heart rate zones – How does training affect them ?

Heart Rate Zones

Heart Rate zones can be used effectively to improve your speed, fitness and body composition with a heart rate monitor.

Over time you will produce more power in each zone. See the Patreon paid content video below.

Using a heart rate monitor for training is not complicated if you focus on getting in the right zone.

Finding your training zones

Functional Threshold Heart Rate

Get your functional threshold heart rate by noting your heart rate when going hard after reaching an effort where you can go no faster without losing form. See the Video below for how to find your functional threshold heart rate.

Establishing your training zones

Go slower, get faster

It sounds impossible but this is the basic starting point for HR training. Long Zone 1 and Zone 2 rides can be slow and boring, but they train your body to be more efficient.

Fletcher, who’s an exercise physiologist, is adamant that by going slow you will get faster. He has a mug on his desk emblazoned with the words ‘slow is the new fast’.

Discipline for these slow rides is important, so ride them on your own or make sure your riding partners are on the same program, otherwise it’s hard to resist the bait of sprinting for village or city limit signs.

Key session: 3hrs in Zone 2. Stay in the zone and stick to it. Don’t be tempted to push it on the hills.