Every Training Zone Explained (With The Best Training Sessions!)

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. On this podcast, we talk a lot about the different training zones. Zone 2, training threshold, zone sub threshold, LT1 and LT2. And. And recently a friend of mine was asking me about all the different training zones and what they all actually meant. He said, do you have a podcast I can listen to that explains them all? And I said, funnily enough, we don't. We have spoken about them a lot, but never in one entire episode. So here is our one dedicated podcast episode, explaining every training zone in detail, what the purpose of that zone is and when it's appropriate to do a training session in that zone. And before we get into the episode, please make sure that you, if you're watching this online, you hit that, like, button and subscribe or follow us on whatever platform you're watching or listening to this on. And if you love the content, which we hope you do because you're here, the best thing you can do for us is share it with a friend who might also love it or share it on your social media and tag us. We love to see who is listening around the world and where you're from. But let's get into the episode. Dad, welcome. First up, gratitude for today.

Thanks, Jord. Looking forward to today's episode. I can't take the smile off my face because my gratitude is based around my passion for Celtic, the football club. The listeners might remember we've talked a little bit about our passion teams and everybody's got their own team out there, but having grown up in a family of Scottish heritage, my dad drilled into me, you know, the passion that the, the Glasgow Celtic has had. And, and my gratitude is for Ange Postecoglou, who is an Australian hero in the soccer, in the soccer world, in the football world, I suppose. And he, he took his coaching career to Scotland and took over Celtic and in his first year, he's done an amazing job. They, Celtic were, were unbelievable champions for 10 years in a row.

Nine years.

Nine years. Sorry. They were trying for 10 and they missed the 10th year, which would have been a. They, they were smashed in that 10th year. They were 25 points behind their arch rivals, Rangers. And, and they brought Ang in, and in his first year, he's got them the title during the week, which my gratitude for Ange, for Coming to, to be the savior. And I can't wipe the smile off my face because it's just an incredible story of, of someone who has an amazing coaching ability. He's taken the Australian national team to the World Cup. He's taken Brisbane Raw in their first three or four seasons, to three Premierships, to Melbourne victory, to Premierships, to Yokohama in Japan, to Premierships. Now he's gone to Celtic and, you know, the world is his oyster. He could go to England and coach a English Premier Division team without fail. So I just love the journey. I heard him interviewed and he said that as a 12 year old when he was at school, I think the art teacher was his soccer coach. And he asked the art teacher if he wouldn't mind if he let Ange put the players into their correct places rather than where he put them. And so Angie's been coaching since he was 12. So he says he's not much of a footballer, but he actually knows how to manage men.

I love that gratitude because obviously you then pass down the passion for Celtic to us and all our cousins, but specifically because you are someone that loves the journey and you love seeing a great story, especially from a coach and to see an Aussie coach do so well. And we were talking just before the podcast about after the game when they won. It was really movie kind of scenes where he was going around and getting applause from the entire Celtic fans. This stadium was absolutely packed and there was thunderous noise and they're all chanting his name. And he was genuinely just tearing up, standing there while they're all chanting his name. And it was like a movie moment. And it's just great to see a coach go through that. My gratitude is I'm just grateful to be having a good run of training again with no interruptions. It's my longest block of training for probably six months. And it's really enjoyable just to have consistency again and just feeling really grateful for it, to be feeling super fit again.

I want to go on with that a bit because for those who don't know, everybody at some stage will have Covid. And just this week in the Trivelo group, there's eight people who've just contracted Covid. You know, after two years of COVID you wouldn't think that, you know, be so rampant still, but it is. And your gratitude is great because it affects everybody differently. And, you know, there's been 30 or 40 people that I've coached now who've had Covid, Covid in some shape or form from extreme to Mild and you know, your journey from when you contracted it in January 1st or whatever it was that that New Year's period has been stop start to say the best and to say the worst really. And, and it takes a long time for everybody to rebound differently. So if you're in this position, you know, just hang in there because it will turn around and you can get your consistency back and you're actually running as well as you did a PB on the 5K, you know, last weekend. So it's an example of you can get back there as long as you just put your head down and, and start to do the basics.

Well, before we get into the episode, because it's a really big episode of worth of a topic, I would just want to do a quick. What's caught our attention. That's because the Ironman world champs was on last week and epic race. I can't believe how much of the race I watched. You know, it's an iron man. It goes for eight hours and you'd think you'd just skim through, but I ended up watching probably about six hours worth of it and I skipped a little bit. But who knew you could be so entertained by watching such. You'd say slow event, but they're not going slow. My only criticism is that the coverage is absolutely horrendous. They need to learn something from the cycling world. But Christian, with just an absolute dominating performance, unstoppable and both male and female. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Daniela, five times world champion.

Why would you underestimate her? It's interesting that we talked pre race with our last podcast because we were speculating about both the male and female and I think we got it pretty close.

You said on the, I think you said on the podcast you might have said it off air. Hopefully it was in the podcast. But you said you cannot count out a four time world champion and that that proved true. And she really. And a lot of people were counting her out and she came across the line and just gave this big five to the camera, just letting them know because, yeah, everyone had counted her out. And she said, I don't know why everyone counted me out, just because we haven't had any races for two years. And she said, I did one race and it was a bad race. And everyone says, oh, she's done, you know, it was one race in two years.

