I’ve just started trying to keep my heart rate in Zone 3, and it’s amazing how much better I feel after my runs! It’s hard to do, I have to walk a lot, but after 4 runs I can already see that I’m improving, I’m able to go farther before I have to stop and walk to bring my heart rate back down.
The benefit of this is that I’m not exhausted after my runs. I feel like I’ve gotten exercise but I don’t feel like I can’t do anything else for the rest of the day, the way I often do after my normal runs. My normal runs are all in Zones 4 and 5, mostly Zone 5. I just thought that was what everyone did.
There’s probably not any magic to this, it’s just slowing down, the way we always read that we’re supposed to. Most of our runs are supposed to be at an “easy” pace, but for me, even after a year of running, I have never felt that my runs were “easy”. I figured it’s exercise, it’s supposed to be hard! And I just couldn’t slow down enough to make it easy, without some type of guidance, so watching my HR is the guidance I need
I have also tried jeffing, and this is similar in that so far I’ve had to walk a lot, only for 10-15 seconds each time though. The difference for me is that when I jeff, I tend to speed up my runs without trying to, to make up for the time I’ve lost walking, so I end pushing myself during the run portion to the point that I’m exhausted and dying for the walk interval so I can recover. But by watching my HR I’m never exhausted.
I have already improved to the point that I stopped to walk 29 times the first 2 runs (based on counting the drops on my cadence screen in Garmin Connect), and the last time I went out (4th try with this method) I only walked 11 times. My pace isn’t that bad either considering I’m walking so much, it’s back to what it was when I started a year ago. My walking intervals are very brief, just enough to get my HR down about 10 beats below the max I’m aiming for.
The goal is to be able to do the whole 5k without walking, but while keeping my heart rate down (for me it’s 119-135 to stay in Zone 3). From what I’ve read it’s a slow process, but I’m willing to try. I will be doing some speed days after I get better at this, to push myself once in awhile, but just staying out of zone 5 most of the time has been great so far! I highly recommend this for those of you who still feel like every run is hard, and can’t slow down enough on your own to give yourself that elusive “easy run”.
the 5 aural zones of training
Heart Rate Training
Heart rate training 
Heart Rate Training
High heart rate whilst running
