#67: Low Heart Rate Training Guide 2023, with Floris Gierman

When your lizard brain starts feeding you doubtful thoughts, just remember the following: you are not alone. Almost everyone struggles starting out with low heart rate training in the first few months. Realize that you will not be walking or running slow forever. Patience is absolutely key here. Most people won't see results right away or go backwards first. Have a beginner's mind and think long term here. Hello, hello, hello.

Welcome to another episode of The Extra Mile Show. My name is Floris Gierman, I'm your host, and on this podcast I normally talk with different guests about ways to become a stronger, healthier, and happier athlete. It's going to be a little bit of a different episode than normal today, and I honestly don't know if this episode is going to work well in audio format. Let me actually explain that a bit further. Recently I recorded a 35-minute video of a low heart rate training guide, And I actually thought there was a lot of good information in there. The only thing is, is that I recorded this video while running a sub-3-hour marathon on a running track. I did use an external mic, however, from time to time you do hear me huffing and puffing because I'm running an average pace of 6:45 per mile, so that's about 4:12 per kilometer for the duration of a marathon. The thing is, I still thought there was a lot of good info in there, so I wanted to put this out as podcast. But before we start this episode, two quick comments. One is that this episode is also available as a full video on my YouTube channel, and that includes some graphics too. You can find this full-length video linked in the podcast notes, or you can just find it on my YouTube channel by typing in Floris Gierman on YouTube. Also, there's a lot of information in this podcast and in the video. If you want to download a free PDF with all of the takeaways, that's like 16 pages full, you can go to extract ramylist.com/subscribe and you can download it there. I would love to hear from you. What was your favorite lesson, takeaway, or quote from this low heart rate training guide? Please let me know in the comments. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Hi there, today I'm going to be running a sub-3-hour marathon on the track over here, and I'm going to be sharing a low heart rate training guide, variety of different ways, Zone 2 MAF training. And this is for runners of all levels and ages, from beginners to total advanced. Let's get started. I'm using a Coros Apex Pro 2 with track mode, setting it to lap 1, 400 meters. So, uh, yeah, let's do this. All right, let's get this started over here. Going to be running a 6:48 minute mile pace. That's about a 4:13 minute per kilometer should get me in around 2:58, 2:59 for the marathon here. That's about 105.5 laps, and I'm over here on a track in Irvine, California. Beautiful morning sunrise. The topics that we'll cover in today's video are: what is low heart rate training and why, how to train with low heart rate, how to overcome frustrations and challenges with low heart rate training, because this definitely sometimes happens. The 10 common mistakes with low heart rate training, how much zone 2 training is right for you, and when and how to add speed work. Let's start out with the basics, and from there we'll get much more into the weeds. What is low heart rate training? It is really kind of a game that you play while running where you're trying to keep your heart rate in a specific zone. You want it not too fast and not too slow. With low heart rate training, you build a strong foundation for your running skills so that you can run longer with more energy. You want this to be at a comfortable level. You want to train your body, your heart, to become stronger. Want to teach your body to be efficient with the use of energy so that we use body fat for energy instead of glycogen from sugar, carbs, etc. And this way you don't run out of energy. There are many different ways to calculate your heart rate zone. And your training intensity. We'll talk about this in much more detail later. First, the basics. 2 miles in, I'm feeling good over here. It's a beautiful morning, that surely helps. So why low heart rate running? I've been running mostly at low heart rate for about 10 years now, and there's a variety of different reasons, but the 3 main reasons: number 1, at low lowers your risk of injury. More than half the recreational runners get injured every single year, and this breakup inconsistency of training sets you back significantly in your running progress. When you train at a low intensity, the impact on your body is significantly less. You gradually build up the training volume and you strengthen your muscles, your tendons, your ligaments, your bones. All of these things gradually adapt. The second reason here, you feel great before, during, and after your run. Many athletes go out there and they're exhausted in the middle or at the end of their run, or after their run, especially for non-elite athletes, recreational runners with full-time jobs, family lives, and