Yeah, there's a bit of fire in her belly. It was great. And it's a men's race and man Lionel, what a, what a journey. He's he to come second to seemingly one of the best triathletes that that's, you know, I'm putting up there with Jan Frodeno now because. Because he's. He's just doing everything that he's saying he's going to do. Well, it was inspirational to watch. And watching Lionel let's the bunch go that he was with because it was too far above he's his own numbers and taking that huge decision I thought was so gutsy. And he basically caught back up to them and got off the bike in eighth or ninth place.

Was it something like that? Yeah.

Ended up second and he ran his own race. Not only run his own race, but he rode his own race. And. And he's a changed man. And I just think that was. If Christian wasn't in that race. That was his race. But unfortunately there was someone who's just a little bit better than the whole field and some outstanding results from the New Zealanders. I just thought it was one of the better races we've seen. I know it wasn't in Kona, but it was tougher. It was tougher. We had our own Stephen White competing there and he said he's been to Kona a few times and he said this was way more demanding course on the bike than Kona is. And I just don't think people understand how difficult the course was. And they were at altitude a lot of the time, you know, 2000 meters.

So it was over 3000 meters of climbing. You just do a 3000 meter climb bike ride and you were far out.

You can't run a step.

Oh, no. Yeah. I can barely walk off after two, two and a half thousand meters.

I just totally loved the event. It was a true world championship. And I love it when the best athletes win. That's to me the right outcome.

There's a few things in there. Christian has said publicly before the Olympic Games last year. He wants to win the Olympic Games, the ITU World Championship, which is Olympic distance World championship, half Ironman world champion and Ironman world champion and he's done three. He said in not only just that in one calendar year winning all of them would be absurd in your career. But in one calendar year and he's done three out of four of them. And he had to pull out of St. George 70.3 half Iron man because of a black mechanic mechanical. But who knows? Maybe he'll win next year and then it shapes up for a great race in Kona later in the year where they're having the Ironman World Championships again. So we can't say, wait to see what happens there. But I know that even though you're not his coach, as a coach, you are so proud of Lionel and just cannot be understated how valuable that race tactic was from him. And he actually said in an interview post race that he, even on the run, he wasn't thinking about places. Exactly what you say. He's just worried about executing his time. And as he got closer and closer to second place, he crept onto the podium. Everyone was saying, Lionel's going to catch second place. And he said in his head, people were telling him on the sidelines, but he wasn't worried about it. And even with a K to go or 2k to go, he was within such striking distance. But he said he still wasn't focused on it. He was just, he was just hammering his own race and he ended up passing him with 800 meters to go or something and the epitome of just running your own race. And had he maybe thought of it too much throughout the run, he would have gone too hard with 15k to go or 10k to go and, and blown himself up. But he really stuck to his numbers, which I just absolutely loved.

Yeah. There's a big thing about risk and reward, isn't it? And he's, he's, as he said in his own words, I have risked so many times and walked and I don't want to walk ever again.

Yeah.

So I'm not doing that anymore. I don't care where I come. I'm going to run my ride, swim ride and run my own race. And, and if, if there happens to be a sprint finish at the end, then I'll. Then I'll risk. But up until that point, I'm just going to do what I can do. And if that's not good enough, then so be it. I'm actually quite content with that.

Yeah.

What an attitude I thought that was. If we can do that in any sport that, you know, we'll be happy. And we're not defined by our result. We're defined by our actual effort.

Yeah.

And if you're defined by your result, you won't actually enjoy racing that much.

So funny. He said that over and over again before the race. He just said people might call me weak or not a competitor. He said I'm absolutely competitive. But this race I'm not, I'm not worrying about the place. He said, I came. It was 23rd and 24th, the last two Ironman World Championships. He said as long As I do better than that place wise, I don't care but I'm going to execute the best I can. And he, he comes second. But he, he also said post race and I know you'll love this is that all the pros are sitting in their pre race press conference where they'll sit next to each other and export champion Sebastian Kienle got asked a question about, you know, bike pace and sticking with the pack. And he said, and this is Lionel words. Lionel goes, he said something so logical that I just couldn't believe how simple and basic it was. And it was if the pack's going too fast, I'm just going to slow down. And Lionel went, oh, it's just that simple, isn't it? And I know you'll love that because it is really that simple. And funnily enough, Kienle slowed down but not enough and blew himself up. And Lionel took his words from a fellow competitor and took that advice and just went no, I'm properly slowing down. And it resulted in a perfect race for him.

There was so many good things. And there's an interview with Bob, Breakfast with Bob, Breakfast with Bob, which I absolutely love because he interviews everybody. It's fantastic. And it's, he asks really good questions, I reckon. And he's a little man who comes up with the musical when he introduces it. And the song he played for Lionel was I Won't Back down.

Yeah.

And I just thought that is summing him up to a T. We're pumping.

Lionel up a lot here.

But you know, he just didn't back down from, from sticking to his guns and not be persuaded by any or influenced by any other person that is difficult to do. This is the world championship. You're a professional.

Yeah.

You know, people say you have to race. Well, he's proving in an endurance event, of course it's a race but if you go above your ability and he's done that many times and he ended up walking and he's just not prepared to do it anymore.

Last point on the race as well is back on Daniela. She said in a post race interview about that anger and she said I suppose there was that anger there. And I was, I was. She was aware of the noise that was happening. But everyone kept asking her, you've won everything. You've won the world champs four times, you've won the half iron man five times. What's, what's left there for you to do. And I thought you'd love this answer. You might have seen it already but she said, I really thought about that question a lot because everyone kept asking me. And she just came back to the same thing we keep saying. And I just realized I love the journey. I love the process of getting ready for a race and executing on race day. And I don't have to have this big vendetta. I don't have to have this big anger around. I have to prove something anymore. That's not the reason why I race. I race for the enjoyment of the process and getting ready for race day and, and demanding the most from myself. Even to the point where she's saying, I'm not even looking at, you know, am I performing my best I ever have. And I just absolutely loved that sentiment because it meant she was in such a good headspace to race well.

Yeah. And as you know, we've said this a lot on the podcast, if you enjoy doing something, you'll do it really well. If it's a chore, you actually won't have the same motivation, mental capacity to put your whole heart and soul into it. But when you're actually loving the process of whatever task you're doing, I'm not talking about sport, I'm just talking about whatever the task you're doing, whether it's mowing the lawn or preparing for a world Ironman Championships, if you love doing it, it'll be a great result. No matter, no matter what happens on the day you're going to enjoy yourself.

Let's get into the meat of the episode. What the people are here for. And that is defining training zones. All training zones explained. So we are going to endeavor to keep our language here as simple as possible because basically everyone around the world is on the same consensus, but we just use different words, terminology, different terminology, and sometimes slightly different percentages. But the sentiment of each zone is the same. So you've got to keep that in mind. And we want to start by just creating a clear differentiation between there are multiple types of zone models. There's a three zone model, a five zone six, seven, eight, nine, whatever you want. The most common up, the three zone model and the five zone model. We personally, and what we're going to talk about today is we refer to the six zone model, basically the same as a five zone model with our own slight triballo variation. But we're going to explain how they kind of all work here and tie into each other anyway. So starting with the most simplistic view and let's explain this Zone 3 model. And it's a really good foundation where everything else Makes sense. So a three zone model is just basically split up by the two lactate threshold points. So there's lactate threshold one or LT1 and lactate threshold two or LT2. And so let's just go into that a little bit and just quickly define like how those three zones are broken up before we further clarify them, because that's what really makes training valuable and makes training zones easier to follow.

I suppose I should say from the outset that this is our interpretation of what we know works for us. And there will be many variations to this from every other coach around the world, every other athlete. So remember, this is our own personal view on the take we get from the data. So LT1 or call it whatever you like the names here I want to get across to people. You can't say that that's anaerobic or aerobic, but let's just forget about the actual terms. It's more to do with where you sit in the effort, in the intensity. And intensity doesn't have to be high. Intensity is what the intensity is that you're aiming for. So let's get that clear.

So when you say intensity, you don't mean high intensity.

That's right. I could be talking about.

So 30% of an intensity is an intensity.

That's my intensity. I could be talking about recovery, ride. And my intensity for today is 30%. That's my intensity. And so don't get confused with every time I say intensity that. I mean, it's hard. Yeah, it might be hard to hold it at 30%, but the point we're trying to make is we want to differentiate between three main areas and then we divide that up into six. So there's three main key areas we think you should spend time in.

Yeah. So you can almost think of it in real layman's terms. Easy, medium and hard is the three zone model. You know, you've got easy up to LT1, you've got medium between LT1 and LT2, and hard above LT2. That's absolute layman's terms. But let's just quickly define LT1 and LT2. And like you said, the, the terms you use aren't as relevant as to what the basically intensity is. But LT1 or lactate threshold 1 also is referred to as aerobic threshold. So anything below that is defined as quote, unquote, aerobic, which means it should be in the easier category.

So to help the listeners, you should be able to do that all day if you're fit enough.

Yeah.

And it's not.

And you're fueling enough.

You're fueling enough. Yeah. So it's not hard. You could be talking to someone while you're doing that. And the only thing that's going to limit you is, you know, your, your fatigue from, from doing it for eight or 10 hours. But we're not asking you to do that. But, but that's, that's the. Should theoretically be possible, that's the intensity that you're trying to achieve.

It's called LT1 or lactate threshold 1, because at that point or above before that point, you're not accumulating any lactic acid. So if you're doing lactate threshold testing, your lactic acid levels in the muscle would just stay the same. They wouldn't be going up or they'd be fluctuating up and down a tiny bit, but not drastically. Whereas as soon as you go above that first point, that first threshold point, more lactic acid starts to accumulate. That doesn't mean, again, we'll get into that medium section in a second. But basically below that is that aerobic, easy zone. Above that, it's still not high intensity, but there's more, a bit more lactic acid being accumulated. That's basically the general.

You're really feeling like you're working.

Yeah.

But you're not, you're not at a point where you can, you have to stop. Whereas at, you know, in, in the, the third level, the hard part, there's going to be a point where you have to stop because you can't sustain it. So, so think of it in terms of. Not words. But I can keep doing this all day. I can keep doing this for a long time, but it's getting hard.

Yeah.

Or I can't sustain this for very long.

Yeah, yeah.

That's as simple as we want to make it.

