I looked at the data and I had a hard determining what's going on. It looked like you have to work very hard aerobically to hold 9+ min. miles on the hot days. From the data we don't know your body type, training routine, and perceived exertion.

My suggestion is to follow this plan to solidify your pace over time while decreasing heartrate: https://philmaffetone.com/method/ Runs might seem easy at the prescribed pace, but that's a given. There are others similar to it but those generally have more speed work.

Once you've built a solid aerobic base, throw in a speed session every week to compliment all the aerobic training. That could be a tempo run, VO2 max intervals, a track session, etc. In effect, the 80% aerobic training plus 20% speed work creates a polarized training model and there is plenty of good research to prove that works. My opinion is that you should focus on the aerobic engine before worrying about that last 20% though.

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What is your resting heart rate? First thing in the morning before you get out of bed or drink coffee.

What is your HR max? End of a really hard 5k or intervals.

Knowing your HR at a race without those two mean nothing. If your HR max is 250, then 180 is fine for a race. If 180 is the max that's less good.

Thank you for your reply.
Will measure my resting heart rate every morning for a couple of days and will do a max HR test at the end of this week or begining of next. Will update then.

When I was your age, I would always have a 187 heart rate when racing or training at maximum effort.

I've looked at this now and say, as many other, I just cant run that slow. As you might have noticed, my HR goes to 160+ in a matter of minutes even at a moderate pace of 5:40.
One thought is that the HRM strap is malfunctioning, but I am really struggling.
What I think i will do is to incorporate some bike work at around 150HR, and I will also add some walk/runs around that HR just to try for a few weeks.

my heartrate is pretty high when i run too. like, 160's. It goes down pretty quickly after i stop walking though, so thats good. I've had a lot of people tell me that they experience the same thing, so i'm not overly worried about it.

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188 might be a touch high for a half marathon unless you have a super high Max, but a high heart rate isn't a bad thing if it's within your personal limits.

My max HR running is 202 and i averaged 192 for a 5k, threshold tests are mid 180s. This means i can do an easy RPE run with my heart rate in the 160s where someone with a lower threshold HR would be gasping for air. You really have to find your own limits as it's impossible to compare between different people, also bike and run HR can be very different, i keel over if i hit the 180s on my bike.

I am almost 51 now and I run at 178 beats per minute.

I run in the 180s and 190s for race efforts(I'm in my 30s), up to marathon distance, but not for every day runs. If your "easy" runs are that high as well, then you either have something else going on or you need to slow down significantly.

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-Andrew

I suggest committing to the lower HR / slower pace aerobic running for awhile. I too once thought "I cannot run at that low of HR." But I eventually relented and consistently did my runs at a lower HR, and low and behold 1 year later, I can run 2 min/mile faster for the same run at the same low HR. My race times at higher HRs have never been better.

You were saying:

Can you confirm that you ran the 15k until you bonked in 1:20?

I'm amazed at all your HRs. My ideal race HR is in 140s. 150s is a hill climb and it better not be a long one. 160 and I blow up in minutes. My max HR measured has never hit 180 when I was younger let alone now. I've not seen anything over 166 lately.

@BrickMick I made 14.42km in 1.20:40, so not exactly what I staded, but close enough.


I measured my resting HR today with both optical and my HRM-strap
51 with HRM-strap and 53 with optical..
And had a hard run yesterday. So maybe a few less when im fully rested.

Which to me really highlights how individual HR is. Neither is really good or bad, it's just the result of different physiologies.

I do train at a low HR. In recent years I've really focused on making my easy workouts truly easy, so I run at ~135-150bpm for my easy runs. That may still seem high to you, but that's a big drop compared to race pace. What I do find challenging is pacing off of HR. I have on several occasions shown that I can hold mid-180s for 3-4 hours. Yet high 180s, only 3-5bpm faster, may have me blow up in 20 minutes. Add caffeine, adrenaline, and heat into the mix, and it becomes impossible to pace on HR.

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-Andrew

   
So when you run the 15k in ~1:20 (8:35/mile pace) your V.O2 can be calculated to be at 38.
Now check out Jack Daniels' pace calculator (https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/):
Your easy (long) run should be done at around 10:30/mile.
Use that and build your base. You need the base to be able to run longer and not bonk.
For other training units:
Your threshold pace is 8:30.
Intervals are at 7:50.

If you want to learn more on Jack Daniels, I can recommend his running formula. Good, thorough science behind it.
And I can tell you from experience that it works.
Go read it up if you want to learn more.

