As a running coach, one of the most important biometrics I consider when analyzing my athletes’ workouts is heart rate. Your average HR when running gives tremendous insight into how hard you’re working and the intensity of your run.
Your exercise heart rate increases with effort or intensity in a fairly linear and predictable pattern. This means that as you run faster or harder (uphill, for example), your heart rate increases at a similar and steady progression in accordance with the increase in exercise intensity.
Moreover, because your heart rate correlates with your aerobic effort, data from a heart rate monitor can be used as a practical, feasible, and tangible measurement of the intensity level of your training.
For example, an average 30-year-old’s maximum heart rate is 190 beats per minute (BPM). This means that for a mid-to-high-effort run, their average heart rate would be between 133 and 162 BPM.
There is no one typical average HR while running. Heart rate ranges will vary depending on several factors, such as your age, fitness level, and the intended intensity level of each workout.
However, a general range for all ages and intensity levels would be between 50-90% of your maximum heart rate value.
In this guide, I will dive into the average target heart rate zones based on age and how you can calculate yours for efficient training.
Average Target Heart Rate Zones While Running (By Age)
Use the table we have created below to find your average target heart rate according to your age, along with the heart rate ranges for each training zone.
| Age | Max Heart Rate | AHA’s Average Target Running Heart Rate (50-85% of max) | Average Zone 1 HR (50-60% of max) | Average Zone 2 HR (60-70% of max) | Average Zone 3 HR (70-80% of max) | Average Zone 4 HR (80-90% of max) | Average Zone 5 HR (90-100% of max) |
| 20 | 200 | 100-170 | 100-120 | 120-140 | 140-160 | 160-180 | 180-200 |
| 25 | 195 | 98-166 | 98-117 | 117-137 | 137-156 | 156-176 | 176-195 |
| 30 | 190 | 95-162 | 95-114 | 114-133 | 133-152 | 152-171 | 171-190 |
| 35 | 185 | 93-157 | 93-111 | 111-130 | 130-148 | 148-167 | 167-185 |
| 40 | 180 | 90-153 | 90-108 | 108-126 | 126-144 | 144-162 | 162-180 |
| 45 | 175 | 88-149 | 88-105 | 105-123 | 123-140 | 140-158 | 158-175 |
| 50 | 170 | 85-145 | 85-102 | 102-119 | 119-136 | 136-153 | 153-170 |
| 55 | 165 | 83-140 | 83-99 | 99-116 | 116-132 | 132-149 | 149-165 |
| 60 | 160 | 80-136 | 80-96 | 96-112 | 112-128 | 128-144 | 144-160 |
| 65 | 155 | 78-132 | 78-93 | 93-109 | 109-124 | 124-140 | 140-155 |
| 70 | 150 | 75-128 | 75-90 | 90-105 | 105-120 | 120-135 | 135-150 |
| 75 | 145 | 73-123 | 73-87 | 87-102 | 102-116 | 116-131 | 131-145 |
| 80 | 140 | 70-119 | 70-84 | 84-98 | 98-112 | 112-126 | 126-140 |
Remember, these are averages. Heart rate can vary from person to person, and for these ranges to be completely accurate, you may want to take a laboratory test to calculate your exact training zones.
The following describes each zone, the percentage of your maximum heart rate corresponding to it, and the specific training objective.
Zone 1
- Heart Rate Percentage: 50-60% of your maximum heart rate.
- Perceived Exertion: An easy, relaxed, effortless recovery pace that you could easily hold for hours.
- Training Objective: Used for warming up, cooling down, and recovery: aerobic training.
Zone 2
- Heart Rate Percentage: 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.
- Perceived Exertion: Comfortable, but breathing slightly deeper than Zone 1. You can still hold a conversation at all times.
- Training Objective: Used for cardiovascular training, base-building, easy runs, and long runs.
Zone 3
- Heart Rate Percentage: 70-80% of your maximum heart rate.