a lot going on. We want to be able to finish a run, get energy out of it, and feel that you can do that same run over again so that it actually brings you energy. You want to go out there and run nicely again the next day. And then the third reason is over time you can run faster with the same heart rate. Many athletes run out of energy at the end of a race, and so when you train your heart to pump more efficiently, for your body to use energy more efficiently, you can actually finish a race with energy left in the tank. And so aerobic fitness improvement is another big advantage over there. So how to do low heart rate training? Let's talk about how to calculate this happy heart rate zone, this zone 2, this aerobic zone. There are 5 different ways that we can do this. Let's talk about the first 2 over here that you don't need a heart rate monitor for, and the last few 3 that you do need a heart rate monitor for. The first one here is nasal breathing. And this is a great one for beginners without any equipment. You only breathe in and out through your nose, keeping your mouth closed. If it becomes too hard to breathe through your nose, you slow down your running pace or you take a walk break, and this will lower your heart rate. The positive here: it's a simple method, there's no equipment needed. The negative is that it's not 100% accurate to determine your exact heart rate zone. Some people have bigger nose holes— nostrils— and other people You can also become quite efficient in nasal breathing over time. There's definitely some adaptation. Overall, though, I think it's a great starting point. The next one is the talk test. Here you warm up for 15 minutes and you run at a conversational pace with a friend, or you can call a friend, or you can sing a song. If it becomes too hard to breathe, you slow down your running pace or you take a walk break to help let your heart rate go down. The positive: it's a simple method, no equipment needed. The negative is, is not 100% accurate to determine your exact training zones, because some people's perception of a conversational pace are just others than other people. So for these first two, you don't need any equipment, and that's the easy part of it. Let's take some water from my self-made aid station. It's really nice, set up a table over here, so I brought a few bottles and some gels, and so I can easily take it when I want to get some energy in there. And we're 5 miles in. Mile 5 in 6:46. Feeling good so far. The next one: heart rate zone calculator. You can use a formula with a resting heart rate and a max heart rate to calculate your training zone. The positive here is this is a calculation based on your individual data. One negative here is that many athletes don't know their accurate max heart rate. It's sometimes still an estimate. To get to that max heart rate, it's quite challenging actually. It is a higher risk of injury when running all out to find out your max heart rate. And the next one is the Maff 180 formula by Dr. Phil Maffetone. You can use the formula where you take 180 and you subtract age, then you adjust this number with your health and fitness profile. You can actually pause the video to read the exact details over here. I would be way too much out of breath to try to explain the whole thing over here. The positive: it's a simple ballpark number that works reasonably well for the majority of athletes. Another positive: it takes your health and fitness profile into account. So if you're healthy and consistent training, you could train at a higher heart rate, while when you're recovering from an nervousness of coming back from an injury, you would be training at a lower heart rate. And I really like that part about the formula. Another positive is there's no max heart rate test needed, so less chance of injury. The main negative is that it's not accurate for everyone. Further personalization may be needed. For example, if you're an athlete of 55+ or you have a high max heart rate or a low max heart rate, you have to do some further personalization. Then the last one here is to do a blood lactate test at a medical lab. You go to a medical lab and you take blood samples at different running intensities, and here you find your recommended training zones. The positive here, it's the most specific data based on your individualized test scores. A negative here, it's quite expensive. It can be $100 to $200 or more. To get this done. Another negative is that you have to run all out during one of these tests. So for injury-prone athletes, it definitely increases your injury risk over there to be sprinting all out. Another negative is it can still be inaccurate. It's just one data point. There are a lot of factors that can impact your lactate threshold from day to day, such as your fatigue levels, your hydration, temperature, and altitude. These can all lead to inaccuracies. And I've personally had some inaccurate lactate tests as well where I had to come back the following day because the data was simply off. Time to get some energy in. I'm running with a few energy gels. I'm using Precision Hydration, 