As a running coach, I’m occasionally asked by newer runners “What is a healthy running heart rate?” This is an interesting question because the answer can vary a lot. In this article, I’ll get you the answer you are looking for, so you can safely use your heart rate to progress your running in the right way.
- Are you worried about having a healthy running heart rate?
- What is a normal range for heart rates?
- What is the normal range for heart rates WHILE RUNNING?
- So what is a healthy running heart rate?
- When might heart rate not be healthy while running?
Are you worried about having a healthy running heart rate?
If you are in any way worried about your heart rate while running not being healthy, you should see a doctor straight away to get checked out. You know your own body best and hopefully your worry will be unfounded, but in rare cases, you might be glad you got professional help.
For example, if you feel unwell, or your heart rate is unusually low or high (during or after running) and you can’t explain it after reading the information below, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
What is a normal range for heart rates?
Everyone has a maximum heart rate and a resting heart rate, measured in “BPM” – Beats Per Minute.
Maximum heart rate values vary according to genetics and age – as you get older, the maximum speed your heart can beat will slow down. The maximum value is not affected by your fitness! You can guess your maximum heart rate by using “220BPM minus Age“, but this is rarely accurate, and healthy runners without heart issues should definitely find their real maximum heart rate with a MaxHR Stress Test.
Resting heart rate also varies according to genetics and age, but IS affected by fitness. The fitter you become, the lower your resting heart rate will become – the heart doesn’t need to beat as hard. Experienced, long term athletes will often warn hospital staff that their resting heart rate is very low so that the staff doesn’t panic when their heart rate is 30bpm.
Knowing what your normal maximum and resting heart rates are is important to spotting if anything is unusual. For example, if your normal resting heart rate is 60BPM, but it’s suddenly 30BPM, that indicates a problem. Or if it’s suddenly higher (perhaps 75BPM in this example), maybe you are getting ill with a virus or need more recovery from hard running training or racing.
As you can see, the extreme ends for heart rates over the entire population is somewhere between 30BPM and 220BPM, but your actual range is very specific to you.
What is the normal range for heart rates WHILE RUNNING?
When you do anything physical or stressful for the body, your heart rate rises above its resting BPM. Even sitting up in bed in the morning will raise your heart rate a noticeable amount. When you do dedicated exercise, like when running, the heart rate jumps up substantially. So what’s a good running heart rate?
Healthy heart rates while running range from around 100BPM for very low efforts, right up to whatever your maximum heart rate is for very high efforts, so let’s guess at 180BPM maximum for an average 40 year old (mine is 191BPM in a stress test at nearly 50 years old, so you can see how much variability there is due to genetics).
So what is a healthy running heart rate?
To answer this question, we need to understand what “healthy” means. Doing some running is inherently healthy, so if there’s nothing wrong with your heart, then whatever your heart rate is during a run IS a healthy running heart rate bpm!
Your body will slow you down long before you can do any damage to the heart.
If you want to run a fair distance regularly without getting injured, you cannot do all your runs at a hard effort with a high heart rate. So, an ongoing healthy running heart rate for most of your runs should be quite low, by running at an easy, low effort pace. Then once or twice a week, run hard enough to get your heart rate up quite high. If you need help working out what those heart rates might be, then take a look at my heart rate zones calculator. For example for me, an easy run might be at 150BPM, and a hard effort session might be at 180BPM – remember, yours will be different and heart rate is affected in the following ways, so take these into account while looking at your healthy running heart rate:
- Speed and effort: The harder you run, the higher the heart rate. The good news is the more good running training you do, the lower your heart rate needs to be for any given speed, since the body adapts in many areas to make it easier.
- Heart rate drift: The longer you run, the higher the heart rate gets, even if you run at the same speed. The heart rate naturally drifts up. You can gradually slow your pace to drop the effort and heart rate.
- Heat and humidity: If temperature is hotter, the body has to divert more blood to nearer the skin to help with cooling, which means the heart has to beat faster to also keep oxygen in the blood supplied to the muscles that are moving during the run. Similarly, if it’s humid, it’s harder for sweat to evaporate for cooling the body, with the same end result.
- Age: As we get older, our maximum heart rate potential drops, so our overall heart rate while running reduces.
- Runner age: How long have you been running? If you are new to running, then all your running might seem really hard, with a high heart rate, even if it’s barely above walking pace. This should improve quite quickly.
- Recovery needs / sleep: If you’ve done a lot of exercise recently and / or lost out on sleep, your heart rate might be higher than normal.
- Illness: If you are getting ill, your heart rate might be elevated.
- Device reliability: Wearing your heart rate device properly is important, otherwise data can be all over the place. Read on for more info on that:
When might heart rate not be healthy while running?
In some cases, the electrical signals controlling the heart can get confused, leading to either a very low heart rate or a daftly high heart rate. The condition is called Arrhythmia and can be dangerous if left undiagnosed. It normally coincides with some not feeling normal, so if your heart rate goes much higher than expected for the effort level of your run, then the first thing to do is to check the quality of your heart rate data. For example if your watch says your heart rate is 200BPM, but you are going for what feels like an easy run, able to chat no problem, perhaps the data is dodgy. Check your data:
If you are using a chest strap monitor, then use your fingers to put some saliva on the skin underneath the chest contacts in case connection isn’t perfect. If you are using an optical wrist sensor built in to your watch, then check the watch is tight enough so that no light seeps in while you are running which would cause the watch to measure how fast your move your arms back and forth, also known as your running cadence, which can be a lot higher than your heart BPM. If you think the devices are set up correctly, quickly stop and check your pulse manually either with fingers on neck or wrist to be sure, so you know for sure if the data is reliable.
I hope this has helped you understand what a healthy running heart rate is. If you have any questions, comment below.
