Aerobic Threshold, HR Zones, etc...

Carl Carlson - 2007-01-16 7:56 AM Hi everyone, I was debating whether or not to start a new thread or continue my other one... I opted to start a new one because it's slightly off-topic from my original (which is here). Anyhoo... There's lots of talk about the various HR zones and Aerobic Threshold, Lactate Threshold, etc. From some of my research, it seems it's more or less in everyone's best interest to do a majority of their training at or below their Aerobic Threshold to build the ever so important aerobic base. After reading various articles and applying that to my training, it seems one's aerobic threshold typically falls at the top of Friel's HR Zone 1. One way to gauge this is the point during exercise where you typically start to breathe a little deeper. For me that happens right around 150bpm, which is the top-end of my HR Zone 1, so that makes sense. Now, I've also heard some buzz about doing a bulk of the training in HR Zone 2 (one thread that comes to mine is the "cult of kicking a$$" thread with a ton of Z1/Z2 training success stories). Going by Friel's HR zones, this is slightly above the aerobic threshold, in my case it tops out ~10 bpm higher. Now, as a type-A person who can easily get caught up in the numbers I'm asking myself, which is better? Does it make more sense to train at/below AeT? Or is bumping my HR up to Zone 2 more efficient and yield better results? What's the difference? Are there different benefits to training in either zone (above or below AeT)? Am I making any sense? It's really easy to get wrapped around the axle with all this and the truth of the matter is, I can still go out and run and benefit either way... but this is something that I've been wondering about, especially over the past few days.

mikericci - 2007-01-16 3:06 PM

Carl - good thoughts and I am glad you did some reading as you have some very good questions. As a beginner - Zone 1, day after day, is all you need to improve. Once you feel as though you are kind of plateauing you can add in some Zone 2 - that's the way I usually work it. For most experienced athletes the mid to top of Z2 is aerobic threshold whereas for a beginner the Aerobic threshold might be in Zone 1.

So if you want to test your self - warm up in Z1, then run 10-12 minutes in Z2 - recover, repeat. Next time out try 12-15 minutes and so on. You'll know the next day if you went too hard. ;-)

Carl Carlson - 2007-01-16 12:46 PM Mike, thanks for the response. Looking back at my logs since October I thought I'd been making good progress. As it turns out, my min/mile pace (for Z1) has dropped a little bit (~20 secs maybe?). I guess the biggest difference I've noticed is that I'm able to stay in Z1 and hold a steady pace over longer distances now. Initially my min/mile pace would increase after a couple miles, but now I can hold that pace and zone even towards the end of my long runs. It sounds like now might be a good time to start working at Z2 and see how that feels. Oh, I also read the article on your site about bike and run pacing as it relates to the various HR zones and aerobic threshold - definitely a good read. That just confirms what I've recently come to realize (I've been doing all my runs in Z1). I'm kind of excited to see how I manage in Z2 now.