30g of carbs, about 100 calories. And one thing I often do is I actually tape— I don't know if you can see it— a salt electrolyte pill to my gel so that from time to time, if I want to take in a salt pill, at least I already have them attached to my gels and I can just combine them. So one way that I make sure keep the electrolytes up. Another thing I like is when the gels are not too thick so you can just take them down without water. Very important one when you're far away away from aid stations. Time to bring the sunglasses out. 8 miles in, energy levels are good, heart rate is under control. Let's see over here. Average heart rate for the first 8 miles is 147. Not sure if you can see any of this. So out of those 5 methods to calculate your heart rate zones, I would pick just one that you feel makes the most sense for you and keep it simple. You can also choose a few different ones, compare what the outcome is, and just make your own best judgment over there. You don't have to always stick with the same number either. It might be a little bit of dialing in to find that right heart rate zone for you over there. Once you have picked a heart rate zone, the game can really begin. You can start running And when you feel your heart rate goes too high, you slow it down a little bit. When you feel it's too low, you pick it up a little bit. But a bit of an adjustment phase to get used to it over there. One common response here with low heart rate training is, I have to slow down so much and it is quite frustrating. I even have to slow down sometimes to a walk break, and even then I have to watch my pace. If you're experiencing this, realize you're absolutely not alone here. I've experienced this, and so have many other guests on my podcast, The Extra Mileage Show, as well. So what to expect from low heart rate training over those first few months? Here's some of the things that you might experience. Within minutes of starting your run, your heart rate will shoot up. You have to slow down significantly or take walk breaks. You don't understand why you have to run or walk this slow. Am I really this unfit? You'll get passed left and right by other runners you used to be faster than. Your friends might wonder what's going on with you running so slow. You might feel embarrassed to share some of your lower runs on social platforms. You wonder if you calculated your heart rate zones correctly. This is probably the correct heart rate, but you can always do a talk test or use some of these other calculators and see how those numbers compare with each other. You wonder if you have an exceptionally high max heart rate. Am I an outlier over here? Most probably you're not, but you can always play around with some numbers. The main objective is to slow down, even if it is a ballpark number. Just get used to slowing down your intensity. You finish your first few runs at a very slow pace and you're not feeling tired at all. You feel like you could have continued running much longer. Am I doing this right? When your lizard brain starts feeding you doubtful thoughts, just remember the following: You are not alone. Almost everyone struggles starting out with low heart rate training in the first few months. Realize that you will not be walking or running slow forever. Patience is absolutely key here. Most people won't see results right away or go backwards first. Have a beginner's mind and think long-term here. 6:49, mile 10. Let's talk about overcoming challenges and frustrations with low heart rate training. Ego is the number one enemy for most athletes and for most people. Having to slow down can be quite challenging. Getting passed by other people on the bike path or posting slow times on Strava— some people care about that. Once you can let go of all of that and think long-term versus short-term, it can really make a big difference. Really have a beginner's mind. Put in the time and effort to slow down and think long-term over here. Investing that time is absolutely worth it in the long term. In the short term, it might be challenging, but long-term it will pay off. Also, some people have found it helpful to change your watch setting. So instead of distance that you've covered and your pace, you start to just look at heart rate and time that you spend in the zone. A lot of people have found this one to be helpful. Over the years, I've studied a lot of high performers, and there are a few different characteristics that are quite common among them. Here are 3 of them: persistence, determination, and discipline. And intensity discipline can be really hard. If you feel discouraged and unmotivated to train, ask yourself this question: how bad do you want it? Here's another important lesson to remember. If from time to time you want to run run faster during the base building phase, by all means go for it. If you want to run with a friend, not look at your heart rate, just do it. If you have a lot of energy and you want to just get out there, charge it, go on a group run, or just run a bit faster, by all means go for it. Just don't overdo it. See, too many athletes train in that