Exactly right. So again, three zone models, that's zone one. Everything below LT1, zone two is between LT1 and LT2. So LT2 is lactate threshold two, otherwise known as anaerobic threshold, otherwise known as on the bike, your FTP running, it's your, your threshold. And again, that LT2 point is once you hit that and go above, like you just said, the lactic acid buildup will be start to become so extreme that depending on how much further above you go, defines how long you can sustain it for. So if you're just above it, theoretically, you're supposed to be able to hold it for about an hour. That's what the threshold means. If you go 10% above it, suddenly you could probably only hold it for half an hour or less, 20 minutes. If you go 20 or 30% above it, suddenly you can only hold it for three or five minutes or even less. So to clarify, that is the summary of the three zone model. And we do that to really emphasize basically what LT1 and LT2 are, because once you understand them, it becomes really easy to talk about whatever zone models you want, because they're all going to be based around where LT1 and LT2 are at some point. So now, knowing that, we're going to move into our tribal O6 zone model, and we'll point out exactly where LT1, LT2 situation, but basically it's breaking the three zone model down into really small segments. So below LT1, instead of it being zone one, it's zone one and two, and in between there's zone three and four, and above LT2 is zone five and six. So we're going to go through each zone now, what their purpose is, their approximate intensities. And again, it's just really important to note that around the world, people will use their own models. And like us, they will probably call each zone something slightly different, but they're generally meaning the same thing. And we don't want you to get caught up on the wording too much. It's more about understanding the percentage of what that intensity actually means, what that zone actually means. The percentages are generally in relation to percentage of FTP for a bike, percentage of your LT2%. And if you're running your percentage of LT2 running threshold, anaerobic threshold, whatever that is. So let's start with zone one, and let's define zone one.

And just to add on, before we define zone one, it's. It's to what you've tested at. So. So just keep that in mind. These are our opinions and the way we have our variation. Just like you said, other people have their variations. And this is all based on what you've tested at. So these are your numbers.

Yeah. And variations aren't even then. They're not gonna be wildly different. We say variations because there's just subtle differences. So some people might refer to it as.

Yeah, okay, so let's go with anything under LT1, which we're talking about recovery. So our recovery can be active or it can be passive. And we don't want to specifically say it should be, you know, 10% or 20% or 30%. It's just no real aerobic gain. It is just to get the blood flow in the muscles to repair the damage. That's been done from the hard sessions the previous few days. So we don't have any intention to improve our fitness in this session. It's purely recovery. So we're not expecting to ride hard at all.

And we did a big episode this on Junk Miles in a previous podcast a few weeks ago. So it really does.

As much as I need to say, so you're just not going to be sweating. You're just, you know, grandma can be riding past you. That's how slow you're going. And it doesn't have to be for a long time. The shorter the time, the better.

There's one main benefit we want to talk about with active recovery, and that is getting your body used to training load and sometimes training at any intensity above active recovery, someone is not ready for and if they try and load that up too quickly, especially in the case of running, it becomes dangerous and a high risk of injury. So you can increase your overall training load and volume by using active recovery as a stimulus rather than trying to get more specific intensity higher than that. And that really does help.

And look as a, as a bike rider who can't run, walking is a really good active recovery for me and I get cranky if I don't do my walks and I'm really should do more of it. And I'm, you know, that's what I tell everybody who, who actually can't run. If you can run and you're doing a running program, then, you know, walking as well is still good active recovery rather than actually going for a run. So don't underestimate the value of walking. And you know, the sky team years ago made all their riders walk.

Yeah.

You know, on a regular basis. And I still think most of them implement that in their, you know, take the dog for a walk and stuff. Feel like it's a waste of time, but it's actually not. It's actually really helping you for the next day.

Yep. So that's zone one, that's active recovery, and that is well below that first LT1 threshold. And again, like I said, the intensity doesn't matter. It's probably up to 50%, but you're not even worried about that. You just, you're just trying to spin with absolutely no effort. Zone 2, also below LT1, but Zone 2 is anywhere just above active recovery where you're starting to work a little bit all the way to the point where you would hit that first threshold, that first lactate threshold, where right up to the point where you start accumulating lactic acid.

Yeah. This is a really important area and. And one that is just not given the kudos that high intensity training gets. Threshold training gets. Lactate training gets VO2 training gets. Zone 2 is the boring bloke who's the. Don't say accountant because we've got so many good accountants out there. Boring. But the. That generalization that accountancy is a boring job, but without them, we absolutely need them. And without zone two, you absolutely need that in your training program because it is key and the more you avoid it because it's so boring, the less aerobically fit you will be. The more aerobically fit you are, the better you'll be able to do the high intensity sessions. The threshold lactate, VO2, whatever you want to call it, it. So this is the building blocks zone, where you should spend quite a lot of your time in, you know, 60% of your time, 70%, 80% up to that, you know, this is the area where you should be spending your time in and. And all the way up to that LT1 marker. That's where you can be. And you don't have to be at the LT1. Exactly. Or 5% below it or 10% below it. There's no. It's up to you as to where you are in the week in your training, the block you're in, or your fitness level. Your fitness level is a real key indicator the season. Winter, summer, spring or autumn, you've got more ability to have a more enjoyable. If you're using a bike rider as an example, spring and summer, it's great to do zone two because the sun's out, even autumn, it's mild. But Zone 2 sucks in winter when it's freezing and you're not actually getting warm because you're not really. You're not really riding hard. So Zone two in winter is more a trainer session indoor. And you've got to be a little bit more creative in these sessions. And, and if you can. I'm talking indoor. If you can get on group rides, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of great group rides on Zwift, for example, where there's 100, 200 people in it, where you just got pressure on the pedals the whole time and you're just staying in that below LT1, it's brilliant training. And the longer you can do that, the more benefit your aerobic conditioning will improve. The adaptation you get from that session is going to just continually grow. And I just emphasize that you should be doing this as a runaround. As a rider and as a swimmer, you should be doing a lot of, a lot of long slow swimming so that your body can cope with, you know that if you're an ironman, you've got to cope with 4K. If you're half ironing at a cope with 2K. If you're an Olympic, you still got to cope with 1500. So you've got to be able to swim long distance and run long distance, marathon, half marathon, 10k and riding for up to 6 hours and 3 hours for half Ironman, etc. So there's lots of periods in your chosen event where you are going to be in zone two anyway. And for those who know how we coach, we don't want you in zone one in any of those races. But I'm just giving examples of how valuable Zone 2 is for races, for example, and for your fitness gains. So there's so many areas where it's just, it's just, you know, gold. And as a runner you can't experience the same time as you would as a rider because you just physically can't go for a two or three hour run as a zone two session because that would be basically your endurance session. So, so, you know, you can do two or three rides at zone two variations of zone up to LT1 throughout the week. You can do three of those if you wanted to. And, and two high intensity sessions that are above, you know, zone five, whatever. But, but, but you know, can't do that as a runner because it's exhausting to do, to do long, you know, one and a half hour runs at that. If you're a guy who's been doing marathons for 30 years, that's bread and butter to you. But I'm talking about people who are possibly new to the sport and haven't run much. So so many factors come into the time you spend as a runner in zone two.

