Max heart rate during short, slow jog

[SunsetRunner]

I'm by no means an accomplished runner - even calling myself a beginner would be stretching it. I have never run prior to last winter, and after training for my first few 5ks I've been very lax about it, to the point where I've gone on maybe three runs in the past four months. Yikes. 

While I'm believed to be generally physically healthy, I don't have any sort of regular exercise routine. Double yikes. I'm in decent shape, 130ish lbs at 5'7" and nearly 32. I've been trying to commit to a regular exercise regimen lately, starting slow with a light jog around my neighborhood. 

However, I've noticed that my heart rate tends to spike into the maximum zone during these jogs. I'm talking several minutes in max and most of the time in cardio when I'm running a little over a mile in 13-14 minutes. I'm not moving very fast or going very far, but my heart is working hard. Too hard? Is this expected when I'm unused to exercise and have low endurance, or a cause for concern?

[Bill_k]

Personally i wouldn't worry about it if you aren't in distress. I think one of the negatives of fitness watches is that maybe knowing everything about heart rate can make people worry too much.

It's a double edged sword.

Hopefully the more you exercise the better your cardiovascular systems get and you will see improvement. Watch your resting heart rate daily readings as time goes by if you keep exercising regularly to see how it changes. 

If you're really worried about it get your doctor to check you out.

[Soozeei]

I have the same issue but I am a beginner running and do daily exercise of 30 min run and or walk and layer in another 30 additional min of weight training, HITT cardio, or a Hike. On recovery days  a lot of the running programs say my HR should be at an RPE 4 (130-140) for an easy recovery run but I cant keep it that low. After 10 minutes it is at a steady increase to peak range of 150-160 RPE 8. I am at a zero incline and at a 3.7 mph ( which technically I could walk but if I walk it plummets me to HR 110). Any suggestions?

[shipo]

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@Soozeei wrote:

I have the same issue but I am a beginner running and do daily exercise of 30 min run and or walk and layer in another 30 additional min of weight training, HITT cardio, or a Hike. On recovery days  a lot of the running programs say my HR should be at an RPE 4 (130-140) for an easy recovery run but I cant keep it that low. After 10 minutes it is at a steady increase to peak range of 150-160 RPE 8. I am at a zero incline and at a 3.7 mph ( which technically I could walk but if I walk it plummets me to HR 110). Any suggestions?

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Ignore the heart rate zones, for every person where they are somewhat accurate, the are completely inaccurate and irrelevant for another two people.

Instead of focusing on your heart rate, focus on your breathing; an easy pace is one where you can carry on a conversation with someone else in short but complete sentences.  A hard training pace is where you can string together a few words at a time, and a hard pace is where all you're doing is breathing as hard as you can.

[t.parker]

@Soozeei   first of all, if you training with HR zones in mind then a) Fitbit zones are useless, b) wrist HR is useless. But let's assume that you get correct HR (forget about Fitbit zones like cardio or peak - this is a way too simplified model for any kind of training). What makes you thinking that your RPE4 is 130-140 and RPE8 is 150-160? RPE is pretty much based on individual feeling the effort rather than any numbers. When you run you know whether it is easy for you, whether is challenging or whether it goes maximum (until failure). It is absolutely possible you can run an easy recovery run with 150-160. It only means that the peak you think is your peak isn't your peak. There is no such thing as a peak anyway. I had a similar problem a long time ago when an easy run was shooting my HR up to 140-150. I could easily speak during that, and those runs were in fact quite pleasant, not demanding at all, yet my HR was going higher so I couldn't stay in the training zone. The problem was that my zones were just wrong. They were based on my max HR (which is an outdated formula). I have a quite high anaerobic threshold (currently 173bpm, but it changes). I can run with my heart pumping 170+ and not feel exhausted or even slightly "ran down", BR is not abnormally elevated, HRV during run indicated steady performance (with expected drop towards the end but not total collapse) etc. My max HR (measured) is 188bpm so there's lots of the reserve left. It's just that some people are built like that (and this makes superior endurance when you get better pacing) 😄 You may be, too. Everything below the threshold goes into aerobic effort, everything beyond the threshold goes into the anaerobic effort. Since I changed the method of estimating my zones I learned that my recovery/easy run zone is 138-154. It means I can run 154bpm and still consider it an easy recovery run. And this doesn't affect my resting heart rate which moves around 39-43 - in here, there's no real connection.

Few tips:

RPE:

- Use RPE to find your ranges rather than blindly attach random numbers to RPE. There are descriptive charts for RPE. Here's one of them:

Use one of those and find your HR zones for each. Forget about max HR etc. Very light is like a warm-up, you may try using a brisk walk to determine this zone. If it says Light Activity run as such, easy pace, pleasant run that keeps you warm but you have always fuel in the tank to add more (if after running some distance you feel like you can add extra this is light activity). Moderate would be something like Tempo/Endurance run (long race with a bit of will to win but not overdoing it), Vigorous would get into the threshold. This is where you start feeling your muscles etc. It may take you a while to find it out but then you may see that light activity doesn't mean low heart rate. For some people, it may, for others it won't. Once you make a connection between HR zones and RPE you may use zones better in training. Mind that your zones will be changing and you have to evaluate it again from time to time.

HR Zones:

I suggest using a chest strap. If the zones are very narrow you won't be able to stay within the selected zone. Some zones will be just a few beats wide and with a chest strap is possible to keep training within those ranges.

Use apps to help:

You may try to use TrainingPeaks (I think it syncs with Fitbit but I'm not sure right now). The thing about TrainingPeaks is that it takes data from your run and determines lactate/anaerobic threshold and then recalculates your zones (and it has plenty of zones). It also uses RPE so with many runs you will see the RPE <-> HR zones dependency. Useful stuff (and I think for that purpose you may use a free account).

Just make sure your numbers are correct, start using a better zones model (or even better, get Stryd and start training with power zones) and don't freak out. Not everyone is the same 🙂

[Soozeei]

I already use the rpe zone chart you have attached  and I use a polar chest strap. I am using 220 minus age, times 77% to get a rough estimate of rpe zone 4 for a recovery session, but yes I am starting to learn the feel of exertion levels so I have been relying on that more than the numbers. Thanks for the info.

[Soozeei]

Thank you, I am starting to run more on feel for levels of exertion so this was helpful.

[Soozeei]

Not worried just want to make sure I am getting the best results based on the training type I am putting together each week for a good well rounded routine..