Heart Rate Zone Calculator
Work out your five training zones in beats per minute, from your max heart rate, your heart rate reserve, or your threshold.
| Zone | % of max | Heart rate (bpm) |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 · RecoveryEasy shakeout and warm-up work. Conversational throughout. | 50 to 60% | 95 to 114 |
| Zone 2 · EnduranceAerobic base. Where most of your weekly volume belongs. | 60 to 70% | 114 to 133 |
| Zone 3 · TempoSteady, moderately hard. Comfortably uncomfortable. | 70 to 80% | 133 to 152 |
| Zone 4 · ThresholdLactate threshold work. Sustainable for roughly an hour at best. | 80 to 90% | 152 to 171 |
| Zone 5 · VO2 maxShort, hard intervals. Minutes at a time, not more. | 90 to 100% | 171 to 190 |
Zone boundaries are conventions, not physiology. Treat them as guide rails and let how you feel and how you are recovering have the final say.
Three ways to set your zones
Percentage of max heart rate is the simplest: each zone is a slice of your maximum. Karvonen works from your heart rate reserve, the gap between resting and max, which accounts for how well conditioned your heart already is and usually lands the boundaries higher. Threshold heart rate anchors the zones to your lactate threshold instead, which is the most useful option if you know it, because threshold is a trainable marker that moves as you get fitter and does not depend on knowing your true max. For the full picture, including how to find your max and threshold heart rate and why the percentages look so different between methods, read our guide to heart rate zones explained.
What the zones are for
Zones 1 and 2 build the aerobic engine and should carry most of your weekly volume. Zone 3 is the moderately hard middle ground, useful in measured doses but easy to overuse. Zone 4 sits at your threshold, the hardest effort you could sustain for roughly an hour, and zone 5 is short VO2 max work measured in minutes. Most effective programs skew heavily to the easy end, around 80 percent easy to 20 percent hard, rather than spending every session in the middle.
To pair these zones with target paces, use the running pace calculator, and to see what your current fitness is worth on race day, try the race time predictor.
Knowing your zones is the easy part. Knowing which zone today's session should be in, and when to back off, is the actual coaching. Vaast reads your training and recovery and makes that call for you every day.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I find my max heart rate?
- The most accurate way is a hard, supervised max effort or a lab test. Failing that, the highest number you have ever seen on your watch during an all-out race or hill session is a good working estimate. Age formulas are a last resort: this calculator uses 208 minus 0.7 times your age, which tracks measured values better than the familiar 220 minus age.
- What is the Karvonen method?
- Karvonen calculates zones from your heart rate reserve, the gap between your resting and max heart rate, rather than from max heart rate alone. Because it accounts for how low your resting rate sits, it usually produces higher and more individualized zone boundaries than the plain percentage-of-max method.
- Should I use max heart rate or threshold heart rate?
- Threshold is generally better if you know it. Lactate threshold heart rate is a trainable, physiological marker, so zones anchored to it stay meaningful as your fitness changes, and it does not require knowing your true max. Use max heart rate zones if you have a reliable max and no recent threshold test.
- What is zone 2 training?
- Zone 2 is easy aerobic running, roughly 60 to 70 percent of max heart rate, at an effort where you could hold a conversation. It builds the aerobic base that everything else rests on, and it is where the bulk of your weekly volume should sit for most endurance athletes.
- How much time should I spend in each zone?
- Most well-structured endurance programs put roughly 80 percent of training time in the easy zones and 20 percent at threshold or above. The exact split depends on your event, your training age, and where you are in a training block. Vaast handles that balance for you, prescribing each session in the right zone and adjusting when your recovery says to back off.