Welcome to the "Keep it Simple Newsletter". With an unbelievable amount of information bombarding us from every direction these days, the goal of this weekly newsletter is to present a simple common sense tip that can be applied to your daily cycling.
Ride safe, strong and be healthy!
Training Zones 101
Why we have and need training zones?
Training zones have been around for a long time as a tool to help endurance athletes improve.
To be successful in an endurance sport, different levels of adaptation (e.g. intensity), need to be accomplished in certain amounts, depending on specifically what goal the athlete is trying to accomplish.
By defining these "training zones", the athlete can apply these levels of intensity to help the body adapt, and thus be best prepared.
We can define and measure those physiological adaptations using three available methods while training on a bike:
Heart Rate - The body's internal response. Your heart rate increases to accomplish things like delivering more O2 to the working muscles and removing CO2. In general, heart rate zones don't change too much once they are defined. These heart rate zones can be influenced by many factors on a daily basis, like training affect, drugs, stress, etc.
Power Meters - The amount of work measured in kilojoules. Think of power as the external indicator. Power doesn't know anything about how you are feeling, the weather, etc. It measures how much mechanical work you are accomplishing.
RPE - Rate of perceived exertion, which is the process of the athlete judging what level the intensity. In other words, the brain making a decision.
We define training zones just as that, in zones and not a specific level, because as we increase or vary the level of intensity, there are ongoing physiological changes that occur. It's more a "area" that adapts, not a specific point, like a specific heart rate.
For simplicity sake, the body uses two main types of fuel to create the energy needed to exercise. Fat and sugar or carbohydrate (CHO). As we change the levels of intensity, which of course is very common in cycling, those fuel percentages alter.
See the picture below that defines three main training zones and the amount of fat and CHO that are utilized to produce the needed energy.
Key points about the picture:
Three main zones are defined. There are many different training zone models in the world today, but in general, they are all trying to accomplish the same goal of defining intensity for the athlete.
Notice that LE (green) uses the lowest energy, but the highest percentage of Fat
The LT (red) zone using the most energy and the highest percentage of sugar or CHO.
And finally, notice the ME (blue) zone uses roughy 50/50, but has the highest percentage of fat, so we think of this zone as one of the optimal places to gain the most fitness, as you are using both energy systems almost equally and gaining the benefits of using both.
And finally, remember it's not how high you get your zones (although that is sometimes the goal), it's more how long you can hold a certain zone. Think length and sustainability, no matter what the level.
Ride safe, ride strong, and stay healthy!
