Quick Guide to Training With Heart Rate, Power and Pace

I offer training plans to cyclists, triathletes and runners through TrainingPeaks.com. While I describe in most of my books how to set one's training zones, I still get lots of questions about how to do it from those who are new to my plans. So rather than answering all of those emails I will just point athletes to this post from now on. Even if you don't have any intentions to use a plan of mine, this may help you get your trining zone set up effectively.

 

This Quick Guide will help you get the intensity of your training plan workouts right whether you use only a heart rate monitor or also train with a power meter and/or a runner’s speed and distance device such as a GPS or accelerometer. Swimming pace is also described here for Triathletes. For a more complete guide to training with heart rate, power and pace please see my book Total Heart Rate Training. You will also find more detailed information on the subject of measuring intensity in my Triathlete’s Training Bible, Cyclist’s Training Bible and Mountain Biker’s Training Bible books.

 

How to Train With Heart Rate (Running and Cycling)

Step 1. Determine your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) with a short test. (Do not use 220 minus your age as this is as likely to be wrong as right.) This LTHR test is best done before starting the training plan. To find your LTHR do a 30-minute time trial all by yourself (no training partners and not in a race). Again, it should be done as if it was a race for the entire 30 minutes. (If you really are using a race then it needs to be about 60 minutes duration. The reason for ths is that you go harder when in a real race - about as hard as you would go for 30 minutes alone.)  At 10 minutes into the 30-minute test click the lap button on your heart rate monitor (in a 60-minute race don't worry about this). When done look to see what your average heart rate was for the last 20 minutes. That number is an approximation of your LTHR. Note: I am frequently asked if you should go hard for the first 10 minutes. The answer is yes. Go hard for the entire 30 minutes. But be aware that most people doing this test go too hard the first few minutes and then gradually slow down for the remainder. That will give you inaccurate results. The more times you do this test the more accurate your LTHR will become as you will learn to pace yourself better at the start.

 

Step 2. Establish your training zones. Use the following guide to establish each zone by sport.

 

Run Zones       Your Zones

Zone 1 Less than 85% of LTHR     <_____

Zone 2 85% to 89% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 3 90% to 94% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 4 95% to 99% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR     _____ - _____

Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR     _____ - _____

Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR    >_____

 

Bike Zones

Zone 1 Less than 81% of LTHR     <_____

Zone 2 81% to 89% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 3 90% to 93% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 4 94% to 99% of LTHR   _____ - _____

Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR     _____ - _____

Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR     _____ - _____

Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR    >_____

 

Step 3. When following the heart rate-zone directions in your training plan use your zones as established above.

 

How to Train With Power (Cycling)

Step 1. Establish your Functional Threshold Power (FTPw). Use the same 30-minute time trial test above for LTHR to determine your FTPw (or 60 minutes if a race). The only difference is that the average power for the entire 30 minutes is an approximation of your FTPw. This may be done on the road or on an indoor trainer. As with LTHR testing, the more times you do this test the more accurate the results will become since there is a learning curve associated with such an effort. This is best done before starting the training plan. The more times you do this test the more accurate your FTPw will become.

 

Step 2. Set up your personal power training zones using the following guide (from Allen and Coggan, Training and Racing With a Power Meter).

 

Zone 1 Less than 55% of FTPw     <_____

Zone 2 55% to 74% of FTPw   _____ - _____

Zone 3 75% to 89% of FTPw       _____ - _____

Zone 4 90% to 104% of FTPw      _____ - _____

Zone 5 105% to 120% of FTPw   _____ - _____

Zone 6 More than 120% of FTPw >_____

 

Step 3. When following the power-zone directions in your training plan use your zones as established above.

 

How to Train With Pace (Running)

Step 1. Determine your Functional Threshold Pace (FTPa) using either a runner’s GPS device or an accelerometer. To do this, warm-up and then run for 30 minutes just as described under “Training With Heart Rate, Step 1” above (or a 60-minute race). Your FTPa is your average pace for the entire 30 minutes. This is best done before starting the training plan. The more times you do this test the more accurate your FTPa will become.

 

Step 2. Compute your pace zones with the following guidelines using your pace as minutes and seconds per mile or kilometer. It is easiest to do this if you convert to tenths of a minute. For example, 7 minutes 30 seconds would be 7.5 minutes. In this example, to determine the upper (slower) end of zone 4 multiply 7.5 by 1.05 producing a pace of 7.875 (7 minutes, 52 seconds).

 

Zone 1 Slower than 129% of FTPa   >_____

Zone 2 114% to 129% of FTPa   _____ - _____

Zone 3 106% to 113% of FTPa   _____ - _____

Zone 4 101% to 105% of FTPa   _____ - _____

Zone 5a 97% to 100% of FTPa   _____ - _____

Zone 5b 90% to 96% of FTPa       _____ - _____

Zone 5c Faster than 90% of FTPa     <_____

 

Step 3. When following the run pace-zone directions in your training plan use your zones as established above.

