Zone 2 Low Heart Rate Running IS FASTER! How to do it the RIGHT WAY

[@MyJoey90]

Excellent. My easy pace for this year was 6:45 min per km easy, between 132 and 138 beats per minute (BPM), making me a sluggish runner compared to yourself. Now, I can run the same heart rate in 5:50 min per km. Improved my condition by being patient. My goal for this year is to reduce my current pace by 45 seconds per kilometre while maintaining my current heart rate 🤞🏽

[@drwilloconnor]

Nice work. I heard a good saying the other day, “impatient with action, patient with results”. That's a good one for Zone 2 training.

[@grantmckay7014]

Good info on hills. I have been avoiding them to keep HR low. Will now go back to including them.

[@zacsborntorunrunningadvent3441]

Great video :) , ive got my garmin 245 set zone 1 as 45-60% heartrate reserve & zone2 as 60-74% Heartate reserve :) . My zone2 ends up being 137-158bpm as my lt2 is 181 and true max is 199. Cheers

[@sldorse42]

This information is just awesome!!! I am very happy to have been following with you over the last 6-8 months. This is a great plan and I will be using it to build my sub 3 hour marathon plan for the fall. I just did a 10K last Saturday and I ran 39:10. I know in some of your other videos you said a sub 39 is a good indicator for the sub 3 hour but Should I do another time trial or just work on my strength and long runs? Thanks for all you do man!

[@drwilloconnor]

Nice work on the 39min, Steve 👏. You’ve got the threshold and speed. Now, you need to work on developing your steady state efficiency. Use 5km (3mile) intervals at 3hr pace (+/- 5-10sec/km), to develop your race stamina. It’s ok to be a little slower in training.

[@sldorse42]

@@drwilloconnor That is a great idea, what should the rest be between these when I am at the early stages of training? and I am guessing when I am at the later stages the rest would be a float.

[@reieli87]

I really enjoy this topic. Knowing more about Zone 2 and staying in Zone 2 has help me stay gulit free to walk/run. Its great way to listen your body and fix your running form. As I continue to use Zone 2 training i noticed im walking less and less. And been use of this knowledge was a game changer after doing hard run workout perivous day. Even if its only 15-30min as my recovery run, while mix walk/run. Im new runner too 😊 i was motivated to run cause of C-19. So glad i came from stronge "build" because i mostly weight lift. But keep me safe while progressing was building my base at zone 2. And in later runs added 30sec strides Thanks to channels like yours, strengthrunning, TRE, TRC, GTN and Tarrns Mottiv Method (many more) that cover Z2 running (even Mark Bell inspried to run - Heavy Powerlifter to Acivte runner preping for Boston) Keep up the great cotent 🏃‍♂️💪

[@drwilloconnor]

You see my run-walk content. Will be more coming soon with my upcoming marathon in April.

[@reieli87]

@@drwilloconnor looking foward to it. When i see the contnent about run/walking marathon, it inspires me to try. 😊

[@Ben-yw8be]

I calculate my Zone 2 based on the Karvonen Method. Or Canova does it my 70-80% of marathon pace.

[@drwilloconnor]

In my recent zone 2 video, I mentioned that it doesn't matter too much about how you find your Z2, as long as you stick to it.

[@testricos6547]

Hello am a highschool athlete am following a training plan for a 1600 doing about 40 miles a Week . I have many days where it’s 5-7 miles easy but I don’t know exactly what HR to follow as many people say Zone 2 is 60-70% , while others say it’s 70-80% . Garmin for example says zone 2 is 60-70 but then called zone 3 where easy runs should be ran . Have any advice on wich one to follow ?

[@tiago6197]

Hi. My Garmin zones are settled by lactate threshold. My maximum is 196 and Garmin give me a lactate threshold at 181 ,my zone 2 ends at 162 ,in your calculator is 159,and in general i don't pass 150 bpm on my easy runs,if i look at pace, from my last half marathon,1,5 week ago, I did in 01:32:20 and it was not an all out effort,all calculator's gives me a threshold pace between 04:13 and 04:17 i use McMillan so is 04:14 ,and in your calculator gives me zone 2 the top end 04:49 , however i always stay in the 05:20 range because I'm afraid of working to hard on my easy days. And i use stryd,my CP is 362 and generally my runs are in top end of zone one from stryd. Am i doing this wrong, going to easy on my easy days?

