HR on Run...Am I doing something wrong?

My initial thought is maybe your HR zones are not correct, especially if you derived your max (or LT or whatever you're using) simply by estimation. I've never checked what my HR would be if 'walking briskly', but I get the impression that I'd have to actually start jogging before it even reached the bottom of zone1.

Another thought - maybe you are not efficient at running. Maybe you're wasting alot of energy even at slow speeds. It sounds like you are new to running - so it may take some time before your form improves.

But, overall, I wouldn't really be concerned. Don't be a slave to the HRM. If you're running at a speed that feels good and you're not huffing and puffing and out of breath, then I would keep at that. You'll see improvement.

I am in the same boat as you, I am not even going to pay attention to heart rate until I can run the 30 minutes I am at 10 minutes of run time now. I figure then I will slow it down to stay in my training zones.

Break up the run more. Do a five or six minute warm-up of brisk walking then run for five minutes, walk a minute or two (or whatever it takes to bring your HR down) then run again.

I don't know Ron's program, but last year I did a Couch to 5K program where I gradually increased the running segments and decreased the walking segments and it felt like the changes were happening slowly but in retrospect I really improved just about every time I went out. Give yourself time and keep at it. If today you can walk 5 / run 5 / walk 2 /run 5 / walk 2 / etc. then maybe next time you can walk 5 /run 6 / walk 1 /run 6 / walk 1 / etc. It will take no time (in the scheme of things) until you can run 9 minutes comfortably.

Good luck!

Gwendal

Breathe!!!!! Believe it or not, breathing is a major factor to lowering your HR.
I learned from Yoga that breathing is what helps us maintaining focus and overcome body limitations. I was skeptical because I do not have a portable HRM yet but I checked with the stationary bike. Normally, when I start feeling a little tired my HR goes up, therefore I slow down to keep my HR in the zone. Instead I've been trying to keep my pace and I slow down my breathing. I inhale and exhale deep and slowly, I concentrate on my breathing rhythm. Results? my HR goes down almost immediately!
Just a thought!
Mary

It seems to me that you may want to ignore training zones and work just on fitness first. Once you get up to a fairly good fitness level, then think about training in the zones. Otherwise, you may never get to where you want to go.

I've been having the same problem and did get better results by breathing properly! I've been lowering my hr by 4 to 10 beats by concentrating on breathing and rhythm.

I am glad someone else has been curious about this! Thank you for letting me know! I wonder if there are any scientific data.... B.K.S. Inyegar on his book Light on Yoga says that the Yogi's life is not measured by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths. :-)

Breathing slowly and focusing on relaxing definately has a direct impact on HR.  Yesterday on the treadmill I was thinking of how to breach a subject with an employee of mine (not a happy subject to breach) and got all worked up thinking about it and after getting stressed about thinking of it I happened to look at my HR and it was about 8 bpm higher!

Yikes!