 

How to Train With Pace (Swimming)

Step 1. Determine your T-time. There are many ways of doing this. One of the most common is to swim a 1000-meter/yard time trial at your pool. It may help to have someone on deck counting laps as it’s easy to lose track in such a test. What you are trying to determine is your average 100 pace for the test. Simply swim 1000 and then divide your finish time by 10. This is your T-time. This should be done before starting the training plan. The more times you do this test the more accurate your T-time will become as there is a learning curve that has to do with pacing in the first few minutes when doing this test.

 

Step 2. In your training plan the swim workouts will often refer to pace as T-time plus (+) or minus (-) a few seconds. For example, T-time + 5 seconds would mean swimming at a pace that would be the equivalent of your T-time plus 5 seconds. So if your T-time is 91 seconds this workout would be calling for you to swim at 96 seconds per 100. If it is a 50 meter/yard set you are doing the time you are shooting for is 48 seconds. In the same way, if the set calls for you to swim 150 meters/yards at T-time + 5 you would swim the distance in 2 minutes and 24 seconds (96 sec + 48 sec).

Comments

[Rich]

The LTHR is a moving target correct? It should rise with training. How often do you suggest testing to "recalibrate" training zones? If one trains at that threshold intensity how many beats can one expect LTHR to move per training cycle? Will it drop if you are fatigued at the end of a cycle? It seems like making educated guesses, if possible, would be more convenient during the intense part of training season.

[Si]

Hi Joe,

Should I do the bike 30m TT test using HR on the road or the turbo?

I only ask as I find my HR on the turbo is alot lower than on the road for the same RPE. Doing this 30m test on the road my LTHR is 182bpm, but on the turbo I can ride with the same RPE and my legs are really hurting by the end of the 30m TT and im sweating buckets but my LTHR ave is 163!

I always struggle to get my HR up on the turbo so I dont know how to set my zones, if I set them as per the road then I will struggle to get in the right zones on the turbo, and vis-versa. I always do a 10m warm-up which involves intervals and im always sweating by the end of the 10m, ive read that having a fan helps but ive tried this test with and without a fan to see if it makes a difference and there was no different, any advise?

Thanks

Si

[Chris]

Joel, Thank you for this helpful post. Would you clarify how to make the calculations based on a 60 minute race? I'm not clear how to adapt the instructions. This is the part I find unclear:

At 10 minutes into the 30-minute test click the lap button on your heart rate monitor (in a 60-minute race don't worry about this). When done look to see what your average heart rate was for the last 20 minutes.

[Josh]

Joe, thanks for providing this info on your blog. It is a great suppliment to the info I'm learning from your Training Bible. How close to the 60min race duration is needed for determining LTHR? Will a recent 86 minute Race work?

[Joe Friel]

Josh--86 minutes is too long. Plus or minus perhaps 10 minutes woul be pushing it.

[Joe Friel]

Chris--Just look to see what your average was for the 60 minute race. Simple. (It's 'Joe' by the way.)

[Joe Friel]

Si--It's up to you. Personaly, I wouldn't want to do it on a trainer.Too much mental stress.

[Joe Friel]

Rich--LTHR varies a bit from day to day (and within a worout) due to fatigue. But when rested and in reasonably good shape it varies so slightly as to say it's stable. Mine has been the same, season after season, base or build period, for nearly 30 years now

[Brian]

Hi, Joe, thanks for the continued great posts! I've been training using the methods you've put out in the Cyclist's Training Bible since about 2000 and really feel it's an effective methodology and love the self-coached, menu-driven style of it. I purchased an SRM about a year ago, I think right about the time the latest (4th) edition of the Bible came out. I was real excited, but then a bit disappointed, when I recieved my new copy right after publication because I was hoping that the use of a power meter would be more interwoven into the methodology than it had been in the prior versions (which came out before power meters really became as prevalent in the amateur ranks as they are now). In your book you address and discuss the use of a power meter, including determining CP's and stuff, but all the workouts in the back of the book still only reference heartrate.

Is there by any chance a new set of workout descriptions that discuss how to conduct them with a power meter? I'm guessing that some of them are still best performed according to heartrate, but I would also guess that many of them could/should be conducted according to both heartrate and power, or even according to power alone.

I have read not only your books but also "Training and Racing With A Power Meter", and while the discussions in the Training Bible and in Hunter Allen's and Andrew Coggin's book give me a bit of knowlege that allows me to make some educated guesses as to how to conduct the workouts via power, I'd love to get power-based Training Bible workout descriptions straight from the source!

