Re-calibration

We have had a delightful long weekend here in Perth, three days off, just what the doctor ordered. It has been great.

The long weekend has meant that we have managed to do all kinds of constructive stuff around the house, buying furniture, cleaning the garage, pulling weeds. I tell you the crazy fun times have never stopped. All very satisfying stuff though.

The long weekend has also meant that I have been able to get in some good training, which is exactly what I was after.

Interestingly with the training I have been coming to the realisation that my threshold heart rate has dropped over the last 6 months. Not all that surprising as I have definitely lost some fitness, particularly in the last month or two. As a result my threshold is not as close to my max HR as it used to be.

This drop has been important to understand, because if my threshold has changed then all my training zones have too. Kind of hard to train to a specific zone if you don't know what it is. It means that you might think you are working at Tempo but you are actually closer to your threshold, or you might mean to be training steady, but instead working too hard. You get the idea.

The other day I wrote about every session having a point and it being important to be mindful of that point in your training. However, it can be very hard to achieve the goal of the session if the goal post is not where you think it is. That is what happens if the your zones aren't accurate.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I re-calibrated my training zones this morning. Everything has dropped down a little bit. Hopefully the change is temporary while I rebuild some fitness, but for now these more accurate training zones will help me train more effectively, ensuring that every session is meeting its intended purpose.