Ride in Zone 2 ONLY and get fitter? Seems too easy right? We challenged Manon to 6 weeks of strictly Zone 2 training to see what happens to her FTP, aerobic, and anaerobic fitness. She heads to a sports lab to benchmark her fitness levels and identify her power zones.
Follow Manon's zone 2 journey on Strava 👉 gcn.eu/aBB
00:00 Intro
02:03 Cycling fitness testing
03:14 What is zone 2?
04:39 Cycling ramp test
05:42 The Complete Athlete Coach interview
06:38 Cycling fitness test results
07:27 Should you train with power or heart rate?
08:38 Zone 2 training guide
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Will 6 weeks of zone 2 make you fitter? 💪
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Will 6 weeks of zone 2 make you fitter? 💪
Depend on the time spent in it. 30 minutes, 3 times a week, won't do very much.
Doubt that, but maybe wont let one get some extra fat.
Just like every other training routing - it depends on the subject utilising it.
It will. When i was diagnosed with T2 Diabetes, I started riding again, but like I did before which mostly ended up in Zone 3, which also led me to be over-trained very quickly. Restricting my riding to Zone 2 (based on breathing rate) made me noticably fitter. I don't race, so I have no idea if i was faster, but I could basically ride until I ran out of legs, and that coupled with a Low Carb/High Fat diet led me to being able to get off of my diabetes medication. On the downside, i found that when I tried to sprint, my Heart Rate really didn't want to respond well. I had a really hard time getting anywhere near Max HR before I hit the wall, so even for a casual rider doing som VO2Max work is necessary, but I wanted to build a good base first strictly for the fitness aspect of it. I did a ramp test recently and was shocked that it left me at a much higher FTP than I had before (Went from about 180 to about 195).
My years of zone 2 training has given me almost limitless endurance.
i would love to see the same video with an unfit person and/or beginner cyclist.
We'll see what we can do, we might need to reach out for a beginner 👀
Well you have it with very unfit person.
@@gcnI volunteer. I'm 53, T2 Diabetic, with a sub-200 FTP. I've never raced in my life, and while I have done some more challenging bike events (100 miles, which took me 8.5 hours, and a 44 mile ride with 5800 feet of steep climbing), That was a few years ago and all of that fitness is gone. I didn't really start riding till my 40s.
@@gcn Harriet perhaps 😊
Agreed, let's compare Manon's improvement to an improvement of someone who hasn't won a UCI track world cup event in their past, or something similarly major. :)
Like so many other comments, I discovered zone 2 last year as it became a popular KZhead thing, especially with Inigo. For several months that’s basically all I’ve been doing. It’s the winter, rainy, stay indoors on an erg mode trainer, watch movies while zone 2 training. I watched my zone 2 go from 180 watts to 210 during this time over the same time period of exercise (1.5 hrs usually, no lactate test for me, just HR). Tested my FTP two weeks ago and it was the best FTP of my life!! Zone 2 allows for continuous, repeated daily workouts, more hours of training when life allows for it, and it doesn’t tax the nervous system but instead gives a nice “glow” post workout. It’s great to not be in pain. Caveats: 45+ years old, not a racer, don’t do crits, but will be riding 100+ miles every weekend in the mountains through the year.
You could've not said it better
I enjoy going hard every ride. HR in zone 4 and 5 for the majority of the ride. I dont find it mentally taxing. I actually find it more difficult to hold back during rides but I am very competitive. I just averaged 422 Watts for 30 minutes.
@@HowlingFantodsnot that I could ever in my wildest dreams have ever averaged that, but when I was younger going hard (at my level) was the only way I rolled. Do it while you can! To each their own level of genetics, age, and training time availability.
@@SMathaiA very civil and measured response. Have a nice day!
@@HowlingFantods , You are telling us that you are like a TDF Pro. Show us your strava link.
Z2 has been a gamechanger for me. I started riding my road bike around 10 years. I improved the first years and also got a power meter. Did my FTP test 220w @80kg and i really got frustrated because for the next 6 years or so, no matter how much i "trained" (smashed myself), the new tests came out the barely the same. Last year i was at only 230w 😢. Then i heard about Z2 and started listening to Iñigo San Millàn, Peter Attia, the polarized training, etc. And decided to stick to it for a year. I recently did a new FTP test and finally, 255w at 73kg. (Ramp test 264w) For me thats huge!!!! And now i really think i still have room to improve. Its all about consistency overtime. 🥂
Very similar experience for me.
What is your training plan. Would you mind sharing? I am stucking at the same FTP for a long time too.
@@leyu138ride zone 2, increase time by 10% per week, until you run out of hours. It is all about volume of training, not intensity of each ride.
@@leyu138 I ride 3 days in a row. The first 2 days zone 2, the third day a hard vo2 max or threshold session performed at high torque (60 cadence), 4th day is rest day, then repeat. I ride 1h:30m most days, but If I have more time available I add it as z2, no matter if it is the hard day or the z2 only day. Finally, if you feel good your rest day, don't ride.
Here is some historical perspective. About 60 - 70 years ago Arthur Lydiard coached many of the champion long-distance runners winning Olympic medals for New Zealand and Finland. He advocated building up an aerobic base with large amounts of long relatively slow (but not extremely easy) distance, with anaerobic interval workouts to build speed and anaerobic capacity, and periodization to peak for critical races. Lacking heart rate monitors or power meters runners used the "talk test" for their aerobic runs - if you couldn't carry on a conversation you were going anaerobically and should slow down. Lydiard was also an advocate of women running the marathon before they were allowed to do so. He was certain women could compete the distance because he had all his 400 meter women athletes doing 20 mile runs as part of their training. His methods sound like a lot of what is now being advocated for "zone 2" training. A spinoff to Lydiard's story is that Bill Bowerman, track coach of Eugene Oregon, made a trip to New Zealand to learn more about Lyiard's method. While there he was introduced to the NZ recreational activity of jogging by regular people, not track stars. On return to Oregon he felt this activity might be popular in the US, wrote a pamphlet on the subject later turned into a book and formed a jogging group for citizens in Eugene. This quickly morphed into the first running boom in the USA.
Dr Ernst van Aaken from Germany was the first man whit low heartrate training. Waldnieler ausdauer. Hé started this training allready in 1947
Yes, but people re taking this Z2 low HR thing to extremes, certainly in running they are. People are watching KZhead videos and then going out 'running' trying to keep their HR below 120 or so. Well that aint running by any measure, and all they are doing is training their body a terrible running form for what is probably very little benefit, unless they are desperately unfit to start with, in which case Z2 is probably a good way to go. Even as a 58 year old, when I go for a run with my son we can still have a perfectly reasonable un-strained conversation and I'll still be hitting 145-150bpm, yet it still feels really easy low effort. Only when I get to 160 does it feel like hard work, and I max out at 170 these days. Maybe I'm a bit unusual in that I can run pretty comfortably at 85-90% max HR, it's really only the last 5bpm where it suddenly hits home. For me, 120bpm Z2 would feel no harder than sitting on a sofa watching TV, and as such I think it's a total waste of valuable time. I base my easy runs and rides purely on perceived effort, I never look at HR except after I've completed a run or a ride. If it feels easy then it is easy, regardless of your actual HR.
True. But we should notice here that science proved that trained athletes (not even elite) are able to have a chat way high in zone 3. Even before that I could have testified of it : I’m a 10k runner former xcountry rider, I do it all the time, as an excuse to run to fast during what is supposed to be a zone 2 session, I feign not knowing my HR is a little high, and since I can talk quite easily, then it’s ok (I always run faster, tempo pace, but not pushing). And my friends are a little slower than me, they’re also chatting (I’m not talking to myself in the woods). I’m doing a superset session, or long intervals at 2’50 per K, and it’s suddenly much quieter.
Much easier to do this with HR and power meter on bikes.. zero guess work.
Ah me old Irish mate Mike O’condria 🍀
😂
😂
Jebus! Every time she mispronounced that word...it was like scraping finger nails down a blackboard.
They do "prolifulate" though....holy f&%k this presenter is truly out of her depth.... I only watch her videos for a laugh....