Thanks for the help!
-Brian

[Mark]

Hi Joe, First, thanks for your mtb book, its great. Living in a city I haven't found a good 30min tt location, and instead use the stationary bike watts test at the begining of each season. This has set my LT at 170. I compare that to my average 2hr race HR of 167-170 and consider it done.

Given what you told a commenter above about deriving LTHR from a longer race, I am worried that if I average 167 for 2+ hrs (1:13 in zone 5abc 30/20/23 each in case it helps)) a LTHR of 170 seems a bit low. Comments?

[Joe Friel]

Mark--That's undoubtedly low.

[Joe Friel]

Brian-Good idea for a book! Thak!

[Troy Restieaux]

Hi Joe, love your work! Further to an earlier post about the use of power in workout descriptions can you clarify the relationship between terms CP5/30/60 etc and the appropriate power zones 1-5. Many thanks, Troy

[Joe Friel]

Troy R--Very roughly, here are the approximate equivalents for my CP and Coggan's power zones: CP5~upper z5, CP30~upper z4, CP60~mid-z4 (FTP).

[chris]

Joe - please accept my apologies for moving the L from your last name! For years I've recommended to friends that great book by Joel Friel called Paleo for Athletes..... oops!

Chris

[Dustinflint]

Joe,

In this post, you recommend using the Allen/Coggan method of using power zones based on percentages of FTPw. In your "Joe Friel's Training with Power" paper, you recommend using critical power from tests (CP0.2, CP1, CP12, etc). Which do you recommend that we use? It seems that both are very similar but it'd be nice to know your thoughts regarding which is best.

Also, if using the Allen/Coggan zones, but doing the Training Bible workouts (which only talk about HR zones), I assume the power zones and HR zones are intechangable, correct?

[Joe Friel]

dustinflint--use Coggan's. They are similar to my HR zones.

[Tomas]

Hi Joe,

Great post, it is really useful for me. Just a question on the last part of step 2 in the swimming pace section. You wrote

"if the set calls for you to swim 150 meters/yards at T-time + 5 you would swim the distance in 2 minutes and 24 seconds (96 sec + 48 sec"

Shouldn't you add the +5? Is this done by adding 5 sec/100 meters mening that in your exampample with 150 meters, you would add 7,5 seconds so the total would be 2 minutes and 31,5 seconds

[Joe Friel]

Tomas--91s + 5s = 96s/100. For a 150 it would be 96s (for the 1st 100) + 48s (for the 50) = 144s (2:24).

[Rich]

Would you write a post on the merits of training by pace versus HR zone? I'm strictly a runner now and running authors I read -- Matt Fitzgerald and Brad Hudson -- build their programs predominantly by pace. I see merits and limits to both approaches. Pace training seems to have strong psychological benefits in addition to physiological but a variety of variables could limit pace in a workout. (And I see why I want to compare pace to effort over time for assessment but I am concerned about weekly workout plans.)What you posted above regarding pace seems to be a pace benchmark for effort zones, not training by current or goal race pace. In the end, I wonder if organizing a workout around 1/2M, 10K and 5k pace has the same training effect as a zone 3,4 or 5 effort.

Lastly, would average HR in miles 4 an 5 of a 10K race (roughly minutes 18-30 for this 43 year old) be as good an LTHR indicator as a 30min TT?
Thanks for your wisdom.

[Joe Friel]

Rich--Thanks for the suggestion. A good on. See what I can do. As for the 30 min TT to establish FTPa... It has to be a _solo_ TT - not in a race. If in a race it must be about 60 minutes, no 30. Please don't sk me to explain why. I'v answered this qestion so many times in Q&A here that I can't bring myself to do it yet again. Please do a search on 'solo' to find my many replies to this questin. :)

[Roygalvin]

Hi Joe, thanks for the post. For Century + longer rides, is there any formula / percentage for correct pacing or avg power using FTP.
I notice that on hilly rides my ride would be variable 1.2+ VI.
I guess you can't really pace well on hilly rides, right?

[Joe Friel]

Hi Roy--Yes, hilly rides typically will have a higher VI (variability index) than flat rides. For a century as with any stedy state racing the key is how long, not how far. Someone doing a century in around 4.5hrs will probably be in 4z. But doing century in 8hrs will put a rider in 1-2 zones. So it's time, not distance, that is the determining factor for intensity.

[cmon myname]

just my two cents, this is the closest thing that's been able to match my actual HR to my actual paces, especially for lower (slower) zones... they never match according to other zone guides(those not based on LTHR). guess my LTHR is closer to my maxHR than it's for most people.

[Casey]

Joe,

I ordered a Suunto heart rate monitor in order to start using a lot of these principles. Can shed some light on how their Training Effect function fits into the concepts above. What is the optimal way to use that function? Does it add value to just allocating percentages of your training to each zone?