When people talk about knowing your training zones, most people think about numbers, heart rate, power, pace etc. That is certainly how I tend to think of it. However, training zones don't necessarily need to be dictated by numbers. For very experienced athletes training intensity can effectively be controlled by metrics such as perceived effort. Whether you use numbers or not, the concept is still the same, making sure you are working in the appropriate zone for the session you are doing. I am a numbers person and so for me I always liked working with numbers, having quantified metrics to help pace and judge a session or race by, to help me hit my targets. However, whether you are a numbers person or not I do genuinely think that the topic of this 1%er can be beneficial for everyone.
So what do I mean by training zones.
The idea of training zones has been around for a real long time. I first came across it in the late 1990s when I was rowing, but it was hardly a new topic then. At the time devices like personal heart rate monitors were becoming more common and so it was becoming easier for an individual to monitor their own zones. Since then it has only become more common place.
The idea of training zones is that different training intensities have different training effects on the body. Front Runner Sports has a fairly well defined set of training zones that looks a little something like this.
While the above is the Front Runner model, there are numerous other training zone models available. The details of the various systems are different, but in the end they are all trying to do the same thing, which is help you train at the correct intensity in order to optimtimise the benefits of your session.
So now we know that a good training program should cover a range of training intensities, but how do we do know that we are training at the right intensity? This is where knowing your training zone comes into play.
There are numerous tests available for determining your training zones. For running Front Runner uses the 30 minute Critical Velocity Test or the 12 minute Coopers Test (Know Your Pace Zones). For cycling the classic is the FTP Test. For swimming Swim Smooth and many others use the CSS test. All these tests do the same thing, which is help you to determine what your threshold pace/power is. Once you know what your threshold is you can work backwards to determine what the rest of your training zones are. How exactly you determine your zones depends on what Training Zone model you use, however, there are a lot of resources online to give guidance on how to do it. Software like TrainingPeaks can do it for you once you know what your Threshold is.
Once you know what your zones are, the next step is simple. You use them.
When I first started triathlon I used to get injured a lot from running. It wasn't until a couple of years later that somebody explained to me that running didn't always have to be hard, rather it would be more beneficial if I varied my training, incorporating some hard stuff, but also including some longer steadier stuff. This advice was a revelation to me. To me hard training was good and so harder training must have been better. The idea that sometimes the best thing I could do was slow down blew me away. The way this person got me to slow down was by using well defined pace zones, go this fast but no quicker.
By making sure my training was at the right intensity, not only did I reduce the amount I got injured, but I also increased how effective my training was.
The same goes for cycling and swimming. Sometimes you want to be doing short intervals with nearly everything you have, sometimes you want to be doing long intervals at Steady or Tempo intensity. If you know your zones you can make sure you are nailing these sessions, working as hard as you should be, but no harder.
Optimising your training in this way is a great way to squeeze every last 1% out of the training that you are doing.
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