Between that and “prolifelate” 😂
6 weeks of zone 2 training will certainly make a difference in your fitness Manon. I used to do nothing but intervals and time trials when I first started and failed miserably. Once I started zone 2 training then I really started to see gains. Not only in my endurance but my overall strength increased tremendously. All of my training in the off season are long distance zone 2 rides. I don't start hauling ass until a month before the start of the season. Then I compare my times to the previous year at that time. Each year I see good gains. I credit the zone 2 training for this. Good luck gal, I'm sure you'll be very fit when you're done. 👍👊💪
WOW! Thanks Manon and gcn! Super content! Now Manon has joined the Science Gang. I think just zone 2 will benefit due to stressing/training mitochondria but the gains will be limited to that particular system and Manon will not have the quick anaerobic system capacity that she was used to as a star track athlete. Love this content and really interested in the training plan and the results after 6weeks!!!
Would be amazing to have a: 1. Beginner 2. You as a retired Pro 3. A cardiac rehab cyclist After a cardiac arrest, & then a mini stroke - I am starting from scratch again: Zone 1 & 2 + guess what Bike: 💜Orbea Gain♥️road eBike Which connects to garmin & uses the bikes algorithm to protect my heart. Helps keep the heart safe on climbs. You guys really must highlight more about it.
I was hoping a video would be made on this topic! Looking forward to the progress and information.
It's like we're reading your mind 😉 We hope it lived up to expectation?
Funny enough I have been doing mostly Z2 work all winter on my fat bike to get my fitness up. Just this month I tested my upper power band and it was a huge surprise. I didn't loose much of the sharpness and felt stronger than ever. I took inspiration from 80/20 polarized training method that some athletes follow.
Polarized is a periodization strategy, not a training method. One may do it at different times in training, but doing it all the time is just what you'd expect when people are parroting their misunderstood versions of what they heard someone else try to explain when in fact misunderstand too.
It started 4 weeks ago and no news about. I'm waiting
People often get confused with zones. This was a good introduction. Zone 2 is a metabolic level. The top end of zone 2 is a point called LT (Lactate Threshold). Power is the input to get you into that metabolic level. Heart rate and perceived exertion is the result of being at that metabolic level. When you are "finding your zone 2 and LT", if you have a power meter it's nice to know what power input gets you into that metabolic level. If you have a heart rate monitor, it's nice to know what heart rate you normally fall into when you are at that metabolic level. At any time, it's nice to know how it feels when you are at that metabolic level. By controlling your input and monitoring your result, you can fairly accurately maintain your metabolic level. "FTP" is an estimate of the power necessary to get you to another level, called LT2 (Lactate Threshold 2) or sometimes MLSS (Maximum Lactate Steady State). It's important to note that the power that will get you to LT (top end of zone 2) and FTP (the power necessary to get to the top end of Zone 3) is not actually related, although it is statistically correlated. This means that you can estimate your top end zone 2 power from FTP and estimate your FTP from top end zone 2 power, but there will usually be quite a large error. Trying to gauge those points from power, heart rate and perceived effort together can give you a much better estimate in the very likely case that you don't have access to a lab to measure it directly.
120 to 140W is way to much for her... The test was pretty bad made. 120w was to much intensity for her to start. Its a commonly mistake sport sicientists made. Normaly the lactat level is sinking and when it rise first more than 0.4mmol its the highest point of zone 2... An other mistake is that zone 2 is not the same intensity in every zone modell... For example by inigo san millan zone 2 is way lower than here. Because he needs a 6 zone modell. The goal is to train under the aerobic threshold, that intensity is way upper...
@@360sporthealth Oh wow! I didn't even notice that. But I think the graph is just incomplete. They have her 2 mM level at 112 watts, so they must have started earlier. But it's still kind of wacky, because they have the end of "zone 1" (which I would expect to be San Milan's end of zone 2) at 120 watts even though she's measuring 2 mM at 112 watts.... So that can't be right. I think her real zone 2 must be down near 100 watts, or maybe even a bit lower. It will be interesting to see the next episode. I honestly wish they would put an update out. I hope we don't have to wait all 6 weeks to hear anything.
OMG... Can't wait to see the full documentary unfolding. This is real deal!! I would love to see the progression in fitness, rate at which fitness improves and at which point the gain slows down etc etc... BTW, you are probably the most beautiful human guinea pig on earth!!!
