Go to the details of your workout and then go to the power screen. There is a Decoupling graph at the bottom. Sliders will adjust the starting and ending times to allow for warmup and cooldown.
It’s fun to play around with. Trial and error will pinpoint a power and heart rate that gives the lowest Decoupling value. Repeating long workouts with the purpose of generating this data will give useful comparisons. To the right of the chart is also calculated power to heart rate data for Efficiency which goes hand in hand with Decoupling.
I don’t set just power and heart rate per se. I also concentrate on a steady cadence throughout. Cadence is rarely talked about it seems but extremely important. Imo. Higher cadences will completely blow up my results and that too is good information to have. It’s very easy to get good numbers for FTP and Decoupling etc. at lower cadences when we all know higher cadences are desired for long endurance rides.
Higher cadence targets the cardiovascular system, which takes more time to develop but lasts longer. Lower cadence targets the muscular system which develops faster, but is exhausted more rapidly.
136bpm is about where my breathing changes, so its self-estimated AeT (lower aerobic threshold). See how power increases between 2021 to 2023? Around AeT - 136bpm - my power went from 170W to 185W to 200W.
I did that by training to power. The (99% outdoor) workouts had a lot of endurance rides that looked like this:
started in 2021 by riding mostly the middle of zone2, by 2023 I was riding mostly at top of zone2.
My advice is to not overthink it. What I did may not work as well for you. You need to find what works for you. For context, I was averaging 7-8 hours/week and for interval work my coach had me doing fewer intervals at highest quality (and generally at higher power). Don’t let your endurance rides detract from your interval rides.
What I’ve noticed is that hydration has a noticeable effect on my heart rate. I can see the HR go down when I drink during a workout if I’ve gone too long without. Good hydration before exercise is recommended 2 hours before, 1 or 2 good glasses of water.
Just an idea. I hesitate to bring it up because it’s so basic but it’s so easy for me to neglect, so…I find I often don’t drink even the basic amount of daily recommended fluids, never mind when going on or after a multi-hour ride.
Is it better to do all z2 at same power/hr, or does it make sense to mix it up with high z2 and sometimes low z2? From a performance/adaptation perspective.
Yesterday i did
28 min @ 150w + 28 min @ 160w + 28 min @ 170w.
HR stayed below 128 bpm
With my ftp@210w, 160w & 170w is in my z3
I set my HRmax @185 bpm (trying to keep z2 below 129bpm)
Should i lower power to stay in z2, or trust my HR and allow myself to move into z3 power?
Fatigue is what you have to watch out for when doing workouts. You don’t have to stick to a fixed number, but rather within a range.
If your case, 84 minutes is not a long time in Z2 compared to someone doing very long rides of 3-5 hours, and longer. So you won’t build up as much fatigue as someone riding longer. As a result you won’t need as much recovery from a short ride. But, it’s the other factors in your life that adds to the stress, eg. work-, family- and life-stresses, being on your feet for extended hours, poor sleep and poor nutrition.
The reason a coach would peg an upper limit on someone is to ensure they keep the workout easy enough as it should be. A large number (not quantified) of people go harder than they should.
If my target is Zwift races approx 45min in duration, would it still make sense for me to do 2-3 hours of Z2 rides?
Given the short time of a typical Zwift race, to build the “fat for fuel” capability is not tha crucial for me I think, since I believe I have carbs in my body and refueling during the race, or maybe it is more important than I understand, even for this short durations.
There’s a reason why even sprinters, track cyclists, cyclo-crossers… are doing long Z2. A high base capability also reduces recovery time, during and after the race.
But given the fact that your focus is 45min races, there’s no reason to go beyond those 2-3 hours. Any duration from 90 min on should benefit for your riding needs. Contenders for longer races will need to go longer.
It’s not only Z2 that is beneficial but also most sub-threshold work, and some high intensity. Racing (inside and outside) mostly requires the highest speed for the least amount of work/effort.
I’ve had lots of questions asked where someone wants to work on their top end speed for the sprint, yet they neglect the training that allows them to get to the sprint, fresh enough to be able to use their sprint power.
Z2 alone is not a magical/silver bullet that can make you more efficient, but it helps build a good base. Having a good base allows you to add more intensity on top of it.
Refreshing to see that post. Too much Z2 advice out there across basically all social media channels with an almost total omittance of any advice outside of riding Z2.
