I Broke Through My Run/Walk Plateau With Heart Rate Zone Training

For years, as a run/walker, I had two paces: hard and easy. This made sense as I started out. My run intervals were hard efforts and my walk segments were easy. When runners began to talk about the benefits of zone-based training, I checked out of the conversations. I assumed that, as a run/walker, I had no skin in the game.I recently learned, though, that this was a mistake, and possibly the reason my training had stalled. I wasn’t getting faster and didn’t feel fitter. All of my running efforts—4:00-minute runs at 5.0 mph on the treadmill with 30 seconds of walking—continued to feel “hard.” Even though I trained myself to walk faster (3.7 mph on the treadmill) for up to 30 minutes at a time without run breaks, that still always felt easy.Typically, run/walkers use a Magic Mile to determine their run/walk intervals. Knowing your one-mile pace helps you figure out which interval breakdowns might best suit your other training runs or race-pace goals. Unfortunately for me, my Magic Mile seemed to stall between 16 and 17 minutes, and I couldn’t seem to consistently run faster.Then, I had an enlightening conversation with Heather Milton, MS, RCEP, CSCS, cofounder of Master My Run and host of The Runner’s World Guide to Running Form. She suggested I was actually going too fast during my run intervals so all of my workouts were essentially speedwork. I should slow my run pace during long runs, Milton said, and run faster during shorter workouts, and I should use my heart rate to monitor my pace to stay in the types of zones non-run/walkers use. This should, she thought, improve my speed and fitness in the long term. In other words, I would get the benefits of zone training as a run/walker.Run coach Laura Norris, who created the Runner’s World Heart Rate Zones Training Plan, agreed with Milton. “If you are using run/walk, it is crucial that an easy workout does not morph into a series of hard intervals followed by walk recoveries,” Norris said. “Walk breaks do not negate the efficacy of the workouts, so long as the run intervals are appropriately paced.”To start my heart rate zone and run/walk training, I consulted Chris Twiggs, director of training for Jeff Galloway. “Essentially you want to adjust your run/walk intervals to stay within specific zones,” he explained. That might mean running slower or for less time during zone 2 runs, as Milton suggested, and then running more and faster during zone 3 and 4 runs. It would also mean varying my intervals on the fly rather than sticking to a specific run/walk ratio for each run.It might also mean breaking some run/walk “rules.”“Typically we keep our walk breaks to 30 seconds,” Twiggs explained further. “However, if you find yourself straying out of your zone 2, you can add extra walk breaks and even make them longer. Some Galloway runners have had great success keeping their heart rates down and going longer by walking as much as 2 minutes between 30-second runs.”After talking to the three experts, I began to experiment with my run/walk intervals during each run on the plan.At the beginning of my two-week experiment my zones were this on the treadmill:Zone 2 walk pace: 3.5 mph (121–130 bpm)Zone 3 walk pace: 3.7 mph (130–139 bpm)Zone 3 run pace: 4.2 mph (130–139 bpm)Zone 4 run pace: 4.5 to 4.8 mph (139–148 bpm)Zone 5 run pace: 5.0 mph (148–157 bpm)To stay within my zones, I adjusted all of my run/walk intervals for each run on the plan. So, for example, on the Thursday of Week 1, to stay in zone 2, I ran slower than I had previously, and I walked more. Then, on Monday of Week 3, during the zone 3 section of the run, I sped up and shortened my walk intervals. In fact, every workout required different ratios and I kept my eye on my heart rate through each interval.The experiment was a success! After a couple of weeks, each of my paces rose by 0.1, except for my zone 5 run pace, which rose by 0.2, but my heart rate didn’t change, which meant I had burst through my fitness plateau. More importantly, my perception of the zones changed, and I could differentiate between “easy” and “hard” with more nuance. Finally, I became more tolerant of hard running, i.e., more “comfortable with discomfort” when I pushed myself during zone 4 and 5 training because the intensity levels were so different than my zones 2 and 3 efforts.Combining heart rate zone training with run/walk made a huge difference not only in my current fitness, but also in the hopefulness I feel about my future workouts. Now, I know how to use my heart rate as a guide to adjust both intervals of my run/walks.I had honestly been feeling a little discouraged about my ability to get fitter in my 60s, but my entire attitude has changed and I look forward to my workouts more than I did even just a few months ago. Another reason to live!Donna Raskin has had a long career as a health and fitness writer and editor of books and magazine articles. A certified run coach who has practiced yoga for many years, she also loves to lift weights, dance, and go for long walks with her hound dog, Dolly.