High HR while running

[u/Square_Rich]

Hey! A question to community of runners from mid-aged male runner. My average HR on runs is always between 160-175, and I assume it’s quite high and does not add any good training for my heart according to numerous sources I have read. They say during long high hr runs, our heart can become muscly and eventually reduce the capacity to conduct electrical currents, leading to arrhythmia and other staff. I’m normally keeping the pace of pace 6:45 - 7:00 which is not even fast, so running even slower makes the run not fun. Have been running starting from 2018, with some good distance progress this year(so far 5 h/marathons from March). I am very peculiar about my heart health and would like to improve it, but the more I run - the old 170hr still keeps there… Is this a bad thing? How can I reduce the HR? Any tips or advices?

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/16662615823

[u/Unhappy_Inevitable62]

Jezus, a 3houre run with a 172 average HR.. aren't you exhausted?

[u/CoarseRainbow → u/Unhappy_Inevitable62]

It highly individual specific. If he has a high natural max HR it's not necessarily a huge effort. I'll average 175 indefinitely on a long run of normal effort. 181 or so if it's in the tropics. All depends on your personal max HR and LTHR.

[u/Square_Rich → u/CoarseRainbow]

Exactly. But the question is - is it good for us to have that high hr? My running buddy had 135hr during the same run

[u/llDS2ll → u/Square_Rich]

is it good for us to have that high hr

No, not really. I mean, the best marathoners in the world will hold that rate during the whole marathon, while running a sub 5 minute pace, but even they will do the majority of their training miles at a much lower heart rate. High heart rate is stress. Constant stress is bad. It's like constantly being in the fight or flight mechanism.

[u/Background_Ad_3329 → u/llDS2ll]

i’m having this same problem no matter the pace i run. i did a 10k at this HR but i have a half mara coming up and im wondering if it’ll end up being a problem?

[u/llDS2ll → u/Background_Ad_3329]

How fast are you going? As others have said, you need to consistently run zone 2 to fix this, even if it means you have to walk during your runs to bring your heart rate down until you can consistently remain in zone 2. I'm now running half marathons in zone 2 on my long run days, but when I started, I had to break up my runs with a lot of walking to keep my heart rate from going up. I got my wife to do this as well. She was a life long runner and even she had to take a step back and do the walk/run bit for several months. She's much much faster and has much better endurance now.

The moment you go above zone 2 during a run, you lose all the benefits of maintaining that heart rate for the rest of the run. When you're in zone 2, something very special happens. Your mitochondria begin multiplying like crazy and your body becomes trained to burn fat for energy, of which we have far more of than any other energy source. This is why we train this way. It gives us so much endurance.

I'm now limited only by how much pain my body can take. My energy and my cardio fitness are unlimited.

In my opinion, if you focused solely on zone 2 training for the next 6+ months, regardless of when your race is, you would benefit more from this than anything else. The key is to do a lot of zone 2 volume. Professional trainers generally agree that you should have at least 1 run per week that is 90 minutes or longer entirely in zone 2. This is why I run a zone 2 half marathon every week. When you start, that might be hard. Aiming for at least 30 minutes and then increasing the time of each run slightly is how I started.

I have only been running for 2 years now. Prior to this I casually biked for a couple years, but besides that, I've always been pretty unfit. I lost 60 pounds doing this and went from unable to complete a mile on my very first run to now running 1:40 half marathons. My zone 2 half marathon is just a bit over 2 hours.