Manon will get fitter just by virtue of increasing training volume, and having been a pro athlete not too far in the past. It is a lot easier to rebuild fitness than it is to build it initially.
She'll be back smashing it soon for sure 👌
The question is: by how much?
Absolutely! Gifted athletes bounce back very quickly from a period of inactivity. I know that from the recent experience of my 17 year old son who's a runner. For about 10 weeks since before Christmas he barely ran a step because of injury and then a string of illnesses, yet within 6 weeks of going back to regular training he's already at least as fast as he was previously. No shuffling around in zone 2 either! This is yet another flawed GCN 'scientific' test. After 6 weeks I suspect they will 'prove' that Z2 works, but it means nothing unless you compare it to 6 weeks of Z4/5 training.
Gotta say, the title is misleading, and so is the intro maybe a little bit, as it makes you assume this will show the results after the 6 weeks test, but this is basically just day 1... so kind of annoying to have not known this when I started the video... anyway good luck
Excellent video, great idea and execution. Would be really cool to keep up the concept with different training plans, and even breaks followed by lab tests.
this is the great sort of of GCN content that has relevance, to my riding and training at least (much more than say Getting Out Of Bed In The Morning For Beginners). The numbers also show what a natural athlete Manon is (as do her Zwift results!)
Fair play, Manon! A lot of us taking time away just for the colder months end up 6+ weeks out of practice at LEAST. This is a great way to remind us that getting out and enjoying rides without maxing out after some time off the bike will still be beneficial to most of us. Cheers from 🇺🇸
Nothing wrong with taking time off 🙌 Distance makes the heart grow stronger 🤣
It’s actually better than going out hard, because then you’ll burn out after some weeks. The best training program is the one you can sustain for months or even years.
I have to ask, what does "fair play" mean in the US? The land separated from England by a common language 🙂
Great project, it’s nice to see how you progress to get a better results.
I really appreciate that we get to see the exact test results. This makes it a lot easier to relate what Manon is doing to our own fitness and training. Good Luck Manon, looking forward to the results!
Thank you!
Thanks! Have you done zone 2 training? We're worried Manon is going to be too strong for us at the end of this 😬
Looking forward to this - she is such a good sport
The look in Manon's eyes while she was taking the tests... Literally laser focus! The body may not be as fit, but the competitor is still in there!
Stop saying literally lol. Just say laser focused. Same meaning, more mature.
Good luck Manon! I tend to do longer rides/touring at a steadyish pace so interesting to see your results and how you find it. Ramp tests are the worst!
Definitely you will get fitted. I did a similar ramp into fitness last year after a decade long parenting break from competitive sports. Started from crap and worked up to manageable rides. Good luck!
My mitochondria have been sitting around eating sweets and watching a bit too much telly over the winter. I think they need a bit of zone 3 and zone 4 training to whip them into shape.
