How to Set Accurate Training Zones

By Coach Brendon

(Note: this article is a bit technical if you are not a technically minded person contact me for heart rate training information: brendon@endurancecoach.com)

Got yourself a heart rate monitor? Got any idea about what heart rate zones to use? Ok now what do you do about spending the right amount of time in your zones, read on!

There are 4 points of reference that you as an athlete can find. They are resting heart rate, maximal heart rate, aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold. Sport Scientists and Coaches from different sports call these things by different names and also have different options for determining these exact points, however I will provide some simple options to determine these and then how to set zones. Please feel free to use another option to determine yours.

Knowing your true resting and true maximal heart rates allows you to calculate intensity as a % of heart rate range. You might have a resting of 40 and a maximum of 140. When you are working at a heart rate of 105 you would be at 75% of your maximum heart rate range. Another athlete might have a resting of 60 and a maximum of 210. Then a heart rate of 105 is 37% of your heart rate range (and obviously not very hard!).

Determining True Resting Heart Rate

This is best achieved by taking your resting heart rate for a full minute early in the day while lying down. Do this after a good nights sleep. Don't try and take your resting heart rate the day after completing a Marathon, it's better to take it on the morning after a rest day or a day of light training or two. Also some athletes find that they get a lower heart rate if they get up and go to the toilet and then lie back down and count (including me).

Determining Sport Specific Maximal Heart Rate

This can be the hardest of the 4 key points to determine. I recommend a solid warm up and then a hard effort for 5 minutes followed by 2 minutes all out. Note if you have fatigued muscles you will be limited by these and won't push you heart to anywhere near your maximum. You should also consider getting a medical clearance if you are unaccustomed to vigorous exercise.

Determining Aerobic Threshold
(minimum threshold for a training effect)

Very basic quick method: By knowing your maximum and you resting heart rates about 1/2 way will be a reasonable approximate. For example resting of 40, maximum of 140, aerobic threshold will be about 90BPM.

There are a couple of more accurate lab options, including a lactate test and a conconi test. Anyone can do these but you are going to need the right equipment and a helper, so I recommend that you have someone who knows what they are doing help out. Determining these lower thresholds from tests can be difficult.

Determining Anaerobic Threshold
(a point above which you would only do a small amount of training)

This is generally the most important point to know about. Generally sports competition is close to this level. There are 4 options for you to use.

Conconi Test
A simple test where you run at increasing paces for short blocks at the track. Typically a set of progressively harder stages (say 8-10x200m where the 6-7th one is at 10km pace). By plotting the curve you will be able to see where heart rate does not increase at the same rate. This is the anaerobic threshold. You can also do this for other sports like cycling and swimming.

Lactate Test
The Gold standard for determining the anaerobic threshold. By competing blocks of known distance at increasing intensity such as 1000m at the track and recording heart rate and taking blood lactate samples at the end of each effort you can find the anaerobic threshold. This requires the athlete to be fresh and you will need either a lactate kit and someone trained to do the test or you need to get a sport scientist or knowledgeable coach to undertake the test for you. As with most testing this is best done after an easy day of training, preferably after a day off. I remember testing Matt Brick (world duathlon champion) one time and we had him absolutely hammering and couldn't get his lactate up, turned out he was very carbohydrate depleted from some hard training in the previous few days. The advantage of this type of testing is that it is very sport specific and you can do it as a field test (ie on the track rather than on a treadmill) and the results are more likely going to transfer to training in the real word. The disadvantage is that there is a charge for the consumables for the test and you need access to a lactate kit.

TT Test
The time trial test to determine anaerobic offers the advantage of actual real world performance as apposed to lab heart rates, which can be different. However you have to go hard for an extended period and this is going to have an impact on your training programme. If you (or your coach) are smart than you will be able to programme this in without too much disruption to training. Generally you need to TT for around 30-60 minutes depending on sport and experience.

Recording Racing
If you have some races planned, you can use these to help set correct intensity. 10km, 15km and 1/2 marathons running will provide the best information. Set your heart rate monitor to record and go! Anaerobic threshold will be similar to average heart rate in a 1/2 marathon, a little lower than a 15km race and about 10 beats lower than a 10km race. Easily done with a Polar 610, or 410.

Now that you have determined the above reference points you can set your training zones.

I like to use zones as described by Dr John Hellemans that is Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard and Very Hard as all athletes and coaches can relate to that (rather than the E1, E2 or what ever is the latest terminology that some sport scientist has come up with).

I split training into these 6 zones in the following way:
Very Very Hard = From your Maximum down to Halfway between your maximum and your anaerobic threshold

Very Hard = Halfway between your maximum and your anaerobic threshold to your anaerobic threshold

Hard = Upper 1/3 of zone between anaerobic threshold and aerobic threshold

Moderate = middle 1/3 of zone between anaerobic threshold and aerobic threshold

Easy = lower 1/3 of zone between anaerobic threshold and aerobic threshold

Very Easy = below aerobic threshold

How to determine amount of time to spend in a training zone

This is the hardest part about getting your training right. The key is determining what intensities are closest to your competition speed(s). If you set really accurate training zones and screw this up you might as well not have bothered. We can set some points to break intensity into zones and these may vary between individuals so getting the amounts of training in each zone is the hard part. Discuss this with experienced athletes and coaches in your sport. It is difficult to go past an experienced coach. Having a method of recording what worked and what didn't is really important as well as that is going to help you refine your training from year to year.

My suggestion is determine what you think you can to do in the speed phase right before competition, be realistic. Obviously whatever zone racing speed falls in is going to be the predominant intensity that you need. For example for Ironman you are going to race in the Moderate zone. So you might have a big week including 30km of moderate intensity running (10km in one run and 20km in another). How long you have been training, what your goals are, and your ability will impact on what you can handle. If you are not sure take a slightly more conservative approach, being a little underdone is always better than being a little overdone!

For help with getting the right amount of training in your correct zones contact the endurancecoach.com team.

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Posted: November 15, 2004