yellow zone way too many times. Let's talk through common mistakes with low heart rate training. Healthy athletes who are training the right way with heart rate training should be improving, should become faster at the same heart rate over time. If that is not the case, several factors could be blocking your progress. And there are 10— only got one hand here— 10 common factors. So let's talk through them real brief. Not sleeping enough. Sleep is incredibly important for recovery from your workout. High mental stress levels. If you're stressed out of your mind, it's going to be quite hard to improve aerobically. So find ways to fix this. Poor eating and disordered eating can be a variety of things, from junk food, not taking in enough calories, taking in too many calories, environmental stresses— so heat, humidity— health challenges and changes, illnesses, sickness, etc. A negative mindset. If you're frustrated all the time with having to slow down, that's definitely making an impact on your running performance. Bringing in too many stress factors at once. Sometimes I see it: nasal breathing, keto, fasting, cadence, all of this stuff. Just focus on running relaxed at a low intensity. Keep it simple. Running at an incorrect heart rate, either too high or too low. And then overtraining and undertraining. And those last two I want to talk more about. So how much zone 2 of low heart rate training is right for you? What is that right training volume. And that is a half marathon in 1:29. Feeling good over here. If you're enjoying this video, please make sure to like, hit that subscribe button and the bell. It really helps get the channel in front of more people and educate more people about the benefits of low heart rate training. So yeah, if you found any benefit in this video or any other video on my channel, I would greatly appreciate it if you can hit that subscribe and like button.

Thank you.

My training philosophy is holistic, and it's all focused on how to become a stronger, healthier, and happier athlete. And this approach— everything is connected, from your training volume, your intensity, quality of your sleep, nutrition, your mindset. All of those things come into play over there. If one of those is off, then some of these other running volume things are not going to make an impact. If your stress levels are really high or your sleep quality is not good, then the amount of training volume— training more is not going to make a positive difference over there. It is pretty hard to give like the minimum amount of training volume per athlete because this depends on so many variables too. Also your health profile, your fitness level, your race goals, your motivation, your available time to train— all of it is connected. I see quite a few people in the personal best fast running coaching program on Strava, on YouTube, they would actually perform better if they would lower the training volume and allow more time for recovery. In this image, you can clearly see the adaptation curve for your fitness level. So after you stimulate it, you need to be able to recover well in order for you to improve your fitness level. If that recovery is not happening, you're not going to improve your fitness level here. Many athletes get injured, they get burned out when the volume and the training intensity is too high. Every athlete is different, and that's why it's not possible to give a minimum amount of training. Some athletes respond well at 3 hours a week, others at 6, and others at 10. This is something that is so highly individualized, that is something you have to experiment with yourself. And once again, journaling is a powerful tool here. Write down all of the things that you're noticing with the amount of training volume, with the heart rate zones, and how your body is responding to that in training. 15 miles in, 6:48, running good over here, staying hydrated, feeling good so far. I'm wearing the OG Alphafly 1s. Custom colorway once again by my daughter last night with the Sharpie, so it's black and they definitely have some nice pop. These are shoes I've ran at many marathons, and sometimes I just like to stick with a consistent shoe instead of mixing up the shoes. So yeah, bought a few pairs of these, they work well. 16 miles in and the miles are ticking away. 6:46. One more thing to add about training volume is even for me right now, with two busy kids, a startup, the podcast, and a running training program, I simply don't have the bandwidth to run 60, 70, 80-mile weeks like I've done in some of my peak training. And so For me, it's better to run a bit lower volume but really focus on that sleep so that my overall stress levels are lower. Because I'm not gonna lie, my stress levels— and I'm sure you might relate— from daily life are already quite high. So this is why it's a fine balancing game with how much training volume and even training intensity to add over there. A bit of a puzzle. And sometimes it ebbs and flows too. Sometimes you have busier periods in your life then you can train a bit less or at lower intensity. And when it's more time to train, just pick it