Telly time is over 🤣 Enjoy the spring! Many great miles ahead 🙌
I was diagnosed with hypopituitarism, which means I am replacing 4 key hormones an have inadequate levels of two others that support the body during exertional stress. The physical therapy program I use is essentially zone 2 training. In therapy the goal is to exercise so close to the onset of exertional stress as possible. The threshold for exertional stress occurs within zone 2. Zwift’s power output data seems to be pretty accurate. Over the years I have experienced a steady increase in my power output and fitness riding riding for 75-100 minutes in Zone 2, 5 to 6 times a week. I have seen a steady increase in both my power and endurance. When I started it was a struggle to stay with Zwift’s 1.1 w/kg robopacer. At this point, with a bit of extra effort, I am able to ride with Zwift’s 1.5 w/kg robopacer. My next goal is to use zone 2/graded exercise therapy to be able to keep up with Zwift’s 1.8 w/kg robopacer. I was diagnosed with hypopituitarism, which means I am replacing 4 key hormones an have inadequate levels of two others that support the body during exertional stress. The physical therapy program I use is essentially zone 2 training. In therapy the goal is to exercise so close to the onset of exertional stress as possible. The threshold for exertional stress occurs within zone 2. Zwift’s power output data seems to be pretty accurate. Over the years I have experienced a steady increase in my power output and fitness riding riding for 75-100 minutes in Zone 2, 5 to 6 times a week. I have seen a steady increase in both my power and endurance. When I started it was a struggle to stay with Zwift’s 1.1 w/kg robopacer. At this point, with a bit of extra effort, I am able to ride with Zwift’s 1.5 w/kg robopacer. My next goal is to use zone 2/graded exercise therapy to be able to keep up with Zwift’s 1.8 w/kg robopacer. I was diagnosed with hypopituitarism, which means I am replacing 4 key hormones an have inadequate levels of two others that support the body during exertional stress. The physical therapy program I use is essentially zone 2 training. In therapy the goal is to exercise so close to the onset of exertional stress as possible. The threshold for exertional stress occurs within zone 2. Zwift’s power output data seems to be pretty accurate. Over the years I have experienced a steady increase in my power output and fitness riding riding for 75-100 minutes in Zone 2, 5 to 6 times a week. I have seen a steady increase in both my power and endurance. When I started it was a struggle to stay with Zwift’s 1.1 w/kg robopacer. At this point, with a bit of extra effort, I am able to ride with Zwift’s 1.5 w/kg robopacer. My next goal is to use zone 2/graded exercise therapy to be able to keep up with Zwift’s 1.8 w/kg robopacer.
Genius concept for a video, and big respect to Manon for taking on 6 weeks of just Zone 2. I’m absolutely fascinated to see the results. Gut feeling tells me the Zone 2 stats will improve a fair amount and everything will improve a bit but not as much as if you threw in 20% at harder intensities. Keep up the great work GCN.
Thank you Manon. You have inspired me to do the same. See you in 6 weeks 😊
Way to go Manon, hoping you get some good spring weather for your rides and find some interesting routs, good luck, will be following your progress.
We're hoping that the sun shows its face so we can get the miles in ☀
Great content. I race track (very amateur) but my zone 2 was also a significantly lower percentage of my vo2 max. Excited to track your progress!
Great to hear you race track 🙌 Will you be giving zone 2 training a try?
@@gcn I finished a block of zone 2 with some rowing and now I’m headed for the lactate training. Which I’m excited for given the monotony of zone 2. Seems like z2 requires more faith and patience when your event background is rarely over 15-20 minutes.
Great video ❤ will be interesting to see the results 😊
Can’t wait to see the follow ups for this series!
Good Luck Manon! I'll be watching for results because in the winter, I use a LOT of zone 2 to keep myself on the bike and not burn myself out.
You can follow Manon on Strava here 👉 gcn.eu/aBB - This way you can keep up to date with all her zone 2 rides
Isn't the opposite? For me is way easier to go hard with cold and a real struggle during summer under the deadly sun 🤷♂️
@@nemureI live where it snows...ALOT. All winter I'm indoors and typically watching TV while riding :)
@@goodytyler9645 OK, that makes sense
Success will be defined by what your goal is. As a 55yr old male I trained in predominantly Zone 2(2/5) for 4.5months while training for an Ironman (14-18hrs/week), so three sports. My FTP went down, my VO2 went up and my ability to hold consistent power over 3-5.5hrs gave me recorded best results. Upon my return to road racing, I was a little off the mark to begin with and then once I added some intensity had my best season ever . My takeaway is that very few people have the patience to stick with Z2 for any length of time to see this improvement, even though coaches have been singing its praises for decades.
I hit zone 2 at 57 years old. loving it. permanently. people on bikes can boast of non stop zone 2 as well.
Awesome 🙌 How are you finding zone 2 training?
Not mountain biking
Good video Mannon. Well done.
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙌
Yay Manon 🎉 I'm going to enjoy following you over on strava for this experiment. I think it's what we used to do by switching to an old fixie bike for long winter rides. We knew then we were trying to increase our mitochondria (in the 1970s). But going out with groups of faster guys, pretty sure my mitochondria did not increase lol! Still working on those mitochondria😅 😅😅
Great stuff. As an older person limited to lower HR training for cardiac issues, it is very relevant to me.
