HR, Pace, and Recovery

Hi BT!

I'm getting back into the swing of things and getting back to building consistency/endurance/etc/etc.

The rest of this week I was run/walking and keeping my HR in Zone 3&4. My pace was right around 15 min/mile. Today, as a recovery day, I planned on doing a fast walk and keeping it in Zone 2. Given how fast my HR comes up when I'm running, I figured that would be a good plan, give my legs somewhat of a break, but still do something AND build the consistency of getting my butt out of bed and doing something.

Instead, after a brief blip into zone 2 right at the beginning, my HR locked into about 85-90 bpm, and wouldn't budge. It didn't matter if I was climbing a hill or pushing my cadence as fast as I could, my HR didn't budge. I finished my 3 miles with a 16 min/mile so I wasn't slacking off much more compared to my "run" times.

My question then is this - for my recovery days, if I'm still running, should I push into a run and try and get into zone 2? Or just keep it nice and simple and don't worry about my HR staying in Zone 1 for recovery days.

Thanks for the advice! It's good to be back!
Erin