Yeah.

So that's got to be clear.

Yeah. And let's think about the, the overall goal. What would be the best case scenario with your Zone 2 training? You said it before, it's basically the best case scenario would be outside of your high intensity sessions or your race specific sessions, which might be two to three sessions a week. Every session would be basically at the top end of zone two. That would be the gold standard of an athlete who has built their way up, has got such a good fitness base that they can do all their zone 2 training at that top end right below LT1, right below lactate threshold 1, and they can handle it that's the most important point is it doesn't affect their high intensity sessions, but they're going to be getting that aerobic gain and most people just aren't near that. They might have to start their Zone 2 training or their base training at the bottom end of zone two. So let's pretend you've done your FTP test and you end up getting a result where or you've done a proper lab tested test and you end up getting a result where your zone 2 is 60 to. I'm just going to approximate to 75% of your FTP. Like you were saying before, depending on your fitness level, you won't be able to handle certain intensities of that. So if you've got three Zone 2 rides to do throughout the week, you might only be able to handle them at, at 60% at the bottom end of that zone two, which is just above active recovery. The fitter you get, the more you can do those rides or runs at a higher percentage of that intensity. But then like you said, the volume comes into it in terms of running has to be less volume than the bike.

And there's so many variations with that. You know, you aspire because you want to grow your aerobic fitness to be as high as you can in that zone too. But it's not necessary. You. The minute you can't hit your wouldn't, shouldn't say important sessions, but the sessions that are going to improve your threshold numbers your engine, which is your high intensity sessions at VO2 and Threshold. The minute you can't do that because you're doing too much in zone two, then you have to pull back and you have to drop your intensity to lower than, you know, the bottom or the LT1 line. You've got to be miles away from it. So you've just got to let your body grow that and that's your goal is to, you know, and you just don't repeat that every week. There's some days where you've just had a hard session and you can't get anywhere near LT1. You need to be just above active recovery the next day. And then the next day, if you're having another zone two, you want to be right at LT1 and there's a difference in the one session we had that exact experience.

The last two weeks we've been doing some secret training on Zwift together on Wednesday mornings. Not so secret now that I'm announcing that the podcast, but we've been just doing some strength rides on Zwift because it's been crappy weather here. Getting into Alpa Zwift, Alpes on Zwift and having fun riding with each other. And last week I had a horrendous session on Tuesday, which was just brutally tough. And in the first five minutes of the Alpa Zwift climb, I just let you go because I just said I'm just not there today. It's supposed to be a Zone two ride for both of us. You, for various reasons, had changed yours more to a Zone three or Zone three or four that day. And I was trying to stick to Zone two and I was nowhere near achieving the top of it, which would have been trying to hang on with you. And so I had to just drop off, go right back and say, no, I'm at the bottom of this zone today. I'm just trying to keep my heart rate down. I'm exhausted. Whereas a week later I was a bit fresher after a bit of a lighter session on the Tuesday. And so I could go right up to the top of Zone two and cheekily went above it. But that's a real world example of within two weeks having two different scenarios.

Yeah. And I was the opposite to you the second week. I. I could not go with the power that I was holding the week before. And so that's okay. You need to understand and listen to your body and just because it gives you a range that might be between 50 and 75%. If you're not feeling it, then stay at 55%. If you feel like I've coped with the intensity session from yesterday and I've got another couple of days, go up to the LT1 line and hold yourself up there. So we've really spent a lot of time on this zone too. And because we want to emphasize that is really where you should be spending most of your training sessions, apart from.

Your hard sessions and understanding that I personally don't find it boring when you are getting to the top of that zone because you feel like you're riding really well and you're getting a really good fitness session without pushing yourself. And it's fun to kind of see your heart rate staying low for higher power than you've done in previous weeks, or, you know, if you're going for a run and you're running a faster pace than you have, but your heart rate's still the same, it shows that you're really getting fitter.

Yeah, that's a great tracker, isn't it? Riding or running higher intensity or pace. Get your heart Rate's same as it was for a lower power or pace. That's exciting. Yeah. When I say, you know, it's boring, I just want people to change their mindset. This is. This is the gold sessions. You should actually say, I can't wait for that. And why wouldn't you? It's not that hard, you know, like, I'm kind of fearful of the really hard sessions that am I going to actually be able to achieve it? And they're the ones that I'm sort of like, you know, I've got to really psych up for it. But the Zone 2 stuff, I can't wait to do that because it's enjoyable. I'm practicing my pedaling action. It's a whole lot of things. I'm trying to think about that making it not interesting. But I know that the reason I'm doing it is because it's going to make me a better athlete. That's why I'm. My mindset is basically around that. Jared, tell me what's going to make me a better athlete. All right, this session is right. I'm up for it. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do. If this is going to make me better, I'll do that session. And that's the mindset you should have. Doesn't matter whether it's 18 days in a row of active recovery. If that's going to be the best outcome for you, that's your mindset. You got to trust the process. It won't be the same every week, every month, every day block. That's the other thing we're trying to get across here.

