My Secret for Manageable, Low Heart Rate Runs

Garmin watch with high heart rate alert set at 143 bpm.

I found a way to make my low heart rate runs more manageable. Initially, I manually watched my heart rate on my Garmin Forerunner 620. I would run and look at my watch, then continue to run and look. Inevitably there would be a period when I did not look at my watch, and suddenly my heart rate was well into zone 3. This constant looking up and down and remembering to monitor my heart rate was taking a toll.

Finally, it dawned on me to use the built-in heart rate alert on my GPS watch. At first, I set the high alert to 144 beats per minute (BPM), the upper limit of my zone 2. I quickly learned that by using the upper limit, my heart rate would drift to 145 BPM before sounding the alarm. Adjusting my heart rate to 143 (one less than the maximum heart rate for the range) did the trick. Since then, I have started using my heart rate alerts for my zone 1 recovery runs.

My watch has a low heart rate alert as well. I have not used it yet, but I am thinking about it. Sometimes while deep in thought in my zone 2 runs, my heart rate drops into zone 1.

I’ll share more tips and tricks that I use to keep my heart rate down in a future post. In the meantime, how do you keep your heart rate down? Comment below.

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