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Zone 2 Training (running)
Posted on 8/23/24 at 12:07 pm
Posted on 8/23/24 at 12:07 pm
Ive been doing some research and have become extremely interested in the whole concept behind zone 2 training. Through my exercise career I've always took the approach of going balls to the wall (most likely zone 4-5) and have seen pretty significant progress.
Has anyone here tried the zone 2 training and can speak to its success? I'm pretty sure if I tried to stay in zone 2 during a run have to be running 9-10 minute miles when otherwise I run mid 7 minute miles. Do you have to endure the slow boring runs for a while before your heart catches up with the pace?
Has anyone here tried the zone 2 training and can speak to its success? I'm pretty sure if I tried to stay in zone 2 during a run have to be running 9-10 minute miles when otherwise I run mid 7 minute miles. Do you have to endure the slow boring runs for a while before your heart catches up with the pace?
8
Posted on 8/23/24 at 1:36 pm to Yeahbuddy35
Of course, though "zone 2" is just a new branding term for what elite runners have done for at least the last 65 years. Arthur Lydiard is widely credited as one of the first coaches to have his runners do a lot of aerobic base training before ever doing any speedwork. His guys from New Zealand won gold medals in the 1960 and 64 olympics. He then went to Finland and built their guys into gold medalists.
This post was edited on 8/23/24 at 1:38 pm
Posted on 8/23/24 at 1:53 pm to Yeahbuddy35
quote:
Do you have to endure the slow boring runs for a while before your heart catches up with the pace?
You need to mix it up. Long run days should be Zone 2 and even recovery runs can fall into that mix. Most of summer training before cross country season is building mileage, adding some intermittent speed training, and a little bit of low distance/high interval speed training. If you've been trying Zone 4/5, you'll just need to get your lungs adjusted to the longer distances. Here's an example of what our college weeks looked like:
Monday: 45min - 60 min run, high intensity speed workout/time trial
Tuesday - 60 min - 75 min run, weight training
Wednesday - fartlek/tempo run, interval workout
Thursday - 60 min - 75 min run, weight training
Friday - easy/shakeout day, slow long run if needed
Saturday - race day/time trial, long run or short workout (post race)
Sunday - long run at least 75 min - 90 min
I went through 5 coaches in my final 7 years of competitive running, but they all somewhat follow that variation of training. If you look at Runner's World I believe they have training plans available to look up.
Posted on 8/23/24 at 3:11 pm to Yeahbuddy35
Ive heard it described like building a pyramid. Zone 2 is the foundation and decides how big the base footprint of the pyramid is. Vo2 max and high heartrate training is how tall it is. So you can increase the total volume of the pyramid (your fitness) either way, but its good to do both.
Im not a doctor, but from what i understand vo2 max is how efficiently and quickly your heart can pump oxygen to your muscles to be used, doing those high max heartrate workouts works your heart to be more efficient and quicker. Zone 2 training increases the volume of oxygen/blood with each pump.
Zone 2 is also good for recovery, you can do it consistently almost every day, and its harder to get injured doing zone 2. Most people need to go way slower than they think for zone 2 (conversational pace). Zone 2 tends to use fat for fuel as opposed to muscle or liver glycogen (think carbs) which is used for fuel in anaerobic exercise (high intensity). Phil Maffetone is kind of the godfather of this training all the way back to the late 70s. I would start listening to his podcast interviews.
I have been skewing more towards zone 2 in 70-80% of my runs.
Im not a doctor, but from what i understand vo2 max is how efficiently and quickly your heart can pump oxygen to your muscles to be used, doing those high max heartrate workouts works your heart to be more efficient and quicker. Zone 2 training increases the volume of oxygen/blood with each pump.
Zone 2 is also good for recovery, you can do it consistently almost every day, and its harder to get injured doing zone 2. Most people need to go way slower than they think for zone 2 (conversational pace). Zone 2 tends to use fat for fuel as opposed to muscle or liver glycogen (think carbs) which is used for fuel in anaerobic exercise (high intensity). Phil Maffetone is kind of the godfather of this training all the way back to the late 70s. I would start listening to his podcast interviews.
I have been skewing more towards zone 2 in 70-80% of my runs.
Posted on 8/23/24 at 7:43 pm to Yeahbuddy35
I don't have any advice but I'm in the same boat. Always just gone out and run hard but am trying to mix in some of these slow "Zone 2" runs. It seems counter intuitive to me but I'm going to stick with it for a few months as best I can. I always get restless though and end up running at least like 1/2 mile at near race pace somewhere in the run just to make sure I can.