Great Job Manon. I'll be joining you in the process. At 60 years of age, I've found that lower intensity training has been one of the keys to me still riding as I age. Based on the Zwift Step test, my FTP is 196. My weight is 221 pounds (100.2 KG). I've created three different length Zone 2 workouts in Zwift and will be riding 4 times per week. Let's see where I end up!
I've switched to an 80/20 Zone 2/HIIT program for the indoor season, and there is no doubt it makes for excellent form. The one thing it doesn't do -- even the intervals -- is prepare you for the repeated short, irregular accelerations of real world riding. Uneven hills, slippery turns, potholes, wind, and other factors force one out of a rhythm and into little bursts that take a different toll on the legs than any Zone 2 program can duplicate. But the base from all that Zone 2 is great to build on once you get back on the real roads.
If you were doing 30"/30" HIIT intervals would that help prepare you for "repeated short, irregular accelerations of real world riding"?
@@aarondcmedia9585 I think it all helps, but at least for me a real road ride is different than any structured interval.
Tabata helps in that. Also doing a training session closer to a race, like a long zone 2 ride then a tabata 30/10s at the end to simulate a sprint finish or low cadence intervals to simulate a long grind to a climbing stage.
Well, you have to incorporate sprints in your training if you foresee that you'd doing sprints. Can't do good sprints if you don't practice them 🤷
Zone 2 is actually excellent at training your hard effort repeatability as the better you are aerobically, the faster you will recover between efforts.
Looking forward to this. I'm an older man, and have started riding again after two or three decades of not riding. This winter I have started indoor training to get ready for nice weather riding outdoors, and my goals are really to just to be able to go for nice long rides at moderate speeds. Where I live, there are hills to negotiate, but I'm not really that interested in getting fast. I just want more endurance to spend more time outdoors having fun on my bike on varied road surfaces. As such, designing a training plan, when most info out there seems to be geared to younger, more competitive riders, has me kind of just experimenting to see what works.
Frank, you need not worry about going fast. Age has taken that worry away my friend! :)
@@uclaalum88 No doubt about that.
I've been doing something similar...mon-fri Z2 on zwift and 2 steady runs. Saturday an effort on park run, Sunday a "normal" ride/sportive etc. Started in Jan and the power I can generate in Z2 has gone up. In the last 7 days I ran sub 21min 5k (PB) and got dozens of PRs on my regular 80k ride.
I've lived in Zone 2 all winter on Zwift. Got back outdoors a couple of times (cold again all next week in the Northeast US) and felt super strong. Much heavier with winter weight, but feeling very fit/conditioned.
Will follow and see your progress 😊
how to follow on strava, no link attached
You can follow along with Manon's zone 2 adventure here 👉 gcn.eu/aBB
I laughed when Manon said “It’ll be easier when I’m fitter”. Actually, it won’t be any easier, you’ll just be faster (paraphrasing maybe Greg Lemond or Bernard Hinault?)
Yep, agree. Btw. Greg Lemond said it.
Joop zoetemelk
Really enjoyed this and the information on what zone 2 is and isn't - the advice on it's not strictly HR or strictly power but the relationship between the two was a real insight - a lot of us like empirical facts but this nuance is really insightful. A question I do have is what about fuelling when on zone 2? In particular longer rides. I was out at the weekend for a 4 hour zone 2 effort. I tend to only take ZERO tabs when out for less than 2 hours but when out for 4 will have carbo drink as well as granola bars. On Sunday I had 2 lites of energy drink, 2 granola bars and a Boost DUO candy bar (to prevent bonking). All of this on a ride where, as I I understand it, I'm not actually depleting my glycogen stores - so why? The simplest answer (Occams Razor - for Ollie) is I wasn't in Zone 2 and that is the most likely case. My avg HR was 131, peak 150 and I take zone my 2 to be 125-136 - you have to work hard enough but not too hard. Confused as to why I was so hungry - I have lots of latent energy reserves to work from in zone 2 (FAT). Anyhow keep up the good work. David
No way, I just started my Zone 2 training plan this week too! Go Manon, I'm super curious about how this is going to improve your and mine performances on the bike! I'll follow through the entire process, big encouragement to you and from you!
Zone 2 training buddies!
