How Fit Can You Get If You Only Trained In Zone 2

Everyone is talking about Zone 2 training right now to get fitter and faster without having to ride hard, it sounds great but really how effective is it to find out that I'm going to become a pig? human indies? This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to start with a basic fitness test of not having ridden too much recently and I'm going to train in

zone

2 and

only

Zone 2 for the next six weeks to see if my Anor Robic Zone 2 Fitness improves two to see if my FTP improves and three to see if my aerobic capacity improves.

It's a lot to ask of little Zone 2, but will it live up to the hype? Let's find out before we start this experiment I have. First I need some work to do. I need to establish my current fitness levels and most importantly find out what my

zone

2 is so I know how hard I am going to train. How am I going to do it right? I'm going to play sports. science lab to get the most accurate results you can. Much has been said about how to find your Zone 2 and it's worth noting that I couldn't find my zone 2 with heart rate and power alone, but if I don't have access to a sports science lab, there are some pretty good methods. precise ones we've covered in a previous video, so if you want to find your Zone 2, check it out, but after you finish watching this video, once I've established my zone 2 I'm going to need a training plan, a very monotonous one, but I thought I would need some professional advice on this to make sure I was doing enough to make a difference, so I got in touch.

With my old coach to see if he would be willing to help me and he was and he is very used to working with very professional athletes who are world and Olympic champions. I let him know that I was much slower and much less. fitter than before and he was still interested in working with us, so he's great, but now let's go to the lab to do some tests. This is the University of Bath, home to a host of the UK's best athletes, as well as a few thousand. students, lab head Jonathan Robinson is a familiar face from Die Hard, gcn viewers and today we'll be testing myself with my Paces.

We will do a gradual ramp test, increasing the intensity gradually every 1 minute to get an accurate measure of how my body is responding to the exertion levels. We will also be doing a step test where the power will be increased by 20W every 4 minutes to find my zone two we are looking for the intensity where my blood lactate starts to increase along with my breathing rate as well, he will also analyze the ratio of carbon dioxide in my breath, which will also tell him when my body is changing metabolic gears, so I've done a little warm up and we're going to go straight into the step test and Jonathan said it's not going to hurt too much yeah let's do it so what's Zone 2?

The theory says that it is the optimal intensity of exercise to simulate your microchondrules and essentially convert the food you eat into energy, the more microchondrules move elsewhere. However, if you improve your mitochondrial function, you not

only

improve your Zone 2 level but, in theory, you can perform better at higher intensity because your body is more efficient, so in theory, Zone 2 training could also help increase my FTP like me. you were dribbling there, how did it feel? Yeah, it's not that bad. It got a little spicy towards the end, but overall it's true. I think how do you feel about the ramp test?

Yeah, I got scared, so it was a good warm-up, but I know the ramp. The test is going to hurt a lot, oh my god, so the next step is the ramp test, which is going to hurt a lot. Am I ready for this? No, but let's keep going anyway, let's see how far I can go. Come in, remember, yeah, with the same force, but I'm like 10 times more incapacitated than the last time I did one, which is not good for morale, but you know, at the end of these six weeks, fingers crossed, I want I mean, it's still going to hurt, right? but hopefully I'll be a babysitter so I can get my test results.

All that's left to do now is send them to Coach Lawrence in Complete Athlete so he can take a look at them and set my training for the next six weeks. Lawrence, first of all, would you ever recommend Zone for training for six weeks to any of your athletes? Probably the only time I would use it would be if someone was really struggling with their ability to ride as usual, if I wanted someone to ride harder and fairer. more hours a week, so I've used it with a Pro Rider before, where we only did six weeks of low intensity just to build capacity, but generally no, there are other intensities that are really important and six weeks is enough.

It's time to really see a difference. I think from your starting point, man, absolutely fine. I think if someone was really well

trained

and someone had been riding really frequently, you know, you've been training a lot recently, you know you're going to see something big. There are changes in this area, but by starting from a lower point, I think you will see some good gains in six weeks, yes, and then moving on to my test results, I'm not sure I'm ready for this, but first of all , give me an idea. of what my zone two is, so your zone two for you is somewhere around um probably something like 120 to 140 Watts something like that um heart rate um something like 135 to 150 five um how are you if you're using hard weird too? so it's not a big power number and it's actually not a big percentage of your maximum intensity, just like your profile is your zone two, it's up to the lactate threshold, that first point where the lactate curve breaks and you see that. on the graph in your report and that actually occurs at a fairly low percentage of your aerobic capacity of your V2 Max or V2 Peak and when I'm training in my zone, is it more important to focus on power or heart rate, yes, it is very important to use that combination.

The problem is that when we talk about a kind of lactate threshold and that first change in the blood lactate curve, we tend to call it a precise number and we have it in your report, but in reality it occurs in a much broader transition and in a much wider band than we think and obviously when you get tired things in your physiology change and you can go into zone three before you know it so heart rate is a really good guide obviously It's still influenced by things. like heat and hydration, which is where you also have to combine PR, but what's really nice about heart rate is that as you get in shape and in six weeks you'll be in shape, what you need to find is that let's say that If you train at 145 beats per minute or 145 to 150, your power should gradually increase over the 6 weeks, that way, by using heart rate and speed from the 6 to 20 bard scale, you will ensure that you are in the same type. of perceived exertion, the same heart rate response, um, for an increase in power as you get fitter, so that's a little bit of a better guide than just relying on power and then moving on to my training, does it?

What will my training be like for the next six weeks? Are you just going to run for hours on the same power and same heart rate zone two workout? So I think what happens with this idea of ​​zone two training is that it's below the late threshold, it's stable, but within there there's still a big difference in training intensity, so it's about finding that balance between duration and intensity. How many hours a week am I watching to start? I think you started somewhere, you know, four to six hours in the first part, that's pretty good and then gradually build up, oh, thank you very much.

I'm looking forward to receiving my training plan and will catch up with you in three weeks at the halfway point to see how my training is going. Mega good luck with that, thanks. Alright, I have my zone 2 and I have my training plan for the next six weeks. All that's left to do is ride in zone two and only zone two, but if you want to keep up with all the training I'm doing, be sure to head over to straa to give me a follow where I'll log all my rides and do some of my indoor rides also on zwift and yes You would love to come ride with me and join me.

Head to the gcn club where we are going to set up some rides where you can come and join me but all I have to do now is train but let me. In the comments section you know what you think will happen in 6 weeks. Will I get in shape? Who knows?