Did you figure your zones out correctly? 140 seems pretty high for Z1. I’ve talked with a pretty well known pro and he told me as much as it sucks, run slow. If staying in the zone you want to stay in, you have to run a 12 minute mile, stick with it and your speed will slowly increase without jacking your HR.

I took this advice and was maintaining high Z2 (135BPM) and I was running near a 11:30 mile. Over time my body had adjusted and I’m running a 9:40 with the same HR.

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I don’t post enough so my opinions must be considered spam.

Thanks for the response, ok maybe to clarify, I was walking (fast walking) because I felt the fast walk was pretty close to a slow run. So should I still slow run vs walk?

Hr zones are all over the place. People are VERY individual. My Z1 tops out at 145. Some of that depends on the zone system you are using too.

I slowly ran in the beginning and it was painfully boring. I kept telling myself to trust the process and it turned out the advice helped. For me, it depends on the speed I would be walking. I’d say anything over 4.5 MPH ish should be a slow jog.

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I don’t post enough so my opinions must be considered spam.

 how do you feel while you are running at 140 bpm. Can you talk and hold a conversation or sing? The point is to run at an easy pace where you can hold a conversation while walking. Your hr may be high for a while, if it seems easy and your hr is just high... Ignore it. But, keep the pace super easy.

I agree - so long as you are moving fast enough that running is more economical than walking, you should run, even if it’s a slow jog. The energy cost of movement, or energy per meter traveled per kg of body mass, is minimum at some optimal walking speed but rises rapidly as walking gets faster (or slower), whereas it is a nearly-constant value for running.

https://ars.els-cdn.com/...982217305675-gr1.jpg

Honestly after the first 10 min I feel good, I run with music and can sing some songs etc. last year I concentrated on a pace 10 min mile (not a fast guy) and kept that all the way to my first ironman. I started training for IMMT and felt I was missing something by not doing the proper zone training. But now I’m back to this second guessing the zones and the run/ walk patterns etc. especially if it’s making me slower (miles per hour) thanks again

I ignore the zones and just go for a run.

Are you big, or heavy, or do you have a history of injury? How often do you run? How many miles a week? How much did you run last cycle?

If you didn't get injured before, there's no basis for going slower. I think you should just run. Run at an easy, comfortable pace. To get more fit, run more... A little more often. But keep the pace easy and comfortable.

My lesson learned in regards to abiding really strictly by HR zones and being in Z2 all the time was that I had this horrible shuffle thing going on to keep my HR low and it ended up physically hurting me. It wasn't a natural stride and it felt wrong but I wanted to do the HR thing right so bad I kept going and ended up with little irritating injuries that I'd work through and then try pushing my runs faster and never getting far before some other injuries popped up. Then I'd give up or plateau at less than what I wanted and get discouraged. Last year I kind of re-started run training but stuck with the conversational pace idea instead of strict zones and attempted to develop a better stride that felt natural. Between that and VERY slowly ramping up distance it's been working so far. Now I'm back to looking at HR for my zones and being able to stay in what is my Z2 with a better feeling stride while increasing distance and improving pace.

Did you figure your zones out correctly? 140 seems pretty high for Z1.
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Running zones are highly individual and follow no rhyme or reason. For example, my zone 1 (tested multiple times over many years) ends at 163. I had an athlete that z1 was in the 180s (we had her stress tested by a physician to make sure that running tempo in the 210s was acceptable). I have another, who's in his 30s and wickedly fast, test z1 in the 130s.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

How long did your adaptation take, and about how many miles per week were you running?

Yep, and I have a friend who is often a top-10% AG marathoner, and runs 7:0x pace at 12x bpm.

How did you calculate your zones? If it just aged based it is most likely not accurate.