What Is A Normal Heart Rate When Running?
"I'm a reasonably fit 23-year-old female — on an average week I do four to five sessions of sport. I've been running for a few months and I'm looking to take part in a 10k race. I wear a Polar heart rate (HR) monitor, and when I'm running at an average speed of 10 km/h, my heart rate sits between 174 and 180. Do I have anything to worry about?
– Natasha, 23
Answer by Dominique: Hi Natasha,
Thanks for your question about your heart rate while running. We are all an experiment of one, and normal and average are relative terms.
There's no single "normal" heart rate when running. A typical easy pace sits at roughly 60–70% of your maximum heart rate, climbing towards 80–90% of max for tempo and hard efforts. Where your own number falls depends on your maximum heart rate, your current fitness, and the pace you're actually running — not just your age.
I'll break my response down as follows:
1. Speed and Heart Rate
2. Your Maximum Heart Rate and Zones
3. Building Up Your Running Fitness and Heart Rate
4. When a High Heart Rate Is Worth Checking On
| Effort Level | Approx. % of Max HR | What It Should Feel Like |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | Roughly 60–70% | Conversational — you could hold a full chat |
| Steady | Roughly 70–80% | Comfortably moderate — a few sentences, not a full chat |
| Tempo (Threshold) | Roughly 80–90% | Comfortably hard — short phrases only |
| Hard / Race | 90–100% | Near-maximal — hard breathing, single words only |
Quick example: You're 23. Run that through the rough 220-minus-age formula (220 - 23 = 197) and your ballpark maximum is around 197 beats per minute (bpm) — a number this page comes back to, and explains why it's a rough estimate only, further down.
1. Speed and Heart Rate
I'd first like to understand what "average" running speed actually means for you. Many of us, when we start out, push ourselves too hard and end up running faster than we should.10 km/h isn't crazy fast, but it may still be too fast for you at your current stage.
Most of your running should be easy running — the pace at which you'd be able to hold a conversation with someone. At this pace, your heart rate should sit at roughly 60–70% of your maximum (for a max of 197, that's about 118–138 beats per minute). Run faster, and you'll see that number climb.
2. Your Maximum Heart Rate and Zones
There are tests you can do (basically, run pretty darn hard for long enough) to establish a truer number. Check out my max heart rate page for more detail.
Knowing your approximate max heart rate is genuinely useful, because it lets you set proper heart rate zones. A simple method is laid out on the Zoladz Method page, or use the Karvonen Method if you'd rather set your zones that way.
The point of all this: it's your real max — not your age alone — that decides what's a "normal" heart rate for you, which is exactly why the table further up this page can only ever be a starting point.
3. Building Up Your Running Fitness and Heart Rate
When you're starting out, you can expect spikes in your heart rate. You describe yourself as quite fit, and I don't doubt it — but running fitness can be a different beast to your current fitness. You may not be very strong aerobically yet, even if you're strong elsewhere.I know plenty of beginners who had massively high heart rates when they first started running. Over time, as you persevere with slow, easy jogs and go further and further, your heart gets stronger. Every beat pushes more blood through the body, so it doesn't need to go as fast anymore at the same pace.
A genuinely satisfying outcome of your training isn't just running faster or further. It's also seeing that, at the same pace you were running two months ago, your heart rate is now 10 beats lower per minute, for example.
So, all in all, this is likely just a function of you getting used to running and building up your fitness. For your next run, follow the "is conversation possible?" rule — keep it to an easy jogging pace and check your heart rate once it's settled. I sometimes get unnaturally high readings in my own first kilometre, always run at snail's pace, but it settles after about five minutes or so.
4. When a High Heart Rate Is Worth Checking On
It's natural to wonder whether a number like yours means something is wrong. Here's how I'd tell the difference — and to be clear, this is triage, not diagnosis.Normal — Not a Concern
- The number runs high relative to pace mainly early in a run, or early in your training history.
- It comes back down within a few minutes of easing off.
- It trends downward over the weeks at the same pace as your fitness builds.
Worth Checking With a Doctor Promptly
- Chest pain or pressure.
- Dizziness or fainting.
- An unusually irregular or fluttering beat.
- Breathlessness clearly out of proportion to the effort.
Keep on experiencing higher-than-expected heart rates and it worries you? Then talk to your doctor about it. Better safe than sorry.
Also make sure you have a good read of my full guide to heart rate training.
Hope this answer helped, Natasha.
Best of luck.
Cheers,
Dominique
P.S. Brand new to running and this looks even higher? Or an experienced runner whose numbers look off instead?
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About the author
Dominique de Rooij (Dom)
Advanced Running Coach certified by Athletics Australia with 20 years of writing about running and over a decade coaching runners, from first races to marathons. Dom created PlanMyRace, a training plan generator for any race from 1500m to the marathon. Now over 50, Dom still loves trail running, parkrun, and the coffee after.
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