- Perceived Exertion: Moderate-intensity where breathing can become a bit labored, making it more challenging to hold a conversation.
- Training Objective: Used to improve aerobic capacity.
Zone 4
- Heart Rate Percentage: 80-90% of your maximum heart rate.
- Perceived Exertion: Breathing becomes forceful and more uncomfortable, and you cannot speak.
- Training Objective: Used to improve speed, anaerobic capacity, running efficiency, and hard-pace tolerance: threshold runs and long intervals.
Zone 5
- Heart Rate Percentage: 90-100% of your maximum heart rate.
- Perceived Exertion: This maximum pace is very uncomfortable and unsustainable for long periods. Breathing is now very labored.
- Training Objective: Used to increase power, anaerobic and muscular endurance, reaction time, and top speed: sprinting and short speed intervals.
Why Is Your Running Heart Rate Important?
Your heart rate is a good indication of the effort you’re exerting while running. In order to get the most out of your training and become a faster and stronger runner, it’s important to ensure you’re training at the right intensity.
If you habitually run too slow or take it too easy, you’ll fail to provide the exercise stimulus your body needs to get faster and fitter as a runner. In other words, you’ll stunt your progress.
But what happens if you run with a high heart rate?
On the other hand, if you hammer your easy runs or run recovery runs too fast, you risk overtraining and will not give your body the rest it needs to recover from hard workouts and races. Over time, you’ll run yourself into the ground.
As a coach, I feel like once runners start paying attention to their heart rate data, these kinds of questions come up all the time — like, “Is 180 a high heart rate when running?” or “Is 170 bpm good?”
Of course, the answer depends on what you are looking to get out of your workout. A 180 bpm heart rate is quite normal if you are running at high intensity by doing an interval or hill sprint workout.
However, if you have scheduled a long, slow run and notice your heart rate creeping up to above 170 bpm, chances are you need to slow down.
Sometimes, it can be tough to pull back on the pace or rate of perceived exertion. No one wants to upload a slow run to Strava. I get it.
But by consistently running at a high heart rate, we are not maximizing the performance gains that come from long aerobic runs at a low RPE.
One other note: Your heart rate can also be used as a marker of progress. Much like other stats such as distance and pace, you can look at your heart rate data on certain benchmark runs and compare them over time.
For example, if you have a favorite five-mile neighborhood loop, periodically run it at the same pace and observe how your running HR gradually drops over time.
It may feel daunting for beginners. But, the fitter you get, the easier it becomes to maintain that same pace on the run, as evidenced by a lower average running heart rate.
Factors That Influence Your Running HR
Aside from the pace you’re running or the intensity of your workout, several factors affect your HR while running. Some of these factors, termed interpersonal factors, are responsible for differences in between two different runners.
On the other hand, intrapersonal factors are responsible for differences in average running heart rate for the same runner doing a run at the perceived intensity level on two different occasions.
3 Interpersonal Factors that Affect Average Heart Rate
#1: Age
Maximum heart rate decreases rather linearly with age, so much so that the traditional—and still widely used—formula used to estimate max heart rate is simply 220 — age in years.
An older runner will usually have a predictably lower average heart rate1Nikolaidis, P. T., Rosemann, T., & Knechtle, B. (2018). Age-Predicted Maximal Heart Rate in Recreational Marathon Runners: A Cross-Sectional Study on Fox’s and Tanaka’s Equations. Frontiers in Physiology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00226while running than a younger runner because the same effort level or heart rate training zone correlates to lower heart rates for an older runner.
For example, consider a 20-year-old runner and a 50-year-old runner. Using the simple age-predicted maximum heart rate formula 220 — age, the 20-year-old runner has a max heart rate of 200 bpm, while the 50-year-old runner has a max heart rate of just 170 bpm.
If both of these runners head out for a high Zone 2 aerobic run at 70% effort, the younger runner will have an average running heart rate of 140 bpm, whereas the older runner running at a comparable intensity would have an average heart rate of 119 bpm.