[@drwilloconnor]

First two questions are always, are you enjoying your running?, and are you improving? If the answer is yes, then you’re not doing your easy runs too easy. If you’re training two interval/high-quality sessions a week, then you shouldn’t worry too much about easy-aerobic outputs. However, if you’re only doing one quality session, like in a base phase, you may want to push one of your aerobic runs in your calculated zone 2 for a bit more stimulus.

[@Agriggs1999]

Because I play a sport 3x a week as well as run, and my HR during that is very mixed across all the zones. Would you say I should spend most of runs in z2 ? And perhaps one session reaching zone 5? (That’s z5 of 5 zone model)

[@drwilloconnor]

Team sports are a form of repeated sprint training. Lots of 5 - 20 sec bursts with active rest. Great for VO2max stimulus and neuromuscular coordination. To sport your running, I'd continue with the Z2 and then add 5 - 10-minute threshold intervals, as that's a component you're missing from team sports.

[@JulioPalacios1]

I have a problem. about 10 months ago I could barely run a 10k sub 1 hour, but had a 3k time of 12:55 and a 5k time of 23:36. Now I can run a 10k in about 53 minutes, but struggle to run at a high intensity. Do you know why this may be? My heart rate seems to be lower too, but I feel more fatigued. Thanks.

[@drwilloconnor]

Hey, it's a bit hard to call that one, sorry. There could be so many things going on. Sounds like you might be a bit tired. Try a couple of easy weeks before testing yourself with some high-intensity again.

[@JulioPalacios1]

@@drwilloconnor alright will do. Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t been running at top speeds maybe I’m just not conditioned.

[@LukeAClynes]

Hey Dr Will, loving your channel...!!! ATM when running zone 2, I struggle to keep my cadence up... if my HR pushes up to the top end of Zone 2, should I drop the cadence down...? Right now I'd be hard pressed keeping a 162 cadence for an 8k, zone 2 run (I am 188cm tall)...? Also, what are your thoughts on the HR zones given from the coros running/fitness test? Thanks mate!

[@drwilloconnor]

The classic cadence dilemma. I'm 187cm, so I understand your struggles. what I've done in the past is focused on short periods of higher cadence. Say 5 minutes, trying to get up to 170 spm from 164ish. Once my HR gets too high, I return to "normal" running until my HR settles and then go for another 5 min. I've found Coros' zones a bit high. Their Zone 2 is 90 - 95% LTH, which is my Z3. I struggle to find reasoning for 90%+ to be "aerobic".

[@LukeAClynes]

@@drwilloconnor Awesome, thanks for that... I'll give the cadence hack a go! ;)

[@Mr80Miles]

Thanks for the video. Just wondering, why does my polar HR zone 2 differ so much to your one (polar Z2 124-144, your calculator Z2 139 - 163 (calculated from last 20 mins in a 10k))? I keep easy runs in 130s and below 145 which would fit with your lower Z2 anyway (just the upper Z2 of 163 seems high? I’d be running quite fast at that HR).

[@TheSimon701]

Same for me! Can you elaborate doc?

[@Mr80Miles]

@@TheSimon701 found another vid of his about zone 2. Basically run in the lower end of (his) Z2 range (not the upper range), which corresponds to the upper part of my Polar Z2 range.

[@luddesterner]

Last 3 min was a bit confusing🤔 you mean that once I enter zone 3 the whole "zone 2" is wasted?!

[@callmeal4183]

So so complicated. Tell me about Arthur Lydiard'd methods. Please.

[@drwilloconnor]

There's a great book written by Arthur Lydiard and Gareth Gilmore, “Running to the Top”. I would highly recommend checking that out.

[@callmeal4183]

@@drwilloconnor Thanks. I'll search it out.

[@Musosels]

Doc - subscribed and great content. Quick question regarding determining your max HR. Before the 30min TT at hard effort, is there any type of warmup that should be done beforehand?

