The TRUTH About Zone 2

are you tired of wasting your time on ineffective training methods are you confused about the buzz around Zone 2 training well get ready to challenge the status quo because in this video we're going to shake up the Running World by declaring that zone 2 training for over 50s Runners is a waste of time but wait why is everybody obsessed with Zone 2 training anyway and is it really the golden ticket to help boost your endurance and running performance we're about to unravel the truth behind this controversial routine and why it might actually be holding you

back from your full running potential whoa Brad there's a couple of things we need to clear up first so firstly zone two training is vital for runners over 50 the confusion really lies around the fact that what is zone two training as well as how much do you really need all right Lindsay I understand that but we still haven't cleared up the fact of whether or not we should be running in zone 2 as an over 50s Runner look Brad we'll get to that shortly but I think what's really important for you to understand is

what is zone two and how do we Define it there are a lot of models that people use at coach Perry we like to work off a five zone model Zone one zone 2 Zone 3 zone four zone 5 and really a lot of people spend too much time in zone one and then too much time in Zone 3 four and five and I think that's where the main misunderstanding comes from in terms of what is Zone 2 so let's unpack what happens in zone 2 and why it is is in fact important to have

zone two training as part of your overall package now zone two training is specifically designed to teach your body to burn oxygen while it is generating energy so we can generate energy from a couple of Pathways where we use carbohydrates where we use fats where we use ketones and where we can even use the lactate or lactic acid that is building up that is taking place during um EX now of all of those burning fats and burning ketones and a small amount of proteins is the most efficient way for your body to produce energy for

you to keep going and those require oxygen okay and that is deemed aerobic conditioning and that is ultimately what we are trying to improve when we are doing Zone 2 training on the converse side of that we've got pyruvate which also requir some oxygen to burn and we've got carbohydrates now carbohydrates can burn in oxygen but it's a far less um efficient fuel source and it's the fuel source that we use when we are running low on oxygen or the body can't Supply more oxygen so in other words as we move into zone three zone

four and ultimately zone five and we are starting to get to our maximal energy demand that is when we are starting to burn a lot more energy in non oxidative Pathways called anerobic Pathways in the absence of oxygen okay when we are training for things like 5 km 10 km and the marathon we are going to have different contributions from aerobic and anerobic Pathways the majority of our energy we want to be coming from aerobic Pathways so the stronger we are aerobically in other words the more oxygen we can supply and the more energy that

we can give while we are using oxygen relatively faster speeds we can attain while we are aerobic but then we're always going to need to top that up with anerobic particularly as you've probably experienced in a marathan The Roots aren't always perfectly flat in fact you're going to go through phases where you have to climb a little bit where you go down the hill on the other side and so there's this interaction between the aerobic and the anerobic and I don't want you to think of energy metabolism as a light switch where we go from

aerobic to anerobic it's not like one switches off and the other one switches on we are always on a Continuum where we are at quite low intensities or Zone 2 intensities then the majority of our energy is coming from aerobic Pathways but we're still getting some from anerobic and when we get to very high intensities we are maxing out on our aerobic so aerobic is still giving that energy but we're getting a much bigger contribution from anerobic as we get towards our our maximum and so we've got this constant interplay between one and the other

and I briefly touched on then the pyruvate cycle or your body's ability to take lactate and then push it back into the energy cycle and that will happen when we go through these periods of anerobic and we now are producing greater amounts of blood lactate and it starts to build up in the blood but as we get back to aerobic that will of course then be shuttled back into the cell the lactic acid will be converted back into a lactate and it'll go into the energy cycle and we will be producing energy using that lactic

acid which came from that anerobic component of exercise so you can see that it's a complicated system that works on a Continuum and it is important that we make sure that we are actually training in zone two when we need to train in zone two and then we bring a mix to the party okay Lindsay so there's obviously a lot more to this than meets the eye but I think the big question is is Zone 2 running the holy grail for over 50s running I is there a more effective way to train if you're over

50 and how do you even know what zone you're running in in the first place okay before we answer if it's a waste of time the important thing is how do you know that you're running in zone 2 at coach Perry we like to use use a percentage of threshold and we typically use Pace because that is something that is really readily available most people have a GPS device that gives you exactly what pace you are running but we can also use um threshold heart rate you can get your threshold heart rate and your threshold

Pace by doing a simple time trial test and then we can estimate what that threshold is and then importantly to know that you are in zone 2 you want to be at about 65 to 7 5% of your maximum heart rate or maximum pace and you want to be at between 75 and 85% of your threshold Pace or threshold heart rate if you can't calculate those and you have to rely on how you're feeling then running in your zone two you should be able to hold a robust conversation or be able to sing a song

but it shouldn't shouldn't be super easy to do that okay you must must be able to do it and hold that robust conversation and feel just slightly short of breath but you don't want to get like if you sing a song at the end of that song you shouldn't now have to really focus on getting your oxygen back you should then be able to slip into carrying on running quite um comfortably and then you will know that you are in fact running in zone two okay Lindsay we get the point about Zone 2 but should

we be running in zone two so I think now we've gotten to the Crux of the question and that is that we shouldn't only be running in zone 2 and a lot of people get caught on the notion that we need to do all our training in zone two partly because of how much emphasis we put on it because it is really important and I think that's the part that we have to move away from particularly as you are moving into your 50s it becomes more important that we add other types of training into the

mix because it's not only about the energy metabolism which is important we do want to train that anerobic component as I mentioned much earlier in the video when we are running marathons half marathon 10ks we are moving up and down this ladder of aerobic to anerobic so we have to have the ability to change along that Continuum efficiently and effectively but it's also about the loss of coordination the loss of strength the loss of range of motion and as we move into zone three and Zone four and in particularly zone 5 training we are forced

to have much longer strides we are forced to increase that range of motion the firing frequency of our muscles changes and it helps us to improve our coordination so training as we get 50 is as much about training the energy system as it is also about keeping us elastic keeping us Nimble keeping us coordinated and maintaining our range of motion so that we can run as fast as we want to run for for as long as we can so how do we get this balance right and that is where the magic comes in we need

to be doing zone two training particularly if you've been battling with injury you've been getting sick often or you're having to restart running after a long break away from the sport then we need to do a large body of zone two work to prepare your body for the work that needs to come if you are getting ready to train very hard for a marathon for example we want to go through a period where most of your training will be in zone two and then as we start moving to more specific periods of training 4 a

race we want to be doing between 80 and 90% of our training in zone two that's quite a large chunk and the other 10 to 20% of the training we're going to be spreading through Zone 3 to zone 5 workouts now what does that mean practically okay so if we are training for 5 hours a week you want to be doing between 3 and 1 half and four of those hours at zone two you can hold a robust conversation you're at 75% of maximum heart rate or maximum Pace that is where we're going to then

spend the majority of our training and then we want to spend that other hour to maximum hour and a half doing very high intensity workouts we want to do some Zone 3 and zone four work so that you know what it feels like on race day but we also keep that that quite small generally I'd only do that kind of workout every 2 to 3 weeks but I would be at the high end in the zone five again so that I can emphasize the anerobic very well but much more importantly so that I can really

get through that range of motion push myself push myself from a coordination point of view and what you'll find when you start training like this is that initially it won't be your Fitness that's going to hold you back and and slow you down on your interval work but it's actually the coordination so as you do more of this workout yes we're stimulating the anerobic but you'll actually get better because your coordination will improve and your range of motion will improve okay so mobility and range of motion is really important but the good news is you

can FasTrack that process if you watch the video that's on screen now we'll show you five running draws that you can do to speed up that process