Training zone chat got you zoning out? We get it. When it comes to ‘how best to train’ you can go down a bit of a rabbit hole and before you know it you’re 20 pages in to an in-depth study on whether hanging upside down from the curtain rail to eat a banana will boost your muscle mitochondria. (FYI, that’ll probably just make you feel sick… and possibly leave you with “put curtain rail back up” on your DIY list. 0/10 we wouldn’t recommend).
There’s definitely a lot to be said for not overcomplicating your training. Be consistent, fuel well and you’ll generally get results. But if you’re looking to improve your performance, considering adding some more Zone 2 training into your schedule might just be the key to unlocking more of your potential. Helping you to become a stronger, more efficient athlete, with less chance of getting injured. Sound good? Read on and we’ll explain a little more about what we’re bleating on about when it comes to training zones, how Zone 2 training could benefit you and – importantly – how to make sure you’re actually doing it.
What are training zones?
When we talk about training zones we’re referring to the different intensities of exercise you can carry out, each utilising different energy systems which create differing physiological responses. What zones you train in and how that’s split across your overall training load depends on factors such as the specific event you’re training for (a 100m sprinter is probably going to spend less time in the easy endurance zone than an ultramarathoner, for example), your training history and your current fitness levels.
Zone 1, for example, refers to very easy activity. Getting the body moving while putting little to no stress on your muscles and aerobic system. Zone 5 on the other hand is going to be your much higher intensity efforts which you can only sustain for very short periods of time. The pace or the power that you’re working at in each zone is very much a personal thing, but for everyone the perceived effort (how hard you feel that you’re working) will be the same. A summary of the zones can be found below with approximate ranges for maximum power and heart rate. Later in this article we’ll share some tips on how to work out your max. heart rate or functional threshold power (FTP) so don’t panic if those numbers seem a touch confusing right now.
Zone 1: Active recovery
At most, 50-60% of your maximum heart rate
55% or less of your FTP
Effort level – 2 out of 10, very easy, can easily have a conversation.
Zone 2: Endurance
60-70% of your maximum heart rate
55-75% of your FTP
Effort level – 3 out of 10, steady and sustainable, you can hold a conversation but your breathing rate may increase slightly.
Zone 3: Tempo
85-95% of your maximum heart rate
75-90% of your FTP
Effort level – 4 or 5 out of 10, a moderate effort with breathing getting sharper and sustaining a conversation feeling more difficult.
Zone 4: Lactate threshold
95-105% of your maximum heart rate
90-105% of your FTP
Effort level – 6 out of 10. Starting to feel quite tough and uncomfortable, feeling the burn and difficult to sustain for over 30 minutes.
Zone 5: VO2 max
Over 105% of your maximum heart rate
105-120% of your FTP
Effort level – 7-8 out of 10. Welcome to the pain cave! Zone 5 will typically be completed in intervals of 3-8 minutes, any longer and you’ll be struggling to continue. You’ll want to be doing these sessions on fresh legs and ensuring you have plenty of recovery afterwards.
Zone 6: Anaerobic capacity
Over 120% of your FTP
Heart rate is generally not a useful measurement here as these efforts will be too short for your heart rate response to catch up with the effort before it’s over.
Effort level – 9-10 out of 10. How should it feel? Well… horrible, basically. Zone 6 efforts are typically between 30 seconds to a maximum of 3 minutes long and are more or less your flat out sprint. You definitely don’t want to be doing these sessions consecutively in a week.
Working in different training zones is great way to ensure your training is specific to your goals, and helps you to get the most out of each session.
What is Zone 2 training?
As outlined in our breakdown of training zones above, Zone 2 is your low to moderate intensity training which aims to build your base of aerobic fitness and improve your endurance. Think of Zone 2 as your steady ‘go all day’ pace. You should be able to sustain it for a relatively long period of time (depending on your existing fitness levels) and maintain a conversation fairly comfortably.
