The Misery of the Low Heart Rate Runner

Believe this: I am you, but from the future. I have been sent back in time to help.

At a guess, you’re somewhere between 1 and 4 weeks into your low heart rate training. You’ve read Maffetone cover to cover, watched endless hours of slightly loopy guys on YouTube extolling the virtues of low heart rate training, and you’ve decided to give it a go.

And it sucks.

It really, really sucks. Why would anyone do this to themselves? It’s clearly impossible to go at anything other than a crawl at such a stupidly low heart rate. How is this going to make you stronger, faster, fitter?

An old man in sandals passes you. You feel stupid.

The whole reason you run is that you like to run fast. What’s the point of slopping along like this, dropping down to walking pace, stopping even? It’s clearly another one of those weird niche fads, like people who make their own tofu or recycle their toenail clippings.

It’s time to go back to your happy place, your happy pace. Sure, you might not have been making much progress with distance. You’re no faster than last year, maybe (if we’re honest) a bit slower. Always a little bit wiped after a run, never really felt the urge to get out on consecutive days. But that’s OK, it’s a sign you worked hard! And anyway you tried doing more it just led to more injuries…

You gave it a go. It doesn’t work. It can’t work. It’s dumb and it doesn’t get you the buzz you need. You’ve decided it’s time to stop.

Like Bill & Ted in their phone box, or a naked T-1000 if you prefer, I’ve been sent back in time to stop you doing something stupid.

Your problems are both mental and physical. The mental always leads the physical, so let’s start there.

1. The Terrain of the Ego

Running has become something you do, it’s part of you now. The fact that you’ve even thought about trying low heart rate training shows that you care about your performance. You don’t come across this information by accident. In that sense, you’re different from the majority of runners, most of whom are either happy with where they are, happy with their current progress, or simply indifferent.

But therein lies the problem. You’ve made progress, you enjoyed it, but now you’ve stalled. How do you get to the next level?

Think of the process this way: you’ve been climbing a mountain for some time, and now you’ve reached the summit plateau. You have literally climbed as far as is possible. The fact you cannot climb higher is not a you problem, it’s a terrain problem. The only way you’re going to climb higher is to descend the current mountain, and to start the long process of climbing another, higher one, as demoralizing as that might be at first.

Your training is the terrain. Your ego liked the old terrain, it felt good to get to the top. It doesn’t like the new one. This new terrain is harder again, it’s slower like you used to be. You’re going to have to give up the vistas for a while, but the point is that you are going to be climbing a higher mountain and reaching a higher peak. People are going to zip past you at first, but that’s fine; their mountain is not your mountain any more.

I can say this because I was you. I hated being the slow guy again. It was painful. Painful on the sole and painful on the soul. But then I realized: I’m the fastest guy on my mountain, and I’m going to get faster.

2. Running Through Treacle

What no one tells you about low heart rate running is that you’re going to have to learn how to run again.

Obviously, you’re not going to be running at your usual pace, you know that. So you start running slower. And it’s still hard to keep your heart rate down, so you run slower still, until you look like you’re pretending to run on the moon.

This is where you are going wrong. Running in slow motion is about the most inefficient way to move. Slow moving legs are optimally efficient when they are used in a walking fashion, not in a running fashion.

Cadence is key. The number of steps you take every minute needs to stay high, preferably as close as possible to your usual cadence. When you see your heart rate starting to rise,then increase the cadence and reduce your stride, not the other way around. At first it feels a little bit like jogging on the spot, but you’ll soon find that you can control your heart rate by cadence alone. It’s a little like dropping down the gears on a bike. Yes, you’ll feel stupid jogging along in dainty little steps, but it’s not going to last long.

It’s not unusual for your pace to get slower over the first few low HR runs as you work out the kinks. It’s frustrating, but it is temporary. Once you get into the groove you’ll find progress lies on the other side.

You’ll also probably find that the first few minutes of your run are a real fight to keep your heart rate down. Again, this is normal at first and gets better with time. Treat the first 5 minutes or so of your run as the warm-up. If your heart rate spikes, then stop, wait for it to come back down into range, then start off again.

3. Control

The hard part about the first few weeks is the depressing start-stop every time you heart rate goes above target. Being a slave to your heart rate is not fun.

In the first few weeks, it’s not going to ruin everything if you go a couple of beats above target for a minute or two. Instead of shutting down at your target, focus on cadence as we discussed above, drop the pace a little and see if you can stabilize and slowly drop your heart rate back into the target zone.

After a few runs, you should feel like you are in control of your heart and not the other way around. You’ll quickly learn how long it takes you to get back into zone, and over different sorts of terrain.

You should gradually find that you can pinpoint those moments where you are slipping out of your aerobic max and into higher heart rate territory. A watch with a heart rate alarm helps this process immensely; instant feedback loops are powerful things.

Control also means controlling your urges. The urge to mix it up in the early weeks and do some speed work is high, but you must avoid this temptation. You’re building a mind-body connection, retraining your brain and central nervous system just as much as you’re retraining your body. Treat your heart and brain like the recovering addicts they are; do not allow them to fall off the wagon until you have made significant progress.

You will not make positive progress on every run. Especially in the early days you will have days where you go significantly backwards in terms of pace. Sometimes these slips back will be for definable reasons — stress in your personal or professional life, weather conditions, a drink too many the prior day. Sometimes, though, you’ll slip a little for no reason. As frustrating as this is, it gets better as you go along. Don’t allow a bump in the road to destroy your journey.

Gaining control and achieving a feeling of mastery takes a few weeks, but it does come. And it feels great.

4. Games Runners Play

Obsessing over every beat is a unhealthy, but that’s what’s going to happen on these runs unless you find a way to keep your mind occupied. And that means experiments and games.

How many of us really pay attention to how we’re breathing while we’re on a run? These lower intensity training sessions are a perfect time to do so. Are you breathing through your nose or your mouth? What happens to your heart rate and pace when you change this? Are you breathing from your diaphragm or your chest? How does it feel to change the cycle of your breathing? Gaining control and understanding over your breathing is a valuable tool which will carry over to a faster, fitter and more efficient you.

Work on all the other things that you know matter, but have never really taken the time to dive into and train. Foot strike, pushing with the back leg, posture, these can all be worked into your training. The beauty is that you have a great way to calibrate what is and is not working: your heart rate and pace. Anything that helps you increase pace while maintaining your target heart rate is, by definition, a good thing.

Play games with yourself. How long can you go without triggering your heart rate alarm? Is there a stretch which always pushes you over, and can you pace it so you don’t? Can you keep your cadence up and your heart rate down with a longer stride?

5. The Finishing Line

I won’t tell you how long you’re going to be doing this for, but I will tell you that it won’t take as long as you think. I won’t tell you how much faster you’ll be at your aerobic threshold, but I will tell you that it will be surprisingly faster than where you are today. No, you’re not going to be running at your old pace, but that’s not the point. You’ll have built a solid aerobic base, and when you do push the pace and take the heart back to where it used to operate, you’ll notice the difference in better times and less exertion.

If you’re still not convinced, think of it this way: this is two months or so out of your regular training to try something new. I absolutely guarantee you will not go backwards. No downside. Eight weeks. You’re strong enough to commit to that.

I know this because I am you from the future, and I have seen what you are capable of.