I ride indoors at 8500’ /2600m.
I train outdoors anywhere from 5000’ /1524m to 8000’/2440m.
How am I supposed to know what my zones are???
If I train by power, I cannot hold a conversation at all at z2. So I go by my ability to talk. But over z2, how can I figure out what zone I am actually riding in at all these different elevations?
There is some support for altitude corrected Power and zone in Intervals
But I can’t give you any details, because I don’t train at altitude…
There are more threads here on the forum which may give you more info
Thanks I’ll dig into it more. However, I always have to laugh at the definition of acclimatised. I had to ride for 3 years before I felt comfortable. Still much less power than at sea level, but at least I don’t feel like I’m dying.
You just may be pushing it all the time and taking to little time to let your base develop.
Going by feel/RPE will really help here and asking yourself ‘how long could I hold this for’?'.
Endurance (Z2) - should feel ‘suspiciously’ easy, able to hold a full conversation. (2-4/10)
Tempo (Z3) - Somewhat hard/challenging but not too fatiguing. Fatigue comes from duration rather than intensity. Breathing is controlled, and can maybe talk a sentence at a time, before needing to pause. (4-6/10).
Threshold (Z4) - Hard, but just about sustainable. Breathing is still relatively controlled, but the legs will be suffering. Another 10w and you’ll be in the red. Can talk a few words at a time. (~7-8/10)
Zone 5 - Very hard/maximal, unsustainable. Cannot talk, maybe single words. Can hold for a few minutes, breathing is ragged. (8-9.5/10)
Zone 6 - All out efforts. (10/10)
After a while you’re self-calibration will become more accurate and you’ll start to link these feelings to power and HR numbers.
For the first few years, for sure I was pushing my cardio . If I rode in easy, speaking speed, it would be a power of, like, 40. 8000’ is high! My z2hr was a z4 power. So I don’t buy acclimatising takes 2 weeks.
Peter, thank you for taking the time to write all that. I am very familiar with zones and have been training at sea level for many years. I actually went to nationals only a couple of months after living at elevation (which may have helped).
But with serious training, you can not rely on rpe. I don’t want to do a 3-4 hr ride in z2 just to find out I was actually in z3 and have built up fatigue.
I don’t think there’s an answer, unless you ride with a lactate device or maybe a tyme breathing thingie. I was just wondering how others who train at elevation do it.
No problem, and I understand where you’re coming from. Any environmental stress, heat, cold and altitude make things more complicated! I’d maybe disagree that you can’t rely on RPE for ‘serious training’. Does power help, for sure, but is essential to regulate effort, in my view, no (and I’d put lactate in that category as well).