It’s not quite as easy as Zone 1, and you’ll find that your breathing rate will increase slightly and after an hour or two you’ll start to feel some fatigue in your legs. But if it’s starting to feel hard to maintain after 20 minutes, you’re going too hard. A Zone 2 ride, for example, is one where you’ll be pretty happy to see that coffee stop after a few hours – but if it’s closed and you have to ride another 10 miles to the next one you’re not going to be having a “I need cake and I need it now!” bonk-strop on the side of the road.
A lot of us tend to think we’re in Zone 2, when we’re actually creeping up into Zone 3. That “easy spin” on Strava? Hands up if you’ve been guilty of calling it that when it wasn’t quite as easy as you’d like to let on. Guilty as charged! If you’re new to really trying to be disciplined with your Zone 2 training, it might feel way too easy to begin with and you might have to slow down significantly to stay within the zone. Try not to worry too much about your pace or power, and leave that Strava-fear at home. Over time, your body will adapt and you’ll be able to go faster for less effort.
Why should I do it? The benefits of Zone 2 training
Incorporating more Zone 2 training into your routine allows you to build strength and endurance without placing too much stress on your body and ending up with yet another pesky injury. Put simply, Zone 2 training builds the strong foundation you need to be able to perform the higher intensity training sessions or race efforts more efficiently.
Develops aerobic fitness
Zone 2 training develops your aerobic fitness. It strengthens your heart muscle, which in turn increases your stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped around the body with each heart beat) and the amount of oxygen that can be delivered around the body. As the body adapts, more capillaries are formed and this in turn helps to make your muscles more capable and efficient at converting fuel (such as glycogen) into energy in the presence of oxygen.
Improves endurance
Performing more of your training in Zone 2 also helps to develop your endurance. This type of training primarily works your Type 1 (slow twitch) muscle fibres, and makes them more efficient at removing waste products (i.e. lactic acid) which are responsible for that horrible burning lungs, jelly-legged feeling you get after a strong effort. The physiological adaptations created by Zone 2 training mean that as time goes on you’ll be able to go faster, for longer, with less fatigue. Zone 2 training is sustainable, physically, because it puts less stress on your body than the higher intensity sessions and helps to stimulate the adaptations your body needs to be able to recover faster between sessions. Plus, it gives you the strong and stable foundation you need to be able to complete those higher intensity efforts with less chance of injury. Z2 training is a way of being able to develop the tools you need to be able to go hard and get a far better performance out of yourself when it really counts.
Helps to keep training sustainable and enjoyable
That’s the physical benefits summarised. But it’s just as important to consider the mental benefits of incorporating more Z2 work into your training schedule. Going as hard as you can, as often as you can is not only physically exhausting – it’s mentally draining. Every gruelling session is placing demands on your stores of mental resilience. And before you know it, you’ll be all tapped out. Injury risk aside, pushing too hard too often can also lead to mental burn out. Constantly having to dig deep will soon mean you lose the enjoyment factor – and for most of us, we’re choosing to do this for fun – so if you’re not enjoying it, what’s the point?
We don’t know about you Goats, but in our experience trying to have a nice catch up with your Herd while also completing an “eyeballs out” interval effort is usually a solid way to end up feeling like your lungs and your lunch are going to be escaping out of your cake hole. Those lovely, civilised, Zone 2 training sessions give you the Freedom to just enjoy being out and about with your training buddies. To take in the views and enjoy the fresh perspective that comes with being out exploring in the wild. That’s not to say there’s not that mildly sadistic sense of enjoyment that comes with ticking off those really hard sessions. But without the fun, easier Z2 sessions to balance it all out you’ll soon find yourself hating your training. Keep the balance, and you’ll keep the joy. And that’s the key for consistency and long-term improvements.
In summary: giving yourself the freedom to slow down from time to time and bringing some zone 2 training into the mix gives you the strength, fitness, endurance and mental resilience you need to become a faster – and happier – athlete overall. It takes discipline and a healthy dose of leaving your Strava alter-ego at home. But performed effectively, zone 2 training can play a key part in helping you to unlock your athletic potential.
Okay, but how do I know if I’m training in Zone 2?