And on that last note, using heart rate and just your general perceived feelings and perceived exertion is a really good indicator for Zone 2 as well. Because once again, you might be doing the same wattage as last week. You might have been trying to hit 220 watts, but your heart rate is 10 beats higher because you've had a hard session the day before because you had a crappy sleep, a whole bunch of things. And that is just a good indicator for you to use to maybe drop it back a little bit and say, no, I need to go back to the same heart rate last as I was last week, lower watts, because it's going to affect the rest of my week's hard, high intensity sessions. Moving on now. So we've. So we've covered zone one and two, which is below that. LT1. Now we're going to look at zone three and four, which is in between. LT1 and LT2 and zone three, we'll kind of breeze over this a little bit because we probably spend the absolute least amount of time in this zone. And that's the tempo zone, we call it tempo. And that's just above LT1 once you start accumulating some lactic acid, but not quite to the point of zone four, which is getting close to that sub threshold zone.

Yeah, it's a little bit of the lost area, isn't it? And look, in most Zone 2 rides if you end up doing them outdoors, you would creep into zone three because the hill might be too steep to get up. And that's okay for short periods. We don't want to have the intention that we're going to spend a lot of time in zone three. So. So it is okay to be in zone three. There's nothing wrong with that. But, but it's more likely that you would be in zone two. And actually you know, getting into zone three and some of those swift rides where I'm really looking closely at how much time I spending in each zone, it's quite, it's quite a shock when you think that you've spent a lot of time at, at just sub threshold which might be, you know, just under LT2 where it might be that sweet spot. Well, it's actually a fair bit of time in zone three and a little bit of time in zone two. So it's quite, it's got a little bit, you know. So a bunch ride that you do with your mates or on Zwift has got that zone 2, 3, 4 component where it's all under zone lactate 2 and in between LT1. So between LT1 and LT2, this, this zone 3 is kind of the lost soul. It's, it's, it gets used but it's not intentional. And that's the message I'm trying to get across.

Yeah, you can fall into it a bit. But one of the main times an athlete would use it is probably specifically for Ironman race day prep or even Half Ironman depending on your fitness ability. So we know that the race day ranges differ depending on your ability as an athlete. And that's where you know, one really high level athlete, their race specific day will be in a sub threshold zone, but another athlete will most likely they'll be spending the day either in the Half Ironman or Ironman in their tempo zone. So talk us through that kind of race specific.

Yeah, it's a little, it's a little bit of tricky one because the majority of your endurance ride could fall between 65 and 75% of your FTP, because that's, if you're an Ironman competitor as an everyday age grouper, that's, you know, you could be between 60 and 75% if you're a pointy end of the. We're talking about triathlon here, you know, just as an example. So. So you want to spend a lot of time in that, in training, but you're jumping out of Zone two into Zone three and possibly in a little bit in Zone four for that Ironman training outdoors. So they're the areas you want to spend all of your time because on race day you're going to be, we know, between 60 and 75% for up to six hours. So it's okay to be. And look, we're Talking about zone three is like 75 to 80% maybe of your percentage of your functional threshold power, whereas the sweet spot sub threshold, which is still under LT2 is somewhere between 88 and 96%. So you've got those two tempo areas, sub threshold areas, which we're going to get to in a minute with Zone four. But Zone three is sort of creeping in. As I said before, it's lost. It doesn't know. It's got a fair bit of sessions that you would do in training that have got Zone two in it and it's got Zone four in a Zone three session. So you've got, you're diving in above and below, but that's okay. And because more specific, it's not okay if it's not relevant to your event. If you're doing, for example, Peaks as a bike rider, it's really okay because you'll spend a long time in Zone three and in the training on your endurance rides, you will be in Zone three for lots of periods of time because Peaks is predominantly a hill climb endurance ride. So most of the people will ride every climb they do between 75 and 85% at peaks. And I've given the example as a triathlete, I'm giving you an example now of an endurance event for cycling. So when we coach people for Peaks, if they're going up. For those who know, Peaks is an Australian endurance Gran Fondo that's really popular. It's got three mountains. It's got Tooonga Gap, Mount Hotham and Falls Creek.

You wouldn't have to know it unless this is the first time listening to.

This podcast and, and we want to know what percentage we're going to ride at those climbs. So. So it's between 75 and 85% of your threshold. If you can sustain that between 30 minutes and two hours and, and not many people can hold 85% for two hours, you'd have to be at the pointy end. So it's more like you're going to hold 75%. So that's basically again zone two and zone three. So zone three, we're in there a lot but as a percentage over 100%. We're not in there a lot but it's in every session where you are in zone three for a period of time.

So the reason we're pointing it out is it becomes specific to people who will be spending race day in that. So whether that's a triathlete who is going to be spending as much time as possible in Zone three because they're not at the ability to stay in subthreshold. Their race specific sessions where they're really getting ready for the Ironman will be mix of zone two and zone three, same as Peaks. So it'd be a mix of zone two with zone three efforts in there. But that takes us to the next zone which is zone four, which is what we call sub threshold sweet spot. Anything up to LT2. And we really want to clarify here that this is our slight modification. A lot of of zones out there that use the five zone model would have this zone as sub threshold to just over threshold. So basically 90 to 105% and 105% means 5% over that 100 LT2.

