Slept in again this morning. It’s becoming a bit of a habit. Need to go to bed earlier.
The biggest hassle with an injury is that I have to slow down and let it heal. I like to push myself, and when I’m injured, it’s hard to slow down, but it’s something that I have to do. Sleeping in and going on a slower ride than usual are all good ways to manage being injured. The hand feels pretty good. The splint makes it less useful but also protects it from overuse. I remain patient.
More on zone two training. Zone two training has been around for a long time, and I have talked about it before. It isn’t the most popular way of exercising for several reasons. More common exercises and training plans deal with HIIT and interval training. Both are great ways to get a quick hard workout in and will lead to significant gains quickly. If you’re burning more calories in a shorter period, you’ll lose more weight. You are straining the muscles harder, which will result in muscle mass increase.
The drawback to more intense training is higher rates of injury and overtraining. These are also training in an anaerobic capacity. That means you’re not strengthening the heart to process oxygen more efficiently. You’re also not training the body to burn fat as fuel.
This is where zone two training comes in. The focus is on going slower and easier. This puts you into an aerobic exercise, so you’re burning fat and utilizing your aerobic capacity. You do not reach lactate threshold, where you feel burning in the legs and lungs. Zone two training, you should be able to hold a conversation for the most part. You should be able to talk and keep doing the exercise. That’s one of the best ways to test whether you are in zone two training. During the workout, can you have a conversation? If you can’t, you probably need to slow down. If you can have a conversation without having to take a breath every so often, you might want to go a little more challenging.
You can also track zone two training with your heart rate and power zone levels. Doing this can make tracking where you are during the workout easier. However, your body will get into better shape as you work out. Causing your heart rate zone and power zones to change. If you use either of those methods, you need to make sure that you retest your functional threshold every couple of weeks to months to make sure you’re working in those zones.
Not all of zone two training is done in zone two. About 80% of it should be done in zone 2. The other 20% should be done at zone 4 and higher. This gives you some anaerobic training and is considered enough time to gain the benefits of high-intensity exercise.
My plan for the next few weeks, if not months, is to do zone two training on the indoor bike. One YouTuber mentioned that it is more efficient since it is easier to maintain a specific zone when riding indoors. 60 minutes in zone two indoors is equivalent to 90 minutes of zone two outdoors. So I am already ahead!
Leave a Reply