I have written several pieces here at PGH about running and other ‘aerobic’ training. This is another brief one. Also unlikely to be the last one. In the past I talked about training zones that were related to Maximum Heart Rate. I would like to now talk about zones that are (mostly) not using HRMax as a reference. One of the reasons being, that HRMax is a bit of a difficult number to ascertain accurately. (And safely)
It seems that for most conditioning purposes one wants to build a deep and strong ‘aerobic base’. Current thinking is that this is best done by a steady diet of what I will call LED. This stands for Long Easy Distance. What is this exactly? It means training at or just below ones Aerobic Threshold (AeT)
Now is probably a good time to introduce some of the terms:
Aerobic Threshold (AeT) This determines your aerobic capacity. It’s the point where blood lactate concentrations rise above a baseline by 1mMol/L. An important number to know. Most accurately measured by a Gas Exchange test or by measuring blood lactate levels. It can however be estimated by using your MAF number (see below) or by using a Ventilatory Marker. i.e. nose breathing and the talk test
Anaerobic Threshold (AnT) Also known as Lactate Threshold (LT) This is the point when the muscles can no longer use lactate as a fuel for aerobic metabolism. Lactate production exceeds the rate at which it can be removed. This means you will experience fatigue that will cause you to slow down
Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Dr. Phil Maffetone (no relation to MAF) popularized this terminology. He has done a lot of work with runners and found a formula that can be used to roughly predict your AeT. Again this is calculation, not a measurement. It gives a prediction that is reasonable for a statistical population. The number is: 180 – your age. A 50 year old person will have a MAF of 180 – 50, or 130. There are also some modifiers that are used if you are recovering from an illness, if you have been consistently training for over 5 years, or if you are over 60.
Lactate Is a product of the metabolism of glucose. It’s concentration levels in blood are a commonly used measure of intensity. It can be used as a fuel source… to a point…
Of course a lot of training should be predicated on what your goals are. If you just want to have fun, then most of this doesn’t matter, and you can proceed how you like. You won’t hurt my feelings any. If you want to ’improve your performance’ however, then you might want to pay attention to how you train. You would have to be very lucky indeed to be optimized in your performance by training in a haphazard fashion.
The vast majority of your endurance work should be at or just below your AeT. But not all. If you want to go fast, hard, and long you will most definitely need to put in some solid hard efforts. How much, is hard to say because of the individual nature of people and their goals. You might be surprised at how much easy training world class marathoners, ultra-runners, and professional cyclists do in a year. But just remember, their easy and your easy are probably quite different. This is where the term LSD often gets used or misused. People often use it with the meaning Long Slow Distance. And indeed this is often the case. Training at your AeT may be slow, but what it should really be is easy. A Kenyan marathoner running at his or her AeT will most likely be far from slow. This can be you too (not the Kenyan) if you optimize your aerobic training.
Also bear in mind that these HR’s are a moving target. They typically decline with age and illness, yet some are also highly trainable.
Here are the ‘zones’*
The information that follows pertains to the use of these zones for training purposes. i.e. to optimize your training. What you do in races or other events is in many cases a different animal.
Zone R (recovery) This is around 20% below your AeT. It’s a good place to train technique and form. It’s also a good place for (as the name states)… recovery. The motion is lotion zone. Just don’t spend too much time here.
Zone 1 This is between 20% below your AeT and 10% below your AeT. This is the rate you can keep up for several hours or more. This zone should be the foundation of your aerobic house. Upwards of 70% of your annual training should be spent here.
Zone 2 This is between 10% below your AeT (top of Zone 1) to your AeT. Spending quality time here will raise your AeT. In fact if you are aerobically de-trained then you can do most of your base training here. If you already have a high AeT however, you will want to limit time here. 10 to 15% of your annual volume.
Zone 3 This is between your AeT and your AnT. The so-called ‘fun-hard’ training. Effective, but easy to over do. Certainly no more than 10% of your annual volume.
Zone 4 This is between your AnT and your HRMax. No doubt, this is hard. Your muscular endurance will be the limiting factor here. When training in this zone, you will need to limit it to 10min or less.
Zone 5 This is the absolute upper end. Heart Rates aren’t really applicable here. It’s not that you don’t want to spend much time here, rather it’s you can’t spend much time here! 10 seconds to perhaps a minute max. Definitely not sustainable, and a high risk of injury.
The goal of this type of zone training is to effectively compress the ranges of your zones 3 to 5, whilst increasing the AeT and AnT. This will result in a greatly expanded Zones 1 and 2.
*Note: You will see a wide variety of zones out there…
Going slow… how hard can that be? If you have never done this you might be kind of surprised actually. If you are anything like me you were raised on a hard is better attitude. Go fast, go far, young man. Charge every hill so that your heart is about to explode out of your chest. Yep. That’s the ticket. When you have a history of training like that, you tend to find it very difficult to go slow. It just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t even feel like you are training. Walking up hills on a run? Seriously? How can this possibly be doing you any good?
Well… this is the way that the majority of the serious endurance folks train today. You don’t have to be a world class mountain or ultra runner to benefit from training this way either.
What I see is this; most peoples easy days are way too hard, and their hard days are too easy.
But like I said before, if you are training for fun or to just beat yourself up, go for it any way that suits your fancy…
Who wants to be slow? Raise your hands.
photo: Renee