We're definitely not doing that.

Yeah, we just, we do that for a reason to make it really clear that this zone 4 is still anywhere up to or just below LT2. But most likely in that it's. We call that sub threshold range.

Yeah, we don't want to go over LT2 in this session. So it's a sweet spot. It's everything under threshold and that can be possibly depending on your ability, 80% to 96% but the majority of times it'll be 85 to 94%. And guys who are in the Trivalo program do a lot of training in this area and it is unbelievably good for your overall and still contribute to aerobic fitness because you're actually, you're not. You can sustain it for a long period of time. We've got guys who can ride in this, in this area for 90k. You know in a triathlon they can do this as a time trial for 90K. They can hold their sub threshold number. You know, possibly they could do it for 120k if they were pushed.

That comes from training, right?

It does, yeah. So people who are having trouble holding this for 20 minutes or 30 minutes, you need a little bit more training in this area.

It's a really race specific zone, isn't it? And we do it in big blocks because you can handle it. So it's those race specific sessions where you're doing big 20 or 30 minute or 40 minute blocks in this sweet.

Spot zone and you have to build into this again, just like as a runner, you can't just straight away go into hill training. You have to do some stuff on the flat track to get your body fit enough to be able to absorb the load that's going to get from running on an angle. Uphill or downhill. Same thing, different, different foot plant is going to stress the muscles differently. So you can't just throw yourself into that, you're gonna get injured. So same with sub threshold. I can't tell you to go out and do one hour sub threshold. You know you're going to fade and end up being back in zone three. So the reason we do it in chunks is so that we get a recovery and then we can go back to where we, we want to be in the right zone. Yep. So, so it's something you need to build on. But you know, when you, when you build on that, you know whether it's a two by 20 minute effort, whether it's a two by 32 by 45, two by an hour, all of a sudden your, your fitness is going through the roof. If you can sustain that and then you come race day, it's, it's, you've just spent so much time in that area as a 70.3 athlete. That is, that is your go to training zone. And ignoring that because it is a hard one, it's not got you out.

Of breath, but it's just grueling.

But it is really hard to sustain. It's. You're getting a toothache in your legs.

It can be forgotten as well because you know there's so much benefit in doing high intensity sessions which really build your fitness and your engine. But come race day you need to be able to hold this. And so the only way to do that is with specific training, practice, practice.

The sessions that you're going to actually experience on race day. And I'm being very specific, I'm saying this is the area for the majority of 70.3 athletes, but there's still a minority who are sitting below that. You know, at 70.3 level. So some Olympic distance athletes are sitting in this area. You know, majority of the Olympic distance athletes are sitting between 90 and 100% of their FTP. But there's some Olympic distance athletes are still sitting between 80 and 90 and that's, that's where their level is. So one number doesn't fit everybody. So that's what we're trying to get across here. But this is an area and it's hard to fit all these training sessions into a program and you have to be very careful what your goal is and work backwards from Are you training for a criterium season? Are you training for the road race season? Are you training for a Gran Fondo, that is nine hours, Are you training for a Grand Fondo, that's six hours. So there's just an example as a cyclist, as a triathlete, are you training for Olympic half ironman or Ironman? So the event you select will determine the time that you spend in the zone zones we're talking about today. So get that, get that into your program. Based on what is my event and how much time is my event spent in zone 2, 3, 4 or 5 or even some the kilo on the track, it's all spent in zone six or seven or eight.

Even a criterium or one hour circuit, you're going to be sprinting in zone six at the end. So you need that power there.

So you need to have practiced that.

Yep. Moving on to the last two zones, zone five and six. So now we've, we have hit lactate threshold. We've hit our FTP at 100% and that is between zone four and five. And so zone five is now threshold and above and you start to get into some intensity. And once you cross that threshold line, lactic acid starts building. And then suddenly your, your time is limited. You will hit a dead point at some point. Depending on whether if you're riding at 101%, you might be able to hold it 50 minutes like we said. And if it's 105%, up to 108% or 10%, suddenly that time starts coming down. And yeah, this is where you can do some sessions at around that threshold zone to really practice that hurt. And just over. And that's where the high intensity sessions start to break down a little bit in terms of what length you go for.

Yeah, it gets real now, doesn't it? Now we're really training. But there's two valuable parts and components to training at your threshold or above. And so one is replicating some aspects of our race like we talked about with the other zones. And the second one is you will improve yourself as a bike rider or a runner or a swimmer if you spend time at threshold or above. They're the two main things we do it for because it's part of our race and we want to get better. So if we don't, if we don't race at all, that's fine. You don't have to do any high intensity session. You can just maintain an aerobic fitness level that you're happy with. But if you want to improve and you still don't race, the only way to improve is to incorporate some high intensity above your threshold, above LT2. So that is as simple as I can make this. And, and that's quite obvious. Yeah, but people avoid it because it's so damn hard. And I don't want to keep repeating high intensity sessions. I don't want to do a 20 minute FTP test because I'm fearful of the result. And I have, you know, my number might not be what I like, but don't forget it's a training session at threshold. That's actually one of the benefits of doing, not only finding your number, but it's an actual unbelievably good training session. You're training at threshold or slightly above. You know, you're putting yourself in a race situation which, which is the value of, of high intensity training. And eventually if you keep doing that enough, and I've done it to myself, I did it. I did a FTP test four weeks in a row, you know, a, to prove that, stop everybody else complaining that this. I don't want to do another test, but it was improving me as a threshold rider. But you know, from week one to week four, I went up 14 watts with all the other training in between. But the fact that I kept putting myself under the hammer doing a threshold session was actually improving me. So again, if the coach says this is going to make you better, don't question what session it is, embrace it. These sessions have got so much data around them that you can't actually make a mistake.

