I am trying to figure out my z2 power and heartrate zones before starting my next training block and I’m hoping someone can help me interpret this.
My ftp is 181w but I’ve noticed that my breathing starts to increase at around 100 watts which is only about 55% ftp and my legs start to burn around this speed as well and after doing a heart rate drift test it seems like my upper end of my z2 zone should be like 55% ftp which seems way too low! Like is it even possible for zones to be that far off, I really dont want to spend the next like 6-8 weeks doing z1 training on accident. Also, my heartrate is only like 108-116 bpm at this pace? my max being 183
So, some time ago, I made a post about the big differences in zone boundaries for athletes, which was shown in a paper:
So, yes, your boundaries can be completely different than the „default“ boundaries.
Some points which come to my mind reading your post:
Is it only one power meter, is it calibrated regularly?
heart rate drift test doesn‘t tell you where your boundaries are, it‘s more a test of durability I‘d say. And there are other factors which can influence the heart rate drift (heat, nutrition, hydration, …).
If you do a speech test, at the top of Z2 you still can talk one full sentence, wherein Z3 you can only talk in short phrases (as a rule of thumb). Did you do such a „test“?
There is a difference in cardiovascular endurance and muscle endurance, from your post I‘d say that you muscle is the „limiter“. What’s your weekly training hours for the last year? Is it consistent training? Did you consider adding strength training to strengthen your muscles?
Z2 power is a quite wide range: riding at the bottom of Z2 power is very, very different to riding at the top of Z2 power.
Same with Z2 HR.
How old are you? (that can be significant to HR zones)
As @R2Tom already mentioned, endurance matters too. The power you can put out at a Z2 HR when fresh could be very different to the power at that same HR when you have a done a chunk of work etc.
How did you test to get your FTP value, and also your max value?
There’s no magic happening in Z2 that doesn’t happen in Z3 and Z4 (power levels, not heart rate zones). Depending on duration and intensity, you still get the same benefits as in Z2, but with a little more cost (fatigue).
How long are your training sessions? Duration and Intensity matters, and the more (time) you spend working out at higher intensities, the more recovery you would need. If you aren’t workout out for long enough in a session, you might not be stressing the body enough to create the stimulus needed to adapt. A progressive overload each day/week is required, along with some recovery to allow the adaptation to happen.
My field tested first ventilatory threshold is around 122-124bpm. Below that is zone1 and zone0 - and if I keep it that low almost no impact on central nervous system.
Above that - say 124-138bpm - is what I use for zone2 (Alan Couzen’s system).
Most of my training is below 124bpm, and I see improvements year over year. I’m using power training for tempo and above. I don’t care if HR and power zones don’t align, what I know is that its easier to recover and be consistent by accumulating time at and below zone1.
Saw this today, Alan Couzens is a sports physiologist and coach. Look at his improvements off nearly 300 hours zone0 and 100 hours zone1. Total for the year is about 500 hours:
Wow, I am unbelievably grateful for the replies! Thank you guys, I really want to figure this out! Also I wanted to mention that I am a mountain biker and I live in a place with a lot of steep tech climbs. on top of that I have been doing anaerobic sports my entire life and did pretty well in powerlifting competitions in my teens and early 20s, I dont know if that is a factor but just in case.
Yes it is currently only 1 power meter. I recently sold my assioma duos because I do 99% of my rides on my mtb now. I did have 2 though. I calibrate it through my garmin computer every 2 rides ish and I calibrated it before my drift test.
it is hot out, 90+ f. I acclimate every year and am 100% acclimated if that helps reduce decoupling?
I did a speech test during the drift test! I said “I am talking to myself and probably sound crazy right now!” lol and then had to take a deep breath. Also I’ve noticed my heartrate jumps and I have to breath deeper after taking a drink or while eating in z2.
Currently its ~ 6hrs per week with maybe an hour or less of that just being walks. I was working with a coach about 12-9 months ago (ironically to try to stop feeling burnt out) and then went through a bad burn out where I had to stop training for a month or two but since then I have been PAINFULLY slowly increasing my hours. I build up over a few weeks, take a recovery week and then drop back down a bit an build up again. I didn’t do any z3+ for the first maybe 3-4 months after burning out. also, I want to get back to strength training but I Want to do it fairly slowly and at the start of a base phase!
it was a 20 minute real world ftp test done on a local climb. I intentionally stayed in my z4 heartrate range 95% of the time (creeped into z5 near the end) because in past ftp tests I was basically doing z5-z4 overunders and didn’t want to skew my numbers. Also, what do you mean my max value?
I’ve worked up to 2 hour z2 rides once a week (post burnout) and a 1 hour z2 ride and either tempo or threshold intervals on wednesday as well (i dont do a lot of volume in these intervals because I wanted to slowly work my way up to that). I do a mountain bike ride every Saturday where I get my intensity (block 1: long slow rides and block 2: shorter faster rides). I have built up time by adding 5-15 minutes per week over the course of a block and then taking a recovery week and dropping back down and starting again.
I train Monday, Wednesday, Friday and sat and do 20-30m recovery walks or spins on my off days.
I’ve only missed a couple workouts in the past 6 months and I hit my nutrition goals maybe 90% of the time (sometimes i’ll pigout and sometimes I dont eat enough) + 8 hours of sleep every night.
To add more context here are some metrics with hr and power zones being joel friel cycling and the blue line being the “big burnout”:
