Training Zone
Zone 1: Active Recovery
Targeted Energy System(s)
Low End of Aerobic System
Training Objectives
Promote oxygen and blood flow to the muscles to help promote and aid in recovery. Coach Tip: Don't
discount the importance of recovery. Recovery is when your muscles actually repair themselves and
become stronger, therefore not enough recovery time equals a downward trend in performance gains
from training.
Zone 2: Aerobic Endurance
Aerobic System
Promotes the efficieny of Oxygen transport to the muscles and uptake at the muscles through
increasing stroke volume and increasing mitochondria density in the muscles. Coach Tip:
Mitochondria use Oxygen to produce energy, therefore the more mitochondria in the muscles, the more
efficient your aerobic system will be.
Zone 3: Tempo
Upper End of Aerobic System and
Lower End of Glycolytic System
Stresses the aerobic system at a faster rate while teaching your body to buffer some of the byproducts
of the glycolytic system that speed up the rate of fatigue. Coach Tip: Tempo workouts are a fantastic
substitute for long endurance rides if you don't have the time to get in a scheduled long ride due to the
strain they put on the aerobic system.
Zone 4: Lactate Threshold
Top End of Aerobic System and
Glycolytic System
The low end of this zone will hit the highest end of the aerobic system and be primarily relying on the
glycolytic system for energy. Once you cross over your threshold heart rate or power, you will be
operating pretty much entirely on the glycolytic system. The higher in this zone you go, the shorter
these intervals will be. They aim to improve lactate threshold and power for 3-5 minute efforts.
Zone 5: Anaerobic Capacity
ATP-CP System (Phosphagen
System)
When in this zone, you're going to be doing all out efforts that rely solely on creatine phosphate for
energy which gives you about 10 seconds of energy max. Many of these workouts will be short and
intense and may have large recovery bouts if focused on potency of the interval or short recovery
bouts if focused on teaching your body to repeat these efforts over and over. Coach Tip: Many
athletes think supplementing Creatine Phosphate will improve the efficiency of this system. Many
athletes who've tried this, go overboard and experience cramping due to the excessive water retention
that occurs as a side effect. If you really want to explore this, research some peer reviewed studies on
how it's best done. At the time this article was written, there was not any credible research suggesting
supplemting Creatine Phosphate improves endurance athletes overall performance.