Building workout using zone number instead of percentage range

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#1

Hello, I have read through the post regarding workout building, and I wondered if it is possible to specify an intensity using zones?

e.g.

  • 10m Z1 LTHR
  • 1h10m Z2 LTHR
  • 10m Z1 LTHR

If not, do people generally memorize the percentages of their zones, or look them up in the settings view?

Thanks.

#2

I have added that to the todo list. I think people tend to use percentages because the zones are quite wide e.g. there is a huge difference between 106% and 120% and thats all Z5 for me (power zones).

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#3

Yeah that makes sense. Perhaps a nice improvement would be to show the power and HR ranges in a tooltip or popup on the workout builder modal.

#4

Thats a good idea. Will do soon.

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#5

In triathlon people use zones all the time. (Also, intervals defined by distance instead of time)

#6

The ability to quickly create a workout using zones and then specify the percentages if necessary would be nice

#7

How would your ERG trainer react in this situation? The range of power in L4 is 90-105%, so the Garmin workout pegs it in the middle, i.e. 97%.

As someone that uses a non-smart trainer, it’s easy to increase/decrease power based on how average HR is tracking; the goal would be to have minimal cardiac drift.

There’s a good argument for having a “range” of values within a zone/level. If my athletes are supposed to do a workout at VO2max power, and they struggled on the previous workouts, or are feeling a little fatigued, I’ll tell them to keep it closer to 106% and see how they react; the first and last interval needs to be the same for it to be effective. Likewise, if they’re feeling good, then I’ll ask them to push it closer to 120% for all intervals. It’s still within the same “zone/level”. The % doesn’t really make a difference, and nor would having it a “zones”. Executing it is key, and being able to review it afterwards is all I’m really interested to see.

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#8

Most trainers (software/apps) also has the quick +/- button to get the % or Raw Watts up or down to further fine tune it based on what you are feeling. so using the exact wattage/% range to me is really a bit counter to the final goal of just riding to the zone.