Why Zone 1 and Zone 2 work-outs. This is basically a prep period for your body to get ready for what is ahead of us. We need to develop our systems so they can work for a longer period of time and still supply oxygen to our muscles. We also need to prepare ourselves for the training that is coming as we move into the build and race periods of our training. If you do not build a base you will be in great danger of burning out and or injuring yourself.
CrossFit teaches the body to handle high lactate levels very well. It does not do a great job of creating an aerobic animal. Don't get me wrong Anaerobic training will help your endurance events. But only if you learn to pace yourself.
HR issues. So those of you who "can't" keep your heart rates down, due to medications, or just not being able to slow down. I have a couple options. I plan longer runs for you where you will eventually crash and burn... Or you switch to RPE(rate of perceived exertion) scaling. Also for running I think the scale on TrainingPeaks is too low... So I will be switching that up a bit as well.
RPE scale...
- 6 - 20% effort
- 7 - 30% effort - Very, very light (Rest)
- 8 - 40% effort
- 9 - 50% effort - Very light - gentle walking
- 10 - 55% effort
- 11 - 60% effort - Fairly light
- 12 - 65% effort
- 13 - 70% effort - Somewhat hard - steady pace
- 14 - 75% effort
- 15 - 80% effort - Hard
- 16 - 85% effort
- 17 - 90% effort - Very hard
- 18 - 95% effort
- 19 - 100% effort - Very, very hard
- 20 - Exhaustion
If Lactate Threshold at HR of 163.
Zone 1- Hr = 122-143 Recovery
Zone 2- Hr = 144-153 Aerobic Extensive easy/mod
Zone 3- Hr = 154-158 Aerobic Intensive Moderate
Zone 4- Hr = 159-165 Threshold Mod/hard
Zone 5- Hr = 166-170 Very Hard
Zone 6- Hr = 171-195 All out effort.
At the end of and during most build period work-outs you should feel like you have more to give. You should feel like you could perhaps run at this pace forever... You should feel like you are not being challenged. This is a very different feeling then when you are crossfitting. If you are feeling like you are working hard or you are struggling to finish the work-out you are at risk for frying yourself. Most of you are at week 3-4 of a 12 week build. That means you are at the lower end of your training volume. You need to take it easy or you will not survive until week 12.
Questions? Comments?
Thanks All
Coach JG
JG finishing Trinona Sprint on about 10 hours of total tri training... CrossFit!
I'm glad I read this again. My zones are different on my Training Peaks page. This one makes more sense, and is a little less frustrating. (trying to keep my heart rate under 80 bpm running is not possible)
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting :)