Apparently I suck at zone 2

@aachen_hexagon My first love is CrossFit, but my true love is ultra marathoning. These are two different events, requiring two different approaches to maximize benefits and success. If you can't hold a conversation and comfortably breathe through your nose then you are doing it wrong (this is not to say that there's no benefit to pace runs because they do serve a purpose). Just because you can do something faster doesn't mean you always should. What is your average pace per mile? My guess is you need to slow down (and go farther). Running a marathon or 100 miles is exactly like CrossFit but in the exact opposite way. Enjoy the sport for what it is.
 
@aachen_hexagon I find Zone 2 running difficult, moreso because my pace feels awkwardly slow and therefore my running technique feels awful. I find I'm better off biking or swimming if I want to do something in Zone 2. That's just me tho
 
@aachen_hexagon I guess the biggest question I have is whether or not your wearable broadcasts your heart rate and zone during your workout. I have a whoop and would suggest hopping on a Concept 2 Bike and finding your zone 2 by just propping your phone up against the screen. It’s a lot easier to control your heart rate and exertion on a bike than running imo.
 
@aachen_hexagon If you have access to a C2 Bike I would use that for a while to work in zone 2 until you're able to stay in that range while running. You'll be able to watch your heart rate on the bike screen and it's pretty easy to sustain/adjust your effort to maintain your heart rate.
 
@aachen_hexagon When I was racing bicycles and training with Carmichael, it was known the heart rate was fickle and affected bu a lot of extraneous things. I trained with power output which you can do on a machine but is not really achievable running that I know of. An extra cup of coffee or a pre workout will affect your HR. In addition my resting HR at 40 was 44bpm and max HR was 195 on a max HR test. So the 220- age is an estimate but can vary. However, if you are constantly in zone 4 on a 5k or 10k, you do need to slow down and build endurance miles. Youre running at what we used to call Tempo which is really close to lactate threshold. Check out Dr Phil Mafitone’s work on HR.
 
@aachen_hexagon One of the biggest benefits of zone 2 is that it is less systemically fatiguing allowing you to do more overall work. You can still improve cardio and fitness doing zone3 etc. the thing with moving at race pace all the time is that your going to feel more beat up from those effort levels
 
@aachen_hexagon As an endurance athlete who does an a large amount of Zone 2 - you are not getting Zone 2 benefits if you are in Zone 4/5. That said, it can be hard to find out where your Zone 2 really is. In my experience, people often cross over into Zone 3 without realizing - especially further along in the workout. You may need to modify your pace partway through to stay in the zone.

I know my zone 2 based on a combo of heart rate and perceived exertion (should be able to hold a conversation, but not so easily that the person I’m with wouldn’t know I was exercising) and also watts since I am a cyclist. If your HR is higher than the zone 2 calculation but you can maintain a conversation then you’ve got it. An hour in zone 4 should have felt really tough.
 
@aachen_hexagon I'm very similar with running too, I can stay going but my heart rate is high. I've done a few runs now in zone 2 by tracking my heart rate but it's an effort to go so slow and not just start walking (which will bring me under zone 2) or stop paying attention and running (bringing the heart rate up)

I find it much easier on a bike to listen to an audio book and keep an eye on my heart rate
 
@aachen_hexagon Go with some friends - if you can’t chat you’re going to quick.

Failing that I use the time to call family through headphones lol. They can tell I’m running for sure but I can still chat - forces me to keep the pace lower and stay nearer zone 2
 
@aachen_hexagon Tape your mouth shut and breathe through your nose the entire run. Good luck getting out of zone 2.

(Kidding, not about the nasal breathing, only partially about the tape)

I find that if I limit myself to nasal breathing, running or cycling I will stay in zone 2.

Also +1 for Bike erg, or a stairmaster/treadmill for zone 2.
 
@aachen_hexagon You’re still getting zone 2 benefits while working out at lactate threshold, and additional benefits of improving your lactate processing, it just comes at a higher recovery cost. The whole point of zone 2 training is that it allows you to accumulate a large amount of volume at a low recovery cost. If you’re only running twice a week, and youre able to stay healthy, you might as well do all your runs at a faster pace. If you’re trying to accumulate 10 hours of cardio a week, the majority of it should be at zone 2 to allow your to adequately recover for your high intensity sessions. Plenty of people hyperfixate on zone 2 while training so little volume that they would benefit from doing more of their work at a higher intensity
 
Also, sometimes people experience decoupling between heart rates and cardiac output, for a number of reasons. For example, I take presciption stimulants, so my heart rate is generally higher than the zone I’m working in, especially for easy work. Heat is another common factor for this decoupling
 
@aachen_hexagon Zone 2 means going for a nice long walk at a brisk pace dude. If you're trying to improve mitochondrial function (zone 2 benefit), great, but you're gonna need to slow it down. Then, in another training session, if you wanna get your run on, then get after it.

Also, don't sell yourself short. Everyone is made to do body weight exercise. Some folks, like us short kings, just have a little more leverage. You can still get good at it.
 
@aachen_hexagon Do you mean zones as in heart beat zones?
What I heard from my trainer (I asked about that too cause my heartbeat is quite high all the time). It's also about the recovery time. So lets say you are mostly in zone 4 or 5, check 2 minutes later again, if it's still very high it means that your cardio can still improve a lot.

If it has been lowered significantly, you recover well so your cardio is fine.

I dunno about zone 2 why that is ideal? What are zone 2 benefits?
 
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