Manon is awesome. Well done on the video
oh lol. I was expecting results, but found you at the start of a 6 weeks long yourney. Good luck and I'm keen on your findings. In the meantime, I'll be doing some training in different zones. Hope both work for both of us.
Manon is going to smash it 🙌 You can follow along with her via Strava 👉 gcn.eu/aBB
Really interested to see how this works out as I’ve read a lot about Zone2 being great but also that you should go as hard as you can if you only have 4-6 hours a week to ride. The results will be intriguing. Good luck and thanks for putting yourself through this so we don’t have to!
appreciate the effort.
I do zone two every day on my way to work. I love my Kawasaki Ninja. And would just like to thank the GCN crew for helping me overcome my fears!
Not a Fireblade fan?
@@gcnNot at the moment but maybe GCN could convince me with a review? Maybe at the start of next month? Like the first?
😂😂Kwak Ninja, thats a fast bycycle😂😂
This is definitely something I have to work on. It's very tempting to just push off to be lazy. Maintaining moderate intensity is a habit I'll try to build, this session.
I just started cycling in October, but really only started doing zone 2 work this year AB’s I’ve noticed a big improvement. And I’m intermixing zone 2 with harder rides. Usually follow up a hard ride with a good zone 2 session
Sounds like a modern twist on “base miles”, or in other words “winter miles bring summer smiles”. 😁 With limited training time last summer I was trying to do a hard one hour loop four times a week, but found that a long 4-5 hour weekend session did more to reduce the time and effort of that loop than the four hard sessions 🤷 Good luck and enjoy the training!
Yes, it's just we can get more precise with it these days with accurate HR monitors and power meters and accurate testing. In the old days you would simply stay in the little ring till after Christmas! However, this meant a lot of coasting downhill, so to get the same benefits and had to do a lot of hours! With power meters we can keep it in zone 2 constantly and even a couple of hours per session is a good stimulus.
Really interesting, can't wait to see the results! I've recently started using zone 2 training and it's pretty boring, but seems efficient. I've also been told that mixing zone 2 with 1/3 of HIIT during the week had good results... Maybe next experiment?
She’s going to see a big improvement. I wish I had known this was coming. I was off the bike for over two years with reactive arthritis after having gotten sick. The issue took forever, and some physical therapy was also required, before it finally resolved enough to get back on the bike in Mid January. I started out with an FTP test of sorts, just riding as hard as I could for 20 minutes outside after getting all my equipment working again. Lacking in fitness completely, my HR was 10 bpm lower than my previous fit threshold HR. I spent the first two weeks in zone 1 and 2, 2-3 days per week, just getting my leg speed up and getting accustomed to good cadence. At week 3, I did an actual FTP test on the trainer. Just three weeks in, I saw about a 25% increase in FTP. I have added in a couple sessions of Creatine Phosphate pathway (AKA CP or Pcr) intervals, along with a couple sessions of anaerobic pathway intervals. My sessions have increased to 3-5 per week, and I am 9 weeks out from my last FTP test. I clearly need another one, as when I am riding outside in the hills, my HR stays well below the zone 2 point (on purpose), but my power is all over zones 3+ now, indicating another significantly large rise. It would be pretty nifty to see if someone like me only did zone 2 by comparison, so that we can see what, if any effect my handful of intense (but low rep) intervals might be making by comparison with just zone 2. I have specifically avoided zone 3 on purpose as my own experiment.
Always enjoy the videos. Interested in seeing how you make out. I have done Zone 2 now for 12 weeks and have seen some increases that I was surprised at, HR has lowered when riding at a set Wattage, Max seated power test has increase from 700 to 928 watts. Really like this for a guy over 65 years old. All done indoors since we live in Canada ;-))
That’s impressive and inspiring!
Not sure I’ll ever be as strong or as fast as “less-trained” Manon is now ;) but still, in a year or so of mostly 2 to 3-hour Zone 2 rides plus some longer/harder/steeper rides when the spirit is willing, I’ve seen a very noticeable improvement. Way back when, I tried a local climb and completely gave up after about 400m of ascent feeling like I was going to completely explode in a rather messy way. Fast forward to now… I’ve completed that climb of 1,000m ascent and have done two or three others of around 1,000m ascent as well.
