How to run in HR Zones

From super easy to super hard

Welcome back to our 5-part series on heart rate training. In Part 1, we discussed using heart rate to manage effort. In Part 2, we made an attempt to establish our HR Zones after learning lots more than we ever thought we’d want to know about lactate. 

And so, with the caveat that heart rate training can be a frustratingly inexact science, we finally get to the good stuff. What does it feel like to actually run in these zones? 

Fair warning: This is a long post. It’s meant to serve as a reference guide that you can go back to whenever you feel like exploring heart rate training. In all honesty, each zone could be its own chapter of a book. We’ll save some of the deeper dives for the actual book I’ll eventually get around to writing.

Onward.