Need help with Zone 2 training (running)

[florenceandthemac]

After a bit of reading, apparently Zone 2 training is greatly beneficial rather than just all out running which I normally do, so decided to give it a go starting today.

Well it was so boring. I basically walked it all...
I wear an Apple watch, and thought I had the HR zones set up right, As soon as I hit Zone 3 I'd stop running (so I actually never ran more than 10 seconds...) but it was so hard to stay in Zone 2.
Anyway, I've come home and done some more reading online about HR Zone thresholds, but literally everything I read differs in relation to what the thresholds are?!

For reference, I'm 35 so I could use the standard calc of 220 - my age (so 185) as my max HR, but I do know from previous hard runs that my max HR is actually 197.
Then, to calculate the zones, some sites/articles suggest 60-70% is Zone 2, and others 50-60%. Then some websites have calculators which produce different figures altogether!
Does anybody use anything reliable that they can recommend? If I'm going to bother doing it, I want to get it right.

I'll add, in case it's relevant, my 10k race is sub 56 mins, and my average HR throughout this is about 186, I always have a super high HR when I exercise so it's actually so difficult to keep it down!

Mine is worked out as 60-70% of my heart rate range! MaxHR-MinHR and then 60-70% of that is my zone 2.
So my resting is 40, my max is 190 (for running) giving me a range of 150. 60% comes in at 90 then add back on the 40 to give 130. 70% is 145ish.
For me, zone 2 is about 2.5min a mile
slower than my 5km pace...and it feels
slow.
However, I am getting faster in zone 2 which is having a positive impact on my 5km times.
60-70% seems to be fairly common from most coaches and Strava/Garmin.

This is great, thanks so much!
I used an online calculator earlier that worked it out the same as you, so I've just double checked with your calcs and it looks like I have the right figures!
Going to have another go tonight using these new numbers for my Z2 and hoping it's not quite as boring as earlier.
Thanks again

You need to figure out your Max Heart rate first.

Without that, it's pretty hard to calculate your zones.

I could have written your post OP! I've watched so many videos on YouTube and I still don't understand how I'm meant to run but keep my HR that low! My Zone 2 is supposed to be 129-141 (60-70%) but I can only keep within that range if I drop down to walking. As soon as I start even a slow run it shoots up. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to offer some advice!

My DH had never done any zone 2 running but started about 6 weeks ago; it was mainly fast walking for him initially. Then a slow jog. He's now still at jogging speed but he can see a change in the speed he jogs compared to a few weeks ago.
It's just training up a new system in the body and allowing it to become more efficient.

This is really reassuring @brooksghost, thanks!
I've just been out for another Z2 run after tweaking my zones on my watch to make them correct.
It was slightly better, I ran for 48 mins (just over 6k, it felt sooo slow) but I ran for this long to get 30 mins in Zone 2.
Hoping to see some improvements in the numbers that make me feel like it's worthwhile! I'm very much a stats person!!

hi OP! Did you ever make any progress with this? I’ve just started a thread on this topic this morning. Please tell me it works!