Training Zones Explained: How to Use Zones 1–5 for Endurance Performance

There are five zones in the typical, like, I think there are different zone models.

Well, I think we need to make that distinction because there are certain models where you don't have five zones.

There's a three zone model where there's just low, moderate, and high.

If you look at the 80-20 model that was expanded upon by Matt Fitzgerald in his book, I think there's like seven zones.

There's some intermediates.

There's like One through four, and there's an X and Y that's in there as well.

So it's really kind of a challenging model to look at and to understand and implement for that matter.

But if you look inside TrainingPeaks and you can find all the different models that TrainingPeaks uses to define your aerobic zones.

And however you choose to define those zones, whether it's on heart rate, whether it's power, pace, or what have you, I know that for me and my coaching, my coached athletes, we use the five zone model.

I think it's just, it's more intuitive.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with the other ones.

It's just to me, it just fits in the puzzle better.

And I think it's easier to understand and anticipate.

Katie, what do you use for some of your athletes and what do you use in your training? What kind of model?

Because I think it's more intuitive and it kind of gets at more the science in terms of, I mean, yeah, I mean, maybe, I don't know, there could be like some sub zones or something confusing.

But we don't want to, I don't want to overcomplicate it.

I think it gets a little bit either too simplified with only three or four zones or like over complicated what you're saying with like Matt Fitzgerald.

Gerald's zones I think five zones makes it easy to understand and I think they're pretty easy to like generally fairly easy to delineate I think that's what I meant to say and I also want to say like this is the thing I just want to mention is that it's kind of I think we think of zones and there's like a hard, fast, like you're going from this zone to this zone.

And our body doesn't really think like that physiologically.

It's just a little bit more fluid than that.

You can kind of go in between zones and things, depending on other circumstances outside of our control, like heat or if we're going up a hill, things change.

And it's not as though...

It's like I'm one point above this like pre-calculated number that I came up with for zone two.

And now I'm in zone three and I'm in some danger zone or something.

It's like it's our body doesn't that's just how it works.