Running Heart Rate - what's yours & what's good range?

actlc

Thanks for all these great advice. I really help me with better picture how I should do better in running.

I started running in Jan/2013 (a little over 3 months). My regular run grows from 1/2 mile to 4 miles and pace naturally improves from 13 min mile to close to 10 min mile.

I will try to keep my HR closer to 140 for my runs to train for the distance.
My last question is, does it take long (like a year or 2) to improve my regular pace down to 8 min mile? (I try to maintain 4-5 runs a week)

pstansel74

My wife took her half pace down from 10:00/mile to about 8:15/mile with relative ease over the course of 6 months for a Half distance. I myself run like a turtle, and seldom break 10:00. But I am never racing to win, whereas she is a competitive person.

iWaffle

Thanks for all these great advice. I really help me with better picture how I should do better in running.

I started running in Jan/2013 (a little over 3 months). My regular run grows from 1/2 mile to 4 miles and pace naturally improves from 13 min mile to close to 10 min mile.

Amazing improvement. You're doing really well.

My last question is, does it take long (like a year or 2) to improve my regular pace down to 8 min mile? (I try to maintain 4-5 runs a week)

I've been running outside a little less than a year and I'm not doing an 8 minute mile as a training pace. I do some stuff faster but not quite that fast. I'll be doing 6 miles at an 8:30 pace Thursday but tomorrow's run will be around 9:30 again. You just can't run that fast all the time if you want to add in a lot of miles. I'm at 165 miles this month. Focus on distance more than your speed. Don't worry too much about speed.

I did a 5k @ 23:46 a couple weeks ago and I never run that fast in training runs. You'll improve speed just building endurance.

scottb81

The more you run (and recover) the faster you will improve. By decreasing the effort of the daily easy run you will be able to run longer and more often. Its hard to say how long it will take to get your pace to where you want it but I would caution you against training to achieve a faster training pace for its own sake.

Train at the correct intensities so that you can race at a faster pace. Schedule races and judge your progress on that.

My normal easy run pace right now is usually anywhere between 8:20 to 8:50/mi depending on how rested I am. I also run some runs at 10+ min per mile with other people. I recently ran a marathon at an 8:06 pace and a 5K at a 6:40 pace.

I used to judge progress on how fast I could do my daily runs. By racing myself nearly everyday my body was unable to recover properly and after a few months I stopped making progress. Burnout followed soon after.

actlc

thanks all. Will focus on easy run for distance.

Elise4270

Old thread, I know. I'm 44F, run off and on bike mostly. Im running 185-187 for half the 5 K. Seems really high comparitivly. I'll ask my non-running doc about it. And think about shorter runs. And advice welcome.

Athena53

That was some interesting research. I'm 61 and checked out this site.

http://www.digifit.com/heartratezones/maximum-heart-rate.asp?Age=61

The two that are specifically calculated for females show 149 and 152. Looks like most of my workouts average in the "Economy (anaerobic)" range, which is 121-136 bpm. I averaged 127, maxed at 155 over a 4-hour bike ride last Saturday so I guess I'm doing well!