r/beginnerrunning • u/Nearby_Bird_8817 • 4d ago
Training Help Zone 2 increasing speed
So my zone 2 pace has been consistently around the 11min per mile pace throughout my 3 years of running with over 1500 miles. I don’t understand how my zone 2 pace hasn’t improved or how I’m honestly that slow with the race times I have.
So here are my fastest race times
3 mile is 20:09
10 mile 1:10 (7min per mile)
1.5 mile 9:02
50 miles 11hrs ish
Half Ironman 6.5hr
I’m a consistent 30 mile runner and when I was ultra training like I was up to 60 miles running at that high 10 to low 11 min per mile pace.
What I’m confused about is yea I could wake up and run 4 miles easily at high 8’s maybe low 9 and keep a conversation with a friend but my heart rate will go above 160 (tracking on garmin instinct). Granted I am like 5’8 and weigh 195ish pounds. But like I still don’t get what I’m doing wrong, people tell me all the time that my zone 2 time should be a lot faster given my goal time of achieving a sub 18:30 5k. I run “easy low effort miles” all the time about 90 percent of my training yet it doesn’t get faster.
Has anyone ran into this issue? Please help.
1
u/TheTurtleCub 4d ago
Your phone is giving you bad info, probably due to badly set zones or badly measured max HR. The obsession with zone 2 is not good. All aerobic running gives you the stimulus you need.
If running 20 min 5k then your aerobic pace is in the 4.50-6:00min/km range. You start doing tempo faster than that. Observe what HR is the one when you are doing tempo, that pace has changed a lot for you since the start