Forums >General Running>Running too long at High Intensity bad for heart?
Runs in the rain
wcrunner - Thanks for the speedwork rules of thumb! At my current fitness level I doubt I could maintain even a 10 minute mile pace for 12 minutes and my quickest speed I could now sustain for 45 minutes would be a lot slower than that! It will be a challenge to progress to the paces I need.
Jogger baby - I have also heard that you don't need to run a lot of miles to achieve optimal fitness and of course adding more miles adds more stress that could lead to some damage. That said, I really like doing the long runs, even doing 20 miles or more, although it takes consistent training over many months for me to increase my long run to that distance. I think varying the pace for different runs sounds like a good idea, although I've also heard that moderate paced runs are "junk miles" that don't produce benefit. I'm sure there are many opinions about that!
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
I try to monitor my heart rate and keep it in the 130 range most of the time, I have noticed if I don't monitor it that it can easily reach to 165 -175 bps without me really noticing that much.
For instance I run my miles at 4 mph pace ( I am a 70+ lb overweight newbie runner ) and in an hour of running my average heart rate is around 130 according to chest heart rate monitor.
Today I ran 10k, about 6.2 miles on treadmill at a 5mph pace and it actually felt very comfortable and a pace easy for me to maintain, but my heart rate average around 165 -175 bps for around an hour and a half. Even though my max heart rate acording to my age 43 is 177 I can maintain a heart rate close to 177 for about an hour and half of straight running without feeling out of breath at all and actually feeling very comfortable. But even though I can run comfortable in the 165-175 bps range I won't do it often since bad for heart, I will run most of miles at 4mph where my heart rate is more around 130.
littleGizmo - The formula you are using for Max heartrate just gives an estimate based on averages. Everyone is an individual and it is quite possible that your max is higher than you think! Now I'm 70 and 220 -70 = 150 as my estimated max. I'm just starting a training cycle and my HR seems to be around 130 on the runs I am doing. When I start to pick up my pace later in training typically I'll get to 145 on the run. However, I estimated 169 as my max since that is what the Garmin said when I was all out of breath and my heart pounding when I ran up a steep hill. It could even really be higher than that since it is really difficult to reach your max. I doubt if 177 is your max if you feel comfortable running an hour at 175!
"Even though my max heart rate acording to my age 43 is 177 I can maintain a heart rate close to 177 for about an hour and half of straight running without feeling out of breath at all and actually feeling very comfortable."
No. About half of all people have a maximum heart rate within about 10 BPM of the number from that formula. The rest have maximum heart rates either higher or lower. I saw my heart rate hit 175 during some intervals. I was 65 at the time, and those intervals were hard, but well below race effort.
There is only one way to find your maximum heart rate. You need to run intervals, with each successive interval harder, and the last one all out with everything you have. Uphill. This needs to be done on an empty stomach so that you only dry heave at the end.
A sign of poor aerobic fitness is that it is easy to get your heart rate high. One coach recommends that aerobic training runs be done at a maximum heart rate of 180 minus age, or 137 for a 43 year old. If you keep your heart rate mostly under that number, and run at least four times per week for a year or so, you will be amazed at your improved fitness and speed.
I found this HR calculator and the article with it states that the standard formula (220 - age) is inaccurate, particularly for seniors and can give results that are as much as 40 BPM too low! A rough calculation with this gives me a Max of 168, which is about what I've estimated by seeing how high it went on that steep uphill! Of course JRMichler's method is the actual way to really find your MAX HR number, but I just don't feel like running so hard I vomit! https://www.ntnu.edu/web/cerg/hrmax#Important
Long periods of high-intensity running too often can have adverse effects on the heart. This is mainly because long periods of high-intensity running can cause an excessive cardiovascular burden, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.
In general, moderate aerobic exercise is good for the heart and circulatory system. However, if you run for a long time and at a high intensity, the body needs to produce more metabolites to support this exercise. This can cause the heart to constantly beat faster to match the body's demands, and can lead to worsening conditions for heart patients.
Therefore, it is necessary to adopt appropriate exercise volume and intensity according to factors such as physical condition, personal basis, and exercise experience. You can combine it with other training, such as weight training, aerobics, etc., to achieve better training results.
It is also important to know your heart rate in real time while running. I run with my BP Smartwatch all the time, and once my body data is wrong, I will stop exercising immediately.
Are we there, yet?
If I tried that, I'd never get above a moderate to brisk walk. An easy run will get my heart rate into the 120s at least, far above the 104 that your formula indicates. It may work reasonably well for runners in their 30s and 40s, but it seems useless for those of us in our 60s and 70s.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Long periods of high-intensity running too often can have adverse effects on the heart. It is also important to know your heart rate in real time while running.
Long periods of high-intensity running too often can have adverse effects on the heart.
It is also important to know your heart rate in real time while running.
It is reasonable to think that long runs at high intensity could have detrimental effects from the stress. On the other hand, if you want to get faster you need to sometimes go above your comfort zone. Perhaps using short periods of high intensity and just doing part of a long run at a race pace is the safest way to get faster. I'm now starting to think that walking is an underrated exercise. Using long walks as recovery days would be a low stress way of training. Monitoring heartrate during exercise is a good idea, but usually I only look at results later when the run is over with. Due to a medical procedure I've only been doing walks these past two weeks. I see my heart rate on these walks ranged from 91 to 113, but I'd say 103 is about average. My rather slow paced runs that I was doing before average about 125.