up a bit more. Flexibility on the day-to-day, absolutely key here. Let's talk through a few training guidelines over here. Start conservatively. See, too many people start at a high training volume and not being able to keep up. Gradually build this up. Increase your training volume by 10% per week max. Don't do 3 hours one week, 6 hours the next week. Take a step-back week every 4th week of about 30 to 40% drop in volume. Train consistent and be patient over here. Patience is absolutely the name of the game. It is a fine line with training volume though, because we do want to add in enough training volume to add positive stress on the body and adaptations. Just make sure that you're able to recover well. Listen to the body there, be patient, and make changes on the day-to-day. If you have had a poor night's sleep keep, maybe cut it a bit shorter, dial back the training intensity a little bit. Feeling absolutely amazing, make sure that you run a little bit extra if you want to. So that ebb and flow in training is key for long-term success. Mile 17 in 6:50 minute miles, and the wind is starting to pick up a little bit. So I have it in the front one way, in the back another. Keep plugging away. So what kind of progress can you expect with low heart rate training? I want to share 3 examples from athletes with low heart rate training over a period of time. The first athlete over here is James. He's one of our Personal Best program members. He's 51 years old and he's training at a heart rate of 119 to 129. So when he's doing a math test, that is, you warm up on a track for 15 minutes and then you time every lap that you're doing either in miles or in kilometers, and then you gradually become slower over time typically. What he noticed in the first month, his first mile was 13 minutes, second 13:26, and on the third 14:02. After 3 months of low heart rate training, mostly, he was able to shave more than 1 minute per mile off. So below that, you can actually see it in kilometers as well. Then the second example over here is of my own personal running progress aerobically over a 24-month period. So at a low heart rate, the first month I was able to run an 8:25 minute mile, so a 5:14 minute per kilometer, and this was on flat. On the hills, I was definitely be a lot slower. The second month, 7:43 minute per mile, 4:48 minute per kilometer. And after 24 months, I was able to run a 6:12 minute per mile, or 3:51 minute per kilometer, at the same low heart rate. And then I want to give an example of my wife Jennifer. She's not really into running, she is more into pickleball. Hello! Fire. And so when my wife and I started walking consistent 20 to 30 minutes a day, her resting heart rate dropped by 20 beats over a period of just 3 months. And so walking is training. A lot of people think you have to run and you have to run fast in order to improve aerobically. Absolutely not. Slow down and you might start noticing that even walking can bring you aerobic benefits. On my podcast, The Extra Mileage Show, this often comes up as well, about the importance of walking and slowing down. Many athletes have to slow down their pace significantly with low heart rate, especially if there's hills involved, humidity, wind, hot temperatures. All of these things can impact your aerobic pace. So nice to have access to a little aid station Now I'm actually getting towards the last stages of the race, so I'm gonna start taking in some caffeine. You can find quite a few different gels that have with caffeine and without. This one is just enough that don't start getting jittery but keeps the mind sharp, especially if I have to think about what to say next year. Mile 20, 6:49 minute mile. Let's talk about speed work, when and how to add speed work. There's absolutely a time and place to add speed work. See, quite a few people make the mistake with low heart rate training that all they do is always run at a low heart rate. If your body is ready After a while— and I agree with Dr. Phil Maffetone's approach here— about 3 months of low heart rate training gives it a good time to develop that aerobic base. After that, start easing into some speed work. Here are a few basic fundamentals for that. Ease into speed work after you've been training at low heart rate. You don't want to right away go out like a wild racehorse. You want to gradually get used to it again. So I would say go 10 beats over your low heart heart rate zone initially. See how that feels. Then 15 beats, then 20 beats, gradually building it up to find an intensity that is right for you. I see the mistake being made that some athletes right away go way too hard, or I also see quite a few people, they do their low-intensity runs too hard and their high-intensity runs not hard enough. You want to somewhere sit— depending on the type of workout you do, I like the 7 to 8 out of 10. I think that's a good gauge to get a decent push in there and ease your body into speed work. When you finish a speed workout and when you finish a certain rep, you want to feel that you could still have pushed it a bit harder. You would have still been able