#2: Fitness Level
The fitter you are, the lower your average heart rate because your heart contracts more forcefully, leading to a larger stroke volume (amount of blood pumped per beat).
The higher your fitness level, the lower your resting heart rate. (The number of heartbeats per minute when the body is at rest, not moving)
It’s often easiest to measure your resting heart rate overnight. The average resting heart rate for adults is typically between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm). However, a low heart rate will often be found in athletes and can go as low as 30-40 bpm.
#3: Medications
Certain medications can increase or decrease your heart rate. For example, beta-blockers reduce your heart rate, while stimulants (medications for ADHD or narcolepsy, for example) increase your heart rate.
If you habitually take medication that impacts your heart rate, expect there to be differences in your heart rate while running compared to what would otherwise be expected for your age and fitness level.
Note that medications can also potentially affect a single runner’s average running heart rate from day to day (intrapersonal factor) if your dosage or timing of your medication relative to your run changes.
If you have questions regarding your medications and how they affect your heart health, you should seek professional medical advice.
4 Intrapersonal Factors that Affect Average Heart Rate
#1: Stress
Emotional stress can increase your heart rate. Stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system, as frequently described as the “fight-or-flight” response, which increases heart rate and respiration rate.
This is a primitive biological response designed to help prepare your body to flee danger.
If you are stressed or anxious before or during a run, your average running heart rate will ride higher than on a day when you are calm and serene.
#2: Fatigue
If you sleep poorly or are overtired, your heart rate will be higher when you run. Even your resting heart rate can be a good indication of your recovery from training and fatigue level.
If you track your resting heart rate and notice it is trending upward or notably higher one day, you may not be recovering fully from your workouts or have been sleeping poorly.
The same principle applies to your active heart rate; if your body is tired, it takes more effort or work to do any level of exercise, and your running heart rate will be higher.
#3: Environmental Conditions
The weather or environmental conditions can also affect your average running heart rate from one run to the next.
Your body has to work harder in hot and humid conditions, and natural cooling mechanisms like evaporative cooling through sweating are less efficient. As such, your average running heart rate will increase on a hot run compared to mild conditions.
#4: Caffeine Usage
Caffeine is a stimulant, so it typically increases your heart rate. If you have a large cup of coffee and then head out for a run an hour or two later, expect a higher heart rate when running than if you wait eight hours before hitting the pavement.
How to Calculate Your Target Average Running Heart Rate
The American Heart Association2Mayo Clinic. (2021, June 17). Exercise intensity: How to measure it. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887recommends a target heart rate of 50-70% of your maximum hear rate for moderate physical activity and 70-85% of your maximum heart rate for vigorous physical activity, such as running.
You can calculate your target average running HR by first estimating your maximum rate (220 – age in years).
Then, find 70% of this value by multiplying your result by 0.7. This is the lower value in the range. Finally, multiply your age-estimated max heart rate by 0.85. This is your upper value.
For example, if you are 40 years old, your estimated max heart rate is 220 – 40 = 180 bpm. Then, 0.7 x 180 = 126 bpm and 0.85 x 180 = 153 bpm. Therefore, your target average running heart rate should be 126 – 153 bpm.
Keep in mind that 220 – age is just a rough estimate of your actual heart rate. The standard deviation is nearly 17 beats in either direction.
According to researchers3Shargal, E., Kislev-Cohen, R., Zigel, L., Epstein, S., Pilz-Burstein, R., & Tenenbaum, G. (2015). Age-related maximal heart rate: examination and refinement of prediction equations. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 55(10), 1207–1218. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25389634/, a more accurate estimation can be found through the following formulas:
- Maximum Heart Rate for Males = 208.609-0.716 x age
- Maximum Heart Rate for Females = 209.273-0.804 x age
For example, if you’re a 40-year-old male: 208.609-0.716 x 40 = 180 bpm. If you’re a 40-year-old female: 209.273-0.804 x 40 = 177 bpm.
