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Heart Rate Zones

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May 05, 2025•3 min read

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Heart Rate Zones

Why Use Heart Rate Zones?

Heart rate is a variable in training that remains fairly consistent with perceived exertion. Another way of thinking about this is that your heart rate should match closely to the level at which you are putting out work or effort in training. The harder you push the pace the higher your heart rate will go. Because of this we can use heart rate data in combination with perceived exertion to identify how hard we should be pushing based on the type of workout we are doing.

Zone 1 (50-60%)

Think of this zone as recovery or warm up time. Very minimal stress on the body and cardiovascular system. In this zone we are primarily using fat as our main energy source, but it should be noted that at this effort overall calorie loss will be much less. Walking for fitness is a great start for many people and they will find themselves in this zone.

Zone 2 (61-70%)

This is our bread and butter. In this zone we are comfortable enough to go for a long time. Our breathing should be regulated and we can hold conversation with those around you. Running in this zone is well below lactate threshold so any lactate gets converted back to energy. Also in this zone we are much more efficient at converting fat into energy. Some coaches and sports scientists recommend up to 80% of our running be in this zone for best results and performance.

Zone 3 (71-80%)

Zone 3 is our upper aerobic zone that we use for tempo runs and marathon pace workouts. In this zone we should start to feel the effort of what we are doing and may still be able to have limited conversation. Pushing into more of a glycolytic/lactate system for energy we are in need of more carbohydrate to sustain our runs. We build aerobic capacity and endurance through mitochondrial function and capillary production. Too much time spent here does pose some risk for overtraining.

Zone 4 (81-90%)

Now we are starting to work hard. Zone 4 is at lactate threshold, which means the pace we can sustain while still using lactate as a fuel source without overloading the system and blowing up. These runs are our mid distance intervals like 800 meters to mile repeats or even long hill repeats. We can sustain a very hard effort but we aren't sprinting yet. With proper recovery we can go again for several reps. Here we are building our VO2 max and getting more efficient at using both aerobic and anaerobic systems.

Zone 5 (91-100%)

This is all out effort. Here we are doing 50m to 400m intervals with recovery, or doing hard short distance hill repeats. Here we are building top end speed, improving our ability to utilize the anaerobic system and tune the neuromuscular system for performance.

Conclusion

A well rounded and planned training program that utilizes each of these zones will allow for progression of fitness, faster times and overall feeling better in your running. If you need help a good place to start is getting your VO2 and heart rate zones formally evaluated here at Return 2 Sport. If you have other questions about your fitness and performance reach out to us today!

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