“How I Lowered My Average Heart Rate From 170bpm to the 120s: My Running Training Routine”

 

I. Two Months in a Marathon Club

1. “I’ll just run, how hard can it be?”

At first, being able to run 5 km without stopping from my usual 3 km felt like a huge achievement for me.

Then I stretched that to 7 km, and “Hey… I’m actually becoming a decent runner!” — that’s what I started to think.

After occasionally running 7 km, sometimes 10 km, 10 km eventually became my routine distance.

“At this level… I’m probably one of the stronger runners along Anyangcheon, right?”

2. Hitting the Two-Month Mark in the Marathon Club

For the first time, I did a proper “build-up” run session.

On the track at Anyang Sports Complex, I think I ran the final five laps at around sub-5:00 pace,

just staring at the feet of the club president in front of me, debating the whole time whether to quit or keep going, and somehow barely finishing those five laps.

“I thought I was pretty good… but compared to the other club members, I’m really nothing.”

That was my first real “training” session, and it made me take running more seriously.

Before joining the club, simply completing 10 km was my goal, and once I hit 10 km, I felt like I was on top of the world.

But after barely surviving that build-up session,

“Instead of just ‘finishing 10 km’, how should I run during the week so that next Saturday’s session feels a little less brutal?”

With that question in mind, I started to reevaluate my actual running level.

II. A Heart Rate That’s Too High

1. I Can Push the Pace, But…

I used to be satisfied just finishing 10 km within an hour.

But after suffering so much during the Saturday club run, I thought, “If I train faster on weekdays, I won’t suffer as much later.”

Once I had that goal, my 10 km time started to improve.

On the Monday after the Saturday session, I finished in 52 minutes, and on Tuesday I came in at 49 minutes.

The problem was that my average heart rate was 172 bpm — 172 beats per minute.

Worried, I started researching, reading articles here and there, and asking more experienced runners in the club.

That’s when I realized that just “running hard” all the time isn’t necessarily a good thing.

I studied various resources and thought I had figured out my ideal heart-rate range… but it turned out not to be that simple.

Running Heart Rate – If You Just Push Hard, You’ll Get Hurt. Train Smart. (tistory.com)

2. Why Is My Heart Rate So High?

Whether I finished 10 km just under an hour or under 50 minutes, my average heart rate didn’t change that much.

In both cases, my heart rate was high.

With a goal of “sub-1-hour 10K”, my average was around 160 bpm.

Pushing for “sub-50 minutes”, my average heart rate jumped to about 170 bpm.

“Is this normal?”

“Maybe my body just isn’t built for running?”

“Should I give up on running faster altogether?”

I became really curious about what I could do to bring my heart rate down.

III. How to Lower Your Heart Rate

1. Cardiovascular Endurance Doesn’t Improve Overnight

Let’s say two people are running at the same pace: one has a low heart rate, the other a high one.

Over short distances, there may not be a big difference, but over long distances, the runner with the higher heart rate makes their heart work much harder.

In other words, a high heart rate puts more stress on the body, and the fitness gap that doesn’t show up in short runs starts to reveal itself in longer runs.

That’s why we eventually start paying attention to heart rate.

But cardiovascular endurance (often referred to as VO₂ max) is not something that improves in a single leap.

It gradually improves through consistent running over time.

2. Running Slowly, But for a Long Time

When you first start walking, it feels tough, but if you walk every day, it becomes easier, your breathing stabilizes, and you can extend the distance without much trouble.

In running, there is a similar concept called Zone 2 training.

It’s roughly 60–70% of your maximum heart rate — for a 37-year-old, that’s about 110–128 bpm — an effort where you can comfortably hold a conversation while running.

Simply running your usual distance in Zone 2 doesn’t seem to bring much effect.

But if you run about 50% farther than your usual distance while keeping your heart rate in Zone 2, you’ll find that even over longer runs, your heart rate remains stable.

After about two months of this type of training, if you slowly start to increase the pace, you’ll notice that your heart rate stays lower than it was two months earlier at the same speed.

In my case, I increased my distance from 10 km to 15 km and adjusted my pace based on heart rate.

After a little over a month, even when I slightly picked up the pace, my heart rate still stayed within Zone 2.

3. Hill Training

From about three months before my 100 km ultramarathon attempt, I added hill training — 300–400 meter climbs — once or twice a week.

During hill repeats, my heart rate would spike up to 180–190 bpm, and after doing that for about two months,

even on hot summer days, I could run at a 7:30–7:00 min/km pace while keeping my heart rate under 120 bpm.

Hill training turned out to be very effective for lowering my overall heart rate as well.

4. Start Your Run Slowly

When 10 km runs were my standard routine, I used to push hard right from the start to hit a good pace.

But I’ve come to feel that starting out fast like that is not great for your heart rate.

It will vary by runner level, but generally, if you keep the first 2 km truly easy and comfortable, your heart rate stays low,

and once your pace naturally picks up from there, your heart rate tends to stay within that “comfortable” range.

The beginning of a run should always feel easy.

Many runners misunderstand what “easy” means.

If your usual pace is 6:00 min/km, you might think 6:30 is “easy”.

But that’s not it. If your usual pace is 6:00, an easy pace might actually be somewhere in the high 7-minute range or even 8 minutes per kilometer.

By combining Zone 2 runs with hill training,

and starting every run at a truly easy pace,

you’ll likely see your heart rate come down significantly after about three months.