[@drwilloconnor]

Hey Matt, sorry for the slow reply. Check out my latest video. About half way through I out line the test. You should do 10-15min warm up with a 3-5x 10-15sec strides for muscle activation and blood flow.

[@briankruger3009]

Hi @Will. Would it initially be beneficial to do the zone 2 on a bike or would it be difficult to transfer the gains to my running? Obviously way easier to very tightly control zone 2 on a stationary bike? Thanks.

[@drwilloconnor]

Running will always be better than cycling, so choose running 1st when you can. If you can't run, indoor cycling is a great alternative that will still give you a significant aerobic stimulus.

[@vancehetariki476]

Really appreciate your content. With the 80/20 rule is that related to running or cross training or combined. I tend to overtrain and pick up injuries. I’m a trail runner and my distances are 10-30km depending on race events. So I have reduced running to 3 times a week, speed work, tempo and long runs on trail. The other 4 days I ride hills for 1 hour. What would you suggest be the 80/20 rule for my 7 days of training.

[@andrewbell3476]

Hi Will - great content! I was looking at your zone calculator and the values it predicts for Z2 are much "wider" than that from training peaks with the same threshold HR. The bottom end of your Z2 seems to be lower than TP? The top end is similar to TP. Is there a reason for this? EG for a 150 threshold your calculator gives Z2 113 - 132 and TP 123 - 132.

[@drwilloconnor]

Hi Andrew, Yes, I set a much lower Z2 because I believe there is still a huge benefit to running (or riding etc..) at the top of the tradtional Z1. I've noticed that when I stuck with the traditional Z2 (80 - 88%) many athletes were pushing themselves too hard (myself include) in order to get above the 80% Z2 barrier. If you're running for 2hrs or more, It's best to start with a HR around 75% LTH, and allow the level to increase throughout the run. This is better than starting at 80+% and slowing down over the run to stay under 88%, or worse, pushing into Z3 because you're fatigued.

[@andrewbell3476]

@@drwilloconnor - many thanks for the detailed answer

[@andrewbell3476]

@@drwilloconnor another question :) some sources on the 20min lactate test refer to subtracting 5% from the average HR to get the threshold HR(I assume this is because the full test time should be 60mins). Any thoughts on this ?

[@drwilloconnor]

Hey Andrew, I've seen the 5% rule for a 20 min power test but not heart rate. A couple of comments on this. 1. If your average 20 min HR was 180 bpm, minusing 5% from 180 bpm would reduce that by 9 bpm to 171 bpm. That's a significant reduction, and would have a large follow on effect for setting your zones. 2. Using an average over 20 min will smooth out the data. It's why I say you only need to go 90-95%, not 100% effort.

[@andrewbell3476]

@@drwilloconnor thanks so much for your explanations - I did a 5k Parkrun today and Training peaks then suggested my threshold increased. I checked the TP manual and it suggests a threshold increase if “95% of your average 20min HR is above the previous 1Hr threshold.” So I have seen a few references to taking 95% of a 20min HR test to be equivalent to the 1Hour threshold HR. It kinda makes sense as the threshold is meant to what you can hold for approx 1hr which would be less than what you can hold for a 30mins test?

[@hikerJohn]

Instead of just touching on the real scientific nerdy stuff, how about dedicating one video to just that so we can keep referring to it. Maybe you already did but I haven't seen that one(?)

[@drwilloconnor]

Haha, I was actually thinking I should go more sciency!

[@youngsuk3329]

Heart rate strap is a thing of the past now, both apple watch and huawei /coros watch have excellent hr monitor which is on par with the latest hr strap.

[@drwilloconnor]

They’re good, but during exercise they’re still lacking. Why else would Coros bring out their own external HR monitor?

[@youngsuk3329]

@@drwilloconnor to make money dr. You clearly haven't seen any videos of the Quantified Scientist youtube channel though.

[@garydon19]

It’s not a thing of the past when you have a Garmin wrist based HRM. The Garmin Pro Plus strap is brilliant, and have never had an issue with it.

[@youngsuk3329]

@@garydon19 even smartwatches such as apple watch/coros pace 3/huawei gt4 have been scientifically proven, repeatedly, to have supreme hr accuracy (99% compared to polar chest strap), just let the guy above live in the past then.