to push it a little bit further. You don't want to be completely out of it because it just takes away from the recovery the next day. You want to be able to train the next day you can. Here are two examples of speed workouts. This one is for a beginner here: 4 times 400m run on a track with 1 minute rest in between intervals. You want to run this as a decent effort level, maybe 7, 8, and with 9 out of 10, not harder than that, gradually letting your heart rate go up over here, just making sure you know this is not an all-out sprint. And then an example of a marathon-specific workout out can be the first 15 miles at low intensity, so the first 24K, and then the last 5 miles, 8K, you pick it up to marathon pace or faster. Great training for the mind, learning how to hold back and seeing how that marathon pace feels at the end. So yeah, the biggest mistake I see with speed work is too much too soon, or once people start adding in speed work, it just becomes too many times. You really don't need to stimulate that higher intensity zone that much and that frequent. It is the low heart rate training that builds that basis, then the speed work is icing on the cake. Mile 22 at 6:49. Here's a running technique or breathing technique to try next time: double inhale, hard exhale. I found it really helps lower my heart heart rate, especially towards the end of a run, towards the end of a race when you sometimes tense up. Tell yourself to run relaxed, ease into it. Anyways, 4 more miles to go. I'm gonna stop talking so much and focus on finishing strong over here. 6:35, mile 24. Going to stop talking I have some energy left, so it's going to pick up the pace a little bit over here. Let's go! Mile 26, 6:18, 0.2 and a little bit to go. Let's finish strong! Running a little bit extra just in case the GPS watch is off. Yes! Ah, that was awesome! That was so nice to finish strong, be able to pick up the pace a little bit. I did so much talking at the beginning stages, so I didn't want to talk too much. But yeah, gee, the light is harsh over here, so go. But yeah, overall it was nice. 2:57 for the full marathon, so that was 105 and a half laps over here in lane 1. There and there. So big thing with marathons is to hold back in the early stages. I always try to pace myself for all rather even be a little bit conservative, and if there's energy left, I can go faster. At this point, I just want to make sure that I was able to present well, share my thoughts, instead of running too fast and running out of energy later on. But overall, that was awesome. It was really nice to have a little aid station set up over here so that I didn't have to carry all of my water on my back. One thing I've had in the past is that some birds have flown away with all of my gels. So this time I had my gels over here on the table, but I also had a few extra boxes just in case the birds would fly off at some backup boxes that I could, um, grab if needed over there. But yeah, I was able to take some gels in on my run, have some water, have some electrolytes. So the nutrition and hydration was all on point today. Low heart rate training can really work for everyone— for beginners, advanced runners, men, women in their 20s, 30s, all the way 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond.

And I made it back to my ice bath, and it feels so good. To improve aerobically, the running volume is only part of the process. Everything is connected over here, like we said earlier. So find out gradually what the right training volume for you is. Don't only focus on the low heart rate running and the training volume. Really look at that quality of the sleep, at your nutrition, your stress levels. Really play it on the day-to-day how you want to adjust your training over there. I want you to see what training volume is doable for you with your work schedule, your life schedule, and don't stack your whole schedule so full either. Make sure that you have a little bit of a buffer that if unexpected things happen in your personal life, that you don't feel stressed out about missing a training run over there. Have that offer, have that flexibility there. Outside of that, look at other areas in your life that you can work on. Sleep, recovery, nutrition, your mindset, all of these things are connected. If you're looking for a specific training schedule, for additional help of a like-minded community of other athletes training with low heart rate, and if you want some additional coaching, check out the PB program. This is my running coaching program at pbprogram.com. I know there was a lot of information in this video. If you would like a summary with the takeaways of this video, check out extramiles.com/subscribe to download that PDF. And then links to all of the tools that I use, all of the nutrition, the watches, the shoes, the clothing can be found in the show notes below. What were your favorite lessons, takeaway, or quotes from this video? I would love to hear from you. Let me know in the comments below on YouTube.

All right, have fun out there on your run.

Bye now. Oh, always feels so good.

I'm sore. Mm-hmm.