February 9, 2017

Training Intensity Zones For Runners

Knowing your training intensity zones is essential for optimising your training and enhancing performance.

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The Pros And Cons Of Training By Feel

The Pros And Cons Of Training By Heart Rate

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I was first introduced to training zones as a young triathlete back in New Zealand.

Even at a young age, my coaches emphasised the importance of training at different intensities. They were primarily interested in harnessing the potential of athletes in the most effective way possible.

I ran the zones by feel and as time passed, heart rate monitors and pace were introduced to make things more specific and to help me “dial in” my feel which I quickly learned was way out of whack.

Different coaches I worked with had different names for the zones.

Some used four zones, some seven.

Regardless, I understood the importance behind knowing how hard to do each session, and what the purpose of the session was supposed to be.

I don’t think I really appreciated how crucial training intensity was until I progressed from hobbyist to professional athlete.

Most of all as a coach, I have seen (and continue to see) the dramatic effect these zones have on the performance of our athletes.

The Intensity Grey Zone

In my last article, I spoke about why intensity trumps volume and the mistake of training in the “intensity grey zone”.

The grey zone is where many athletes spend their time running because they believe that to race fast you must train fast and constantly push the pace.

As a result, their “easy sessions” are done at an intensity level that doesn’t properly develop their aerobic system and their “hard sessions” are done below the required intensity to fully develop their anaerobic system.

In other words, they train too hard when they should be going easier and are unable to muster the energy to train hard when they should be.

Training is unproductive and a colossal amount of time and energy is wasted.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the intensity itself, in fact, it can provide some benefits when used wisely.

The problem comes when you do the majority of your running at this intensity in favour of executing your easier sessions as they should be: Easy!

To combat this common training pitfall, it is important to understand and use training zones during your training.

Cut Race Times, Not Corners.

Racing at your potential and enjoying training is easy when you’re following the right programme.

The Training Intensity Zones

During my last few years as a professional triathlete, I was fortunate to work with an amazing coach, named John Hellemans.

John uses five zones and literally wrote the book on training intensity. I have continued to use his foundational expertise on training zones for our work at Coached.

Let’s take a look.

Zone 1: Easy

Focus: Recovery.
Perceived effort: 1 – 2 out of 10.
68 – 73% of Max HR
Talk Test: Complete conversation.

Easy is a low-intensity zone used to establish a strong aerobic base and to aid in recovery from more intense sessions. At this effort, you gain a high proportion of your energy from fat and when done in a fasted state you facilitate an improvement in your fat burning ability.

Zone 2: Steady

Focus: Endurance.
Perceived effort: 3 – 4 of 10.
73 – 80% of Max HR
Talk Test: Full sentences.

Steady is a moderate intensity zone used to develop your aerobic fitness and ability to generate energy from fat. The large majority of your training should be done in the low end of your Steady zone. The high end of this zone (along with the bottom end of the next zone) is what I referred to above as the “grey zone”).

Zone 3: Moderately Hard

Focus: Tempo.
Perceived effort: 5 – 6 of 10.
80 – 87% of Max HR
Talk Test: A few words at a time.

Moderately Hard training develops the ability of your intermediate muscle fibres (fast twitch fibres converted to slow twitch fibres via Easy and Steady training) to generate energy aerobically. The high end of this zone provides many of the benefits that Hard training provides but without the prolonged recovery time.

Excessive time in the low end of this zone should be avoided as it’s the upper edge of the grey zone we have discussed.

Zone 4: Hard

Focus: Threshold.
Perceived effort: 7 – 8 of 10.
87 – 93% of Max HR
Talk Test: I…..can’t…..talk…..right…..now…..

Hard is a high-intensity zone used to improve VO2max and cardiac stroke volume. Periods of training at this intensity are useful for most runners after a strong aerobic base has been developed.

Zone 5: Very Hard

Focus: VO2max.
Perceived effort: 9 – 10 out of 10.
93 -100% of Max HR
Talk Test: Grunts

Very Hard training develops the ability of your oxygen delivery systems to get oxygen to the working muscles. This intensity constitutes a very small percentage of total training time.

The “Feel” vs Pace vs Heart Rate Debate

With the different training intensities now introduced and the benefits clear, the remaining posts will focus on measuring intensity. In particular, I’ll share the pros and cons of running by feel, pace and heart rate.

Most runners have a preference for how they like to gauge intensity when they run. I hope the remaining posts will offer some insight into why we use a mix of heart rate, pace and feel in our programmes, and you can decide on what is the best method for you.

Related Articles

The Pros And Cons Of Training By Feel

The Pros And Cons Of Training By Heart Rate

The Pros And Cons Of Training By Pace

Ben Pulham

Ben Pulham is the founder of Coached, a personalised training programme that helps runners & triathletes optimise, track and enjoy their training.