Been building my aerobic base for past two months, although running vo2 max has stayed constant cycling one has increased also my rhr dropped to 44 from 48 along with increase in hrv so yeah it does work Looking forward to your results manon!!👏👍
more details please, did you use 5 zones split, did you ride by HR or power meter? how long? how many times a week? thanks
@@Ggosciu sure, i am training for Ironman 70.3, so i swim cycle and bike each twice a week using 80/20 triathlon workouts in the matt Fitzgerald book There are some zone 5 workouts as well but like once in two weeks eek mostly zone 2 and some tempo at zone 3 Along with that i do yoga and strength training on my rest days with some meditation & mobility added
@@Ggosciu And all this is level zero as per the book are there are 3 more levels🫠
Yay, Manon's back!! ❤
Speaking her own version of English....
@@barrycorney3665her English sounds pretty normal to me.
Very interessting, cant wait for the result! Next up, only Zone 5 intervalls for normal people who dont have much time. 🙂
I spent 6 months of the bike and I recently got back to it. I've been the past 6 weeks doing pretty much what Manon is going to do, but adding some zone 3 time a couple times a week... Just as a reconditioning training before bringing intensity back... My former FTP was around 280/290 W but I knew I coudn't trust numbers yet so I tried to stay around 135/140 bpm and watch the power rise during the weeks. It did but not as much as I would've liked. My first couple rides at z2 I averaged around 137bpm and a NP of 132, and finished training block around 10W higher, which is still a 7.5% increase, but I hoped for more... Now I want to start introducing intensity to my training so I will have to do some test and properly set the zones
As a Norwegian I’ve been doing it since 1988. 😅
As a next step it would be great to see a deconditioning then 6 weeks with typical higher intensity training with less zone 2 and compare the results
I've tried it many times for 2-3 month blocks. You'll go backwards unless: 1) You go, or build up to going significantly above your normal volume 2) Add some time above FTP every 10 days or so. Both stimulate the fast twitch fibres which can get detrained if doing only zone 2 within your comfort zone.
The beauty of zone 2 is you can increase volume without burnout and fast twitch muscle fibers will be recruited if the session is long enough, for some people that might be 2 hours, for some it might be 5 hours. You should still do 1 hard session a week though.
This is an experiment I would like to see a 6 week exercise intervention randomized to zone 2 only or zone 5 hiit (matched for calories burned?) with a 6 week washout period, then a crossover to the other intervention. And see the v02 increase, fat metabolism, lactate threshold etc.
Started training at BPM 138 training about four weeks back and my numbers has increased dramatically. In distance and Personal Bests. Would love to join in on the rides
Very interested to see the results here. I am on a training plan also that has large chunks of Zone 2 work built into it, and I do see positive results (gains in FTP, reduction in Zone 2 HR in parallel with power increases in Zone 2 HR zone sessions). Keen to see if there are similar gains with Z2 training ONLY. There are very mixed opinions on how effective this approach is; it's lovely to see this experiment being done with a 'normal' type rider as well, as opposed to riders / athletes who do not represent the status quo population of viewers of this kind of content. Thank you GCN!
hi, thanks for the comment! Make sure you let us know how your training goes! Cheers!
Great! Could you make more training advices of balancing between health and fitness for cyclists who are over 50. Thank you
Good one. It’ll be interesting to see how well this works. A measurable improvement with any training plan in 6 weeks is a good achievement. I think duration will be important on a Z2 program.
Make sure to come back in 6 weeks to find out!
Zone 2 of HR or Zone 2 Power ??
Yep @@dineshnadar5214, that’s a tricky one. The current thinking of many coaches is that power is an indication of performance whereas heart rate is a measure of effort. Adaptation is more a factor of effort I think. My personal opinion (I’m an Engineer not a sports scientist) is that adaptation is more dependent upon effort / physical response. I base moderate intensity training on heart rate and higher intensity training on power. Heart rate and power will converge more as intensity increases. Therefore they become the same thing. That’s not necessarily the case with moderate and lower intensity zones.
Aweosme and good luck💪💪🤙🤙🤙