Is My Heart Rate While Running Too High?
When it comes to running, faster and harder aren’t always better. It’s important to pay attention to the goal of your workout and keep your heart rate and effort level within the intended heart rate zone.
If you are finding that your heart rate is routinely higher than your target HR —particularly if you’re using a true maximum heart rate rather than an estimation—you probably need to slow your pace.
Chronically exceeding your target running heart rate can compromise recovery and lead to overtraining, according to research4Atwal, S., Porter, J., & MacDonald, P. (2002). Cardiovascular effects of strenuous exercise in adult recreational hockey: the Hockey Heart Study. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 166(3), 303–307. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC99308/.
If you want to know more about heart rate training, consider working with a personal trainer or running coach. They will be able to match the correct aerobic exercises to your fitness goals.
If you have additional concerns, you should speak to your healthcare provider. Particularly if you suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, or regularly experience chest pains.
To explore more reasons as to why your heart rate may be fluctuating while running, check out our article:
There is so much that is smoke and mirrors on this heart rate while running because there is no accurate way to calculate max heart rate, other than through consistency of max effort workouts. I am 55 and have been an active runner for most of my life. I focus on trails now with occasional road running and over the last few years my weekly totals have varied from 30-50 miles a week to less than 10 miles a week at times when focusing on other physical pursuits. No matter, my consistent max heart rate is around 185 (for a 55 year old, I should be dead with a burst heart). Even when I run as slowly as possible, I can’t run in zone 3, only consistently in zone 4. When I hike, even strenuously, I tend to hike in zone 1 and 2. Moderate runs – a 6-7 of 10 effort always has me in my max heart rate zone – zone 5. To get to consistent zone 4, I need to shuffle along often slower than I walk. And, keep in mind that my heart rate zones, based on my Garmin tracker, are based off a max heart rate around 185.
Hi Michael have you got any advice for me because like you my heart rate seems miles too high, I was fit as a fiddle playing footy till i was 42 but since then not much at all now aged 65 have been trying to get fit on a treadmill since november 3/4 times a wk walking/running i go upstairs to my treadmill my hr is 130-135 mostly, i want to train aerobic pace but according to all info im already past the aerobic stage 3 hr so i walk at 2.1mph which stays at 130-135 if I run at that same pace even for 5 mins my hr goes upto about 167 regulary and out of breath so therefore stop running, i believe my hr strap is accurate, I recently had a ecg which shows irregular hbeat doc seems not bothered about it, so im not sure what my hrmax is? do you think i should hammer it and see or do you have any advice? I really think I should be quite fit by now and was hoping maybe as youve been doing it for ages what works for you? any help appreciated.
I am 62, female, and my max HR is 190. On a typical run my average HR is about 155-160. I don’t feel particularly tired or stressed at this rate, and I feel if I keep my HR at the “recommended” average, I’m not really training and might as well be having a stroll…
My resting HR is 55 and I’m fit and healthy.
not sure if I should be pleased with myself or worried!
Any thoughts?
Sarah – you sound like me. I’m 60 year old female, I’ve been a fairly regular runner most of my life and a very consistent runner (15-20 miles per week) for the past 12 years. My regular heart rate while running at zone 3-4 is 150-160. I don’t feel uncomfortable and feel that I’m going at an easy pace. In high heat and humidity it gets higher by about 10 BPM so on long runs (greater than 4 miles) in those conditions I do a 4/1 minutes run/walk split to keep it down and stay aerobic. Based on effort I feel like my MHR is 185.
It’s comforting to hear other older runners with heart rates higher than the charts suggest. I’m 66 and it’s not unusual for my heart rate to go over 200 during my tougher workouts preparing for my upcoming marathons: Boston then Grandmas then Chicago then Houston.
Bryan