Also re: HR. Have you spent time tuning HR zones to your physiology? Here are mine in 2 zone systems:
131-142bpm Friel zone2
110-134bpm Coggan zone2
Coggan went so far as to say he was reluctant to give recommendations because HR zones varied so much from athlete to athlete. Even when referencing HR zones to lactate threshold HR (versus HRmax).
Like @Gerald said and to add my own comments, endurance training is general conditioning and NOT accumulating fatigue except on planned long rides (planned into a cycle, with recovery considered). No matter how many hours/week you ride. Your life off the bike may have a greater influence on stress and recovery. So be kind to yourself. The more general conditioning you do, the more high quality intensity work you can do.
All that said, I got really fast averaging 6 hours/week by doing mostly threshold and high-intensity riding. And years later, by doing 7-8 hours/week mostly endurance with focused intensity intervals.
Both ways of training built a strong aerobic engine. One is more sustainable - year after year after year - than the other.
The aerobic system is responsible for recovery when you burn a match in a race (stop thinking about fat for fuel). Even on 45 minute Zwift races, having a stronger aerobic system is a performance advantage.
Im “new” to cycling, 2,5 years and spend 99% of my time on racing and other high intense activities/workouts. Only low intense I did was when there’s times in races that goes slow and I sit in the draft.
This is why I try to put more focus now on building base, and race less.
I’m that guy, when we get close to the finish line, I have no matches left
I’m also that guy. My first 2 years were all high-intensity practice races and fast group rides and 30-60 minute time trials. Lots and lots of threshold and high-intensity. My job was stressful, and my kids were in high school. Bottom line - my bodies nervous system was always in fight mode. Then I tried to do a little more endurance following TR plans for 2 years. And my heart was still revving too high. Then I hired a coach to help me figure out how to do more endurance / general conditioning, reduce my stress, do some quality intervals, yet still get fast. It worked, my resting HR finally dropped, my HRV improved to normal levels, and I got fast again. Be patient.
@PerBack ^^^ a good article, in case you haven’t seen it
To what you said, Weird, literally yesterday I listened to a podcast interview with Joe Friel, episode 204, 205 from July 2024 that was aired on The Time Crunched Cyclist Podcast.
Joe Friel said:
“Zone three, I put a lot more emphasis on that during the base period. In the base period, I’ll actually change, I’ll actually train the athlete pure and middle, four and three, four easy days, three moderately hard days, because they don’t really have that problem with really trying to bounce back from a zone three workout, for example. So we’ll do a lot of zone three stuff, even some below zone, easy zone, moderate zone four stuff in the base period.”
(So, yes, he said zone 3 and 4.)
From The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS: Episode 205: Joe Friel on Science-Based Training for Older Athletes - Part 2, Jul 17, 2024
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Joe is still coaching at 80. Of course he is talking about top cyclists who go through a base training period every year. This quote is but a minute of almost an hour interview. Great interview I thought. Touched on many topics. I have a new respect for coaches.
In my opinion Zone 2 is a great thing and it is easily often blindly misconstrued and misunderstood, its true value and usefulness buried and challenging to unearth. Thank our lucky stars there is intervals.icu and the expert coaches and cyclists here to help even us novice cyclists navigate.
I´m exactly the same. The weekend group ride(s) are my intensity rides, rest of the week is LIT volume. During winter, indoor season, it´s more structured.
Are you used to doing 5 days back to back?
That’s 9.5hr in 5 days. If your body is not adapted to this kind of load, it is signalling you that you’re overdoing it.
If this is sort of your normal routine, something else is going on. More coffee then usual, Overheating, Sickness onset, Bad night, Alcohol, Stress…
Do you have morning HRV measurement?
The first and the last one I did on my race bike with wahoo kickr v5, with 165mm cranks and wahoo kickr headwind as fan.
The 4 in the middle I did on my Zwift Ride, Wahoo kickr core, 170mm cranks and AC as a fan.
The avg Cadence RPM was very similar for all sessions (71-78)
I’m new to zone2 riding but since it felt so easy, I thought I could do many days in a row.
I’m speculating that since I am a natural grinder, more than a spinner, that maybe 170mm is easier for me (same RPM, less force but a little higher pedal speed) that and the AC cooled more than just fans. I also had a 7 hour car drive prior the session.
I’m going to have a rest day today and redo the session Tue and see how it looks like. If it is the same, I’m considering shifting my race-setup to my 170mm crank one