Training zones are extremely individual. It depends on your fitness levels, your physiology and it can even vary day to day depending on other factors such as how fatigued you are from the previous day’s training, how well you slept the night before… whether you’ve just necked a triple espresso or if you’re squeezing in a session right before lunch and you’ve got a serious case of the munchies coming on.
For an elite 2 hour marathon runner, their easy Zone 2 training run pace is probably going to equate to what would be a flat out max effort for us mere mortals! So it’s important to find your own, individual zones and to know what each one should feel like specifically for you.
You can set tangible measures of your zones using heart rate or bike power output. Where possible it’s great to take a holistic approach and consider these alongside your perceived effort (how hard the training feels) to get a real sense of how your body is responding to the training stimulus on any given day.
How to find your maximum heart rate
The old adage used to be to subtract your age from 220 to find your maximum heart rate. For example a 40 year old would therefore have a max heart rate of 180. However this method doesn’t factor in things like fitness levels, gender and genetics which all have an impact on what your individual max heart rate is. It gives you a ball park figure, but it’s not particularly accurate. The Athlete Training Blog provides some alternative formulae which may be more accurate:
“[207 – 0.7 x Age ] – more precise formula, adjusted for people over the age of 40
[211 – 0.64 x Age ] – slightly more precise formula, adjusted for generally active people
Unfortunately, neither of above-mentioned formulas are gender-adjusted. Generally women tend to have a 5-to-10-beat higher maximum HR than men, so that is additional something to account for.”
Plenty of fitness tracking devices these days will actually be able to tell you your maximum heart rate based on your activities if you’ve consistently been training wearing a heart rate monitor. Alternatively, you can get a measure of your threshold heart rate by completing a 30 minute race effort and taking an average of your heart rate during the last 20 minutes. Joe Friel (an endurance sports coach well-known for being the author of ‘The Triathlete’s Training Bible’) gives an explanation of this in his quick guide to zone setting for Training Peaks.
How to calculate your cycling Functional Threshold Power (FTP)
In cycling, the amount of power (the force you’re putting through the pedals to create forward momentum) is measured in watts. Functional Threshold Power (FTP) refers to the maximum amount of power that a rider can put out for 60 minutes. It’s an indicator of where your current bike fitness is – but be warned, the FTP test itself is a pretty tough session so if you’re going to do one you’ll want fresh legs to ride on and a nice treat to look forward to afterwards! To find your FTP, you’ll need to do a 20 minute maximum effort. This can be done out on the road, though many riders find it safer and more convenient to complete on the turbo trainer. Zwift even has a specific FTP test (or you can also use their ramp test) which will guide you through a warm up and give you some *ahem* words of encouragement as you sweat your way through that nasty 20 minute effort. Once you’ve got the average power you put out for 20 minutes, you then multiply that number by 0.95 to get your one hour FTP. For example if your 20 minute power is 200 watts, your FTP will be 195 watts.
Don’t rely solely on the data
Data is great. It gives you some nice shiny numbers to bore your non-cycling, running or triathlon friends with and it feels like a very solid and tangible measure of your effort and fitness levels. But just be wary of going too far down the data rabbit hole. If your bike computer breaks or your heart rate monitor malfunctions mid-session, you want to be in tune enough with your body to trust that you can manage your effort without devices yelling at you.
Get to know how your body feels while training in each zone. There are various reasons why on any given day what should be your easy Zone 2 power or heart rate will feel anything but easy. It’s important to be able to recognise that, so you can drop the effort back and make sure you really are training at a Zone 2 effort.
So there we have it Herd, a quick dive into the world of training zones and a look at how slowing down and treating yourself to some nice and steady Zone 2 training could actually speed you up in the long run. The other thing we forgot to mention is that Zone 2 training leaves you with plenty of energy to get those mid-ride kit selfies so you can keep tagging us in photos from your adventures! Stronger, faster and more chances to get featured in The Herd Friday over on our Instagram page? This Zone 2 thing is sounding like a pretty good idea!