It's basically just this simple premise of you're putting your body under so much new stimulus, high intensity stimulus, that it's forced to adapt and respond strongly.

And yeah, the overload principle is at play here. And, and you know, you want to, you want to keep a tab on what you did. Say you're doing three Tuesdays in a row where the high intensity sessions put down in my program. You know, week one, I'm a little bit unsure where I sit in my threshold. Zone five, am I at the top or the middle or the bottom of zone five? And you know, the motivated athlete wants to be at the top right from the start. But that's not easy to do. And sometimes you might be accumulating fatigue over a period of two or three weeks in a training block. So what you can do in the first week after a recovery week might not be what you can do in the third week because you've accumulated so much fatigue, you're nowhere near it. Plus, the coach is probably overloading you with maybe 14 minutes of intensity to 16 to 18 minutes in week three. So therefore you can't expect to ride the power higher each week. So there's so many variables that could be thrown in. So your goal all the time is to ride, look at what you rode previous weeks or what you want to ride and then try and emulate that, equal it or improve on it. And that's where the overload comes in. So it is something that needs a great deal of preparation and thought about and understanding what you've done before for and what your capabilities are. And again, if you've, if you're asked to do 14 minutes and you ride so hard in that session that you, you are exhausted after eight, say we're asking you to do four by four, 16 minutes worth of training, four by four minute efforts and you do three of them and then you can't get the last one. You don't even get near the range. We've only actually done 12 minutes, so you're still better off dropping the power so you can get all four in 16 minutes worth and the 12. And then next week try to increase the power so you can get the overload in it. So you've got to think and plan and manage understanding what you've been doing and knowing what you're going to do in the next session based on how you're feeling on the day and what you've been doing previously with the numbers. So, so that is, you know, sure. I'm just doing the high intensity session. Don't even check what it is. I just follow the numbers on. Well, that's actually wasting the session. You should be across this with such preparation that have specific targets and you know yourself if you go to the running track. What did I do last time in my intervals? Was I 03:05 or was I 415? Great. That's what, that's my benchmark. Oh, God, I'M feeling a bit average. 415 is gonna be hard today. Now I'll try and match 415. If I can't, I'll just try and do 417 or 4 18. These are the things, if you're well prepared, you've got an idea of. Rather than just, oh, I don't even know what I did last week. It says between 4:15 and 4:30 pace and I'll start this week at 4:28. But then you check out what you did last week. You did all four 1k intervals at 4:15. Instantly. You haven't got the value out of the session.

Yeah. Everything you said just then applies to Zone 5 and 6. The lines between them are quite blurred. But the point is, anything above LT2 or FTP is intensity. And then depending on where you decide to go with that intensity kind of depicts the length of those intervals you're talking about. You know, the higher you go, the more it's going to be five by three minute efforts. And then the closer to FTP you go, the more you might be like a 3 by 8 minute effort, effort kind of session. But just to clarify them with words, because that's the goal of, you know, defining these, that zone six, that very top end, is what we'd refer to as VO2 max. It's like the very top. And so, and if you go on training peaks and you look at the. All the different training zones that you can choose, you can choose what are they, Andy Coggin and Joe Friel and.

Whatever training, and they'll come up with.

A bunch of different zones and some refer to Zone 5 than ABC because it's this point, it's. They're all quite merged. You know, zone A is just about that threshold. And zone, zone.

The time really decides where it is.

Yeah.

If. If you're asking yourself to ride flat out as hard as you can possibly go, it might last 30 seconds or a minute.

Yeah.

So that could be. That's zone eight.

Yeah.

You know, absolute anaerobic something. The time that you can't sustain it and you have a rest and you can go again and do that repeatedly, you know, so. So that's a whole session. You know, you might be able to do it for three minutes, but that it's only its own 5A because that's 110%. Whereas 30 seconds is. You're pushing 150% of your FTP.

So we just refer to it as Zone 5. Is that 100% to about 100, 810% because that's what we found people can actually handle for that almost up to what you say eight minute mark, right.

To that VO2 number.

Yeah. And then above that, it becomes what we call zone six, which is that VO2 session.

Yep. So. So the time is the actual thing that we want people to think about. So I'm going to be able to hold my threshold for anything between five and 20 minutes, you know, whether I'm at 100% or about 108 to 107%. If I'm at 107%, it's probably. Probably 10 minutes is going to be, you know, eight minutes is going to be where I can. If I'm going well, if I want to hold 101 or 102%, I can probably hold that for, you know, up to 30, 40 minutes if I really was well trained. So the lower you are to LT2, the longer you can hold it. The higher you go away from that number, the shorter the time period.

I think that's a good way to finish. That's all six zones explained. And. And, yeah, I think we said at the start that there's a lot of terminology in there, and we want to keep that stuff as simple as possible. And so we've spoken about a lot of different words here, but the message we were trying to get across is what each zone actually means. So we've got zone one and two, which is below that first threshold, then zone three and four, which is in between, and zone five and six, which is well above. And I think that's as simple as we can make it.

I can't add to that anymore because I'll just confuse the issue, and I think that's a really good foundation finishing point.

Once again, be sure to like this video wherever you are watching it or listening to it, and either subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram, or tag us from wherever you are listening around the world. We would love to see it. Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you next time. Sam.