my average was 60, so that's what I use for my resting HR.

There are lots of ways to calculate Max HR.... but the easiest is 220-your age.

jlohcook

Thanks for the link.

I do notice that when I hit 160 and above, I can't go very long. So, when running, do you control at within aerobic rate? Or perhaps vary it by hitting anaerobic at times, and for how long do you usually run at that level?

babeinthemoon

This is my first full week with my HRM. When running 25 min, I always seem to go over my target HR (aerobic rate).. but I never manage to see it when it happens. Sigh. Today I'm not feeling tiptop.. but I went out and ran anyway. My average average HR during the run portion was 150, and my peak was 177. :noway: My average HR during the 25 min run on monday was 155 and on wed it was 153.. I feel like I did a better job of pacing today, and I'm pretty sure that most of the time I spent above aerobic was in the last 3 minutes or so.

Next time I run (on monday) I'm going to remember to turn the "sound" on so that I can hear when I'm above range.

At this point, I'm just trying to run, the length of time in the c25k program. Later on I'll try to vary things by intervals and stuff... but I think that will be after I finish c210k in a few weeks.

ETA: My aerobic zone is 145-163 according to my watch. These numbers were really close to the zone on the website, so I just went with that range.