Training Zone Essentials

Feel & Heart Rate

Mat Steinmetz, Gordo Byrn and Alan Couzens use a Parvo Medics metcart during a “Full Profile” of Kevin Purcell. For several years, Gordo had an exercise physiology lab in his basement in Boulder.

At the most fundamental level, our training zones help us Do Work so we Get Better.

But, what is better?

• Faster To The Finish Line - achieve our maximum human potential

• Healthier Over Time - a greater number of finishes

• Enjoy Our Training - how we feel while exercising

• Enjoy Our Bodies - how we feel when we are NOT exercising

• Increase Our Capacity - to explore the world and do cool stuff

As you use this book, keep your goals in mind. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the details of training and lose sight of the bigger picture.

…and the biggest picture of all is learning how exercise feels.

Everything you learn in this chapter is designed to teach your mind how different training intensities feel. These lessons don’t come naturally. Our in-built programming will push efforts upwards.

As you apply the lessons that follow:

1. Skew Errors Left - undershoot expectations

2. Back It Up - today should not compromise tomorrow

3. Beware Of Zone Creep - the tendency to gradually lift effort

4. Always Finish Strong

This chapter is going to flow from simple to complex. We will start with the most straightforward method of setting zones and build from there.

Let’s take a quick walk through the terminology.

Start with three zones: Green, Tempo and Red.

• The Green Zone, containing Zones 1 and 2 - Builds Us Up

• Tempo, containing Zone 3

• The Red Zone, containing Zones 4 and 5 - Breaks Us Down

Some principles when interpreting “zones”

• Zones Overlap

• Zones Change Over Time

• Zones Change Due To Conditions

• More Training At Higher Intensities Is Not Better

Every athlete, even the newest of newcomers, can understand subjective perception. This is the basis for the five zone system.

1. Easy

2. Steady

3. Moderately-Hard

4. Hard

5. Very Hard

Consider the above as five gears available to every athlete. How long each of us can sustain our gears is determined by our fitness, fuel supply and fuel economy.

These gears are also described as “levels,” as in levels of intensity.

1. Warm-Up

2. Endurance

3. Tempo

4. Threshold

5. VO2

Combining the above terminology we end up with:

• Zone 1 / Easy / Warm-Up

• Zone 2 / Steady / Endurance

• Zone 3 / Moderately-Hard / Tempo

• Zone 4 / Hard / Threshold

• Zone 5 / Very Hard / VO2

As we move up the intensity scale, we “pay” a greater price in terms of recovery.

The rest of this article covers:

• Build Up vs Break Down

• Using Subjective Perception

• Heart Rate Zones

• Maximum Heart Rate Testing

• VO2max Testing

• Starting Out With Training Zones

  • Zone 1, Easy

  • Zone 2, Steady

  • Zone 3 & Sweet Spot

  • Tempo, The Border Between Zone 3 and 4

  • Zone 4, Threshold

  • Zone 5, Improving VO2max

• Hellemans on Zone Testing