- Welcome back to Triathlon Training Explained,
powered by TrainingPeaks.
Now, today, I'm going to explain the best way
to work out your zones for running by using heart rate.
Now, heart rate measurement has been used as an aid
to tailor our running training for years now,
and if you are heading out for a run,
the effort at which you're working at can be broken down
into what we call zones,
which can be a really useful training tool
for both athletes and coaches.
Now, we have actually already, here on GTN,
explained how you can use these zones
for your own training for running,
but today we're going to be actually looking at
how you can calculate those zones in the first place.
(upbeat music)
Right then, there are an array of different methods
for calculating these heart rate zones for running.
Some are really simple and easy to perform,
but as a result, give us very little in the way
of accuracy in numbers.
Whereas on the other end of the spectrum,
we could say head to a lab and get some very accurate
and detailed results but it may also cost you a fair bit
of money and time.
However, one thing that these do all have in common
is effort.
This is going to require a fair bit of hard work
and temporary physical discomfort,
despite the length of the test
or the style of the test that you're performing.
Oh and I should probably add one more thing,
if you are hoping to get your heart rate zones for cycling,
well, you're going to have to perform a completely
separate test for that just due to the differing effort
to heart rate ratio that we get going from run to bike,
sorry. (mellow music)
Well the test that we've chosen sits somewhere
in the middle on that time and accuracy scale.
Now, obviously we can't all head to a lab,
but we still want it to chuck out fairly good
and accurate results that we can calculate
our heart rate zones from.
Now, in terms of how we're going to do all of this,
well, you want to arrive feeling fresh and ready to go,
so the day prior to the test,
just make sure it's a nice, light day of training
so that you're not arriving too tired.
Also just be wary that general life stresses,
poor diet and even lots of travel
can all influence and impact those test results.
Also, the terrain that you're doing it on,
you want it to be a fairly smooth and flat terrain,
and allows you to cover somewhere around eight kilometers.
Now, that can be out and backs, it could be loops,
whatever you like.
But that is a slight giveaway, yeah,
because the test that we're doing is 30 minutes
of your sustainable, maximal effort over that duration.
Equipment wise, you are unsurprisingly going to need
an accurate heart rate monitor.
Now, for this test I would recommend using a chest strap
like this one, which will record your ECG.
You're also going to want a watch that will record the data
from that heart rate monitor on to,
and ideally that watch also to record your pace
because we're going to need that pace later on in this video
for some further calculations.
Now, the test itself is what we call
a lactate threshold heart rate test.
Now, this determines, in theory,
the heart rate that you can sustain over a 60 minute period.
But don't worry because we're not heading out
to do a 60 minute all-out effort,
because as I mentioned earlier, we are doing 30 minutes,
but that does still require you to be
thoroughly warmed up for.
Almost treat it as if it was a race,
so head out for 15 to 20 minutes just a steady jog,
and if you like, include some ability work,
some drills, some strides, whatever you're used to
that's going to get you thoroughly, physically ready,
and also mentally ready for the 30 minutes ahead of you.
Although, I am going to throw a slight curve ball in here now
because we're going to forget about the first 10 minutes
of the 30 minute test.
Why, well, if you've used heart rate before,
I'm sure you're well used to the slight lag
that you can experience with it.
If, say, you were to head out for a hard run,
it would actually take your heart rate a little bit of time
to reflect the effort that you're putting in
as your body's taking time to react to the demands
that you're putting it on.
So to mitigate this we're going to forget
about the first 10 minutes
and we're going to focus on the final 20 minutes
once the heart rate is up,
as we then go on to calculate our heart rate zones.
But that doesn't mean that you can just use
that first 10 minutes as a nice steady warmup,
it's important that you work hard
throughout the full 30 minutes.
So when you head out for the run,
hit start at the beginning of the 30 minutes,
then as you cross that 10 minute barrier,
hit the lap button and then hit finish
at the end of the 30 minutes.
This will just make analyzing the results really simple
for that 20 minutes,
all whilst keeping it as one complete run.
Pacing wise, well, this is really important.
You want to make sure that you maintain the same pace
or very close to the same pace for the whole test duration.
If your pace varies too much,
say more than 10% over the 30 minutes,
then you're at risk of the results
just not being reliable enough,
or even valid for you.
But if you do struggle with this do just give it time.