A friend of mine used to have very similar HR levels to you. Despite having a max HR somewhere around 195-200 he would have very high HR often rising to 185-195 for prolonged periods during half marathon and marathon races. I told him regularly that he needed to check it out and that I thought he was overdoing the intensity in training but if not that maybe he had a cardiac issue. He often trained with his running club friends many of whom were stronger runners than him. I suggested many times that he was running at their pace not his and that he was doing himself no favours running hard every time he went out. Eventually, after blowing up on many long distance races and finding that he just couldn't keep his HR in a reasonable range during typical runs, he decided he did need to try and get it under control. He consulted a coach who said exactly what I'd been telling him (but he believed the coach!) and he cut all high intensity training out of his schedule for about 6 or 8 weeks. If I remember correctly he was told not to allow his run HR to exceed 145bpm. For him this was a ridiculously low HR and meant running far slower than he had been. I think he went from typically running 5:10-5:25/km on his long steady runs to a pace more like 6:30-7:00/km. If he let his pace rise inadvertently he'd sometimes have to stop and walk to get it back below 145. After a few weeks he was running quite a bit faster still (but still pretty slow) at this low HR. After 6-8 weeks he tried running at what he used to consider a reasonable pace and now his HR was staying under control, and has ever since (I think that was 3 years ago).

My guess is you've done something similar and allowed yourself to overdo the intensity for quite a while and have trained your body into an excessive HR response. I don't know the mechanism, and perhaps someone with more knowledge can correct me if I'm being inaccurate. However, I'd recommend really cutting out the high intensity and forcing yourself to keep your HR low for several weeks then revert to normal running pace and see how it looks.

You can train yourself into bad habits, thankfully you can also correct them. I guarantee you CAN run slower. It just takes a little discipline, and it will be worth it. Get it under control and you'll be healthier and faster. If you just feel awkward running slow, experiment with changes to your gait, especially shorter strides. But if you force yourself to run slowly I'm sure you'll find your gait adapts to this subconciously anyway. If you think training at low intensity is a waste of good training time better spent pushing yourself, you're wrong. I'm sure most people here will agree with that. If you're self conscious about running slowly, don't be, of course there's always the option to run in the dark or where no one will see you if it's an actual problem!

As an aside, your cadence is relatively low. To keep things interesting while doing your low HR runs, you could try shortening your stride significantly and raising the cadence. Then, when you do higher intensity runs later, keep the high cadence and just stretch out your stride. This is might help with your running efficiency but it's completely separate from the HR issue and if you think your gait is okay then perhaps ignore me on that one!

I think it's a mix of the two. The physiology we start with and the training/pacing we inflict upon it.

Thank you all for your input.
I've decided to plan my running to get below 150. I will still keep my intervals and some bike workouts at higher HR/Pace.
Why one might ask: I think it's so much more fun. And I train for fun, so...
And I'm competing in my first 70.3 in August and really want to get better before then. So hopefully I can get a good effect by training at lower HR for long runs and still have a nice race pace then.
I'll try to update here once a week with the stats from my runs as well as my resting HR

I am also 24. I usually average about 205 bpm in a 5k. I run about 16:45 for a 5k.

In a HIM last year I was 184 bpm for the bike portion. I got an EKG done because I was concerned as well. I have been told there is nothing to worry about. I don't like to train with HR, but I could find some of my data if you are really interested.

Most of my training is done in the 180s because that is the intensity that I get the most enjoyment out of running.

I'm jealous I think. I'm hitting the low 190's at the end of my sprint/Oly runs. I guess in the end though your 160's max will feel like my 190's.

Definitely keep the HR down for the majority of the long stuff, permanently. I think you might be better ditching the intervals and other high intensity stuff for a few weeks too if your plan is to see if you can drop your cruising HR. You can still train plenty long easy stuff ahead of August and add back in some higher intensity in a few weeks and be in good shape for the race (start or end of August?). But as I said earlier, I'm not an expert, others may have more authoritative advice.

Hr is unique to each individual. I suggest you do a LTHR run test, run hard for 30mins and take a read of your avg hr for last 20mins. Base your hr zones off that and stick to them rigidly. I would have you doing 80% in zone 2 or below with the other20% in zone 4+

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X2 on dropping the run intervals, work on base for that Aug 70.3.

Have you heard of HR Lactate Threshold testing? It can be done in the lab or you can do it in the field with a high certainty of success. As mentioned above in a post, everyone's physiology is different and a field LTHR test would help you find your threshold and training zones based on that threshold. This site provides info on how to do the run field test and you can use the downloadable spreadsheet from here to calc your HR zones.

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Well, that might work for you if 150 is in the right zone, but without finding your own HR max you are just guessing. For example, I am 40 this year and I couldn't run the marathon in an IM race at a HR that low. My HR max is about 210 and HRR about 45, so 150 would be zone 1 for me, and I'm a lot older than you.

Recommend a structured ramp test to find your HR max.