I'm just going for 5ks and my current weekly plan is something like
Two 5-6 mile "slow" runs.
Two 3.1 mile thresholdish runs.
Two days of speed work (fartleks, 400s, 800s, hill sprints etc...)
I'm just going for 5ks and my current weekly plan is something like
Two 5-6 mile "slow" runs.
Two 3.1 mile thresholdish runs.
Two days of speed work (fartleks, 400s, 800s, hill sprints etc...)
This post was edited on 8/23/24 at 7:47 pm
Posted on 8/24/24 at 6:01 am to Yeahbuddy35
Posted on 8/28/24 at 7:46 am to Yeahbuddy35
Takes 2 months of steady activity to start to see the effects. Beginning is dreadfully slow, but pace increases without you realizing it.
Posted on 8/28/24 at 8:33 am to Yeahbuddy35
quote:
Do you have to endure the slow boring runs for a while before your heart catches up with the pace?
Yes. It is much harder to run slow than it is to run fast. My hardest run is my long run on Sat AM. I have to watch as anywhere from 20-100 people in my run group leave me in the dust. My current zone 2 pace in this heat and Birmingham's hills is around 12:20/mile. My hope is that once it gets cold that my zone 2 pace will go down into the 9/mile range.
I get a VO2 test yearly. Part of the breakdown from my test are my heart rate zones. Heart rate zones, a good run watch, and a good HR strap takes all the guess work out of zone 2 training.
Posted on 8/28/24 at 9:25 am to RandySavage
I have the same issue. I found that if I ride the bike around then I can stay in zone 2. If I run its all or nothing.
Posted on 8/28/24 at 11:28 am to Yeahbuddy35
I ran 3 miles in Zone 2 on Monday. 11 minute miles - definitely took some getting used to. I honestly just couldn't take that pace for much longer. It was less power, but seemed like more pounding on my legs.
Is this type of training mostly for people trying to lose weight? Or will this benefit my splits when I want to run faster?
Is this type of training mostly for people trying to lose weight? Or will this benefit my splits when I want to run faster?
Posted on 8/28/24 at 12:07 pm to lsugerberbaby
quote:
Is this type of training mostly for people trying to lose weight? Or will this benefit my splits when I want to run faster?
Both. You are burning mostly fat in zone 2 and building a cardio base for longer/faster efforts.
Posted on 8/28/24 at 4:49 pm to Aubie Spr96
Seems like I accidentally have been doing a lot of zone 2 runs now that I read up on it.
All my easy runs on Strava training cycles are done with my dog who slows me down a good bit, especially in the summer.
All my easy runs on Strava training cycles are done with my dog who slows me down a good bit, especially in the summer.
Posted on 8/29/24 at 9:07 pm to Zappas Stache
quote:
Of course, though "zone 2" is just a new branding term for what elite runners have done for at least the last 65 years. Arthur Lydiard is widely credited as one of the first coaches to have his runners do a lot of aerobic base training before ever doing any speedwork. His guys from New Zealand won gold medals in the 1960 and 64 olympics. He then went to Finland and built their guys into gold medalists.
Yea, it’s kind of an invented term that has picked up stem as of late but it basically means running using aerobic sources of energy as opposed to anaerobic. I definitely believe it has its place and benefits though.
Posted on 8/30/24 at 10:47 am to REG861
These terms are old. I have trained in a pyramidal pattern (some call it periodized training) for over a decade through cycling. Someone up top hit the nail on the head pretty good. Time spent in Zone 2 gives you a bigger foundation. The bigger the foundation/engine the more capacity you have in your foundation/engine.
So an untrained cyclist or runner may only be able to execute or respond to a few efforts at or above threshold. A trained cyclist or runner, will have the capacity to go deep into their foundation many many times.
Joe Friel was a big proponent of this type of training. Lots of coaches say you really only need two days of high intensity a week and the rest should fall into that Z2 range. This training usually mimics three weeks of work followed by a true recovery week.
So an untrained cyclist or runner may only be able to execute or respond to a few efforts at or above threshold. A trained cyclist or runner, will have the capacity to go deep into their foundation many many times.
Joe Friel was a big proponent of this type of training. Lots of coaches say you really only need two days of high intensity a week and the rest should fall into that Z2 range. This training usually mimics three weeks of work followed by a true recovery week.
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