As you do more of these tests you'll learn
to gage your effort over the 30 minutes as you go on.
Now, you may be wondering why we've
chosen the 30 minute test when there's loads
of other tests out there of differing durations,
but the reason being that it's manageable
and easy to repeat.
But, and there's a big but now,
you must do the test alone, in training,
without any other training partners, why?
Well, when you do these runs with other people
or in a race scenario,
you just manage to work harder than ever before.
I don't know why but you just do.
Whereas the 30 minute solo test
should reflect what you might be able to produce when pushed
in a 60 minute, all-out race situation.
(mellow music)
Okay, so once you're done with your test,
which hopefully has gone well,
your watch should automatically be able to produce
your average heart rate for that final 20-minute lap
or block of that overall 30 minutes,
and that is your lactate threshold heart rate,
or otherwise known as threshold heart rate.
Now, there are several online calculators
that can help you with this next bit,
but one thing you really need to make sure that you do
is specify that it is for running.
As we mentioned earlier, the numbers for cycling,
running and even swimming do differ a little bit
from one to the other.
If you're using TrainingPeaks, however,
this will actually automatically detect a new
threshold heart rate and then automatically create
your new zones from that,
but if, for whatever reason, you want to
input your new threshold heart rate manually,
you can do so.
If you don't know your resting heart rate
or your maximum heart rate
then just leave those fields blank
and it will still calculate those zones for you.
But if, for whatever reason, you do not fancy using
one of these online calculators or TrainingPeaks
then you can work them out by doing a little bit of maths
and getting those numbers,
but I hope you're good at percentages.
So we have zone one, less than 85%
of your lactate threshold heart rate.
Zone two, which is between 85% to 89%
of your lactate threshold heart rate.
Zone three, which is between 90% to 94%
of your lactate threshold heart rate.
Zone four, 95% to 99% of your lactate threshold heart rate.
Then we have zone five A, which is 100% to 102%.
Zone five B, which is 103% to 106%,
and then finally, zone five C, which is more than 106%
of your lactate threshold heart rate.
Right, so once you have your running heart rate zones
you can now head out for a run, look at your watch,
and see what zone you're in at any given time,
or you can even get it to, on some watches,
alert you when you step outside of that required zone
during a session.
As I mentioned earlier heart rate does have
some slight limitations in terms of that lag effect
and where it's trying to catch up with itself,
so one work around to this,
or at least to try and compliment this,
is actually having pace zones.
To calculate these we need your functional threshold pace,
which is actually your average pace
from the full 30 minute run test, which again,
is another reason why you should try to maintain a good,
even pace throughout the whole 30 minutes.
Once you have that number, or once you've done that run,
actually using TrainingPeaks will automatically
create and calculate your zones from that number,
or, again, you can input that manually,
or use an online calculator,
again making sure you specify running.
But, finally, you could also just go the good
old-fashioned method and do some maths with the percentages.
So, zone one, which is slower than 129%
of your functional threshold pace.
Zone two, between 114% to 129%.
Zone 3, 106% to 113%.
Zone four, 99% to 105%.
Zone five A, 97% to 100%.
Zone five B, 90% to 96%, and finally zone five C,
which is faster than 90% of your FTP.
As I mentioned already, we have already covered
in a previous video, in quite some depth,
how to use these numbers and zones
to optimize your own training.
Both heart rate and pace have their place
within your training.
I like to think they actually really compliment each other.
I definitely check both during all my run sessions.
Pace probably comes a little bit more into play
during those shorter intervals where, I guess,
heart rate takes a little bit longer to react, so to speak,
whereas heart rate comes into play during those longer reps,
maybe over hilly reps,
so you can really check what zone you're in
and making sure that you're staying
in the right effort level.
Now, I know this test is tough,
but the more consistent you are,
and the harder you work during it,
then the more accurate these zones are going to be for you,
and also then making sure that you're training
more efficiently and progressing at a quicker rate,
which leads me on to retesting
because if you are training to these zones effectively
then you are going to need to retest every four to six weeks
to make sure that you are in the correct zone
for those training sessions.
Now, if you do like this video,
please do hit that thumbs up button,
and if you'd like to see more from GTN just click that globe
and if you'd like to see our how to run using zones
then you click down here.
If you'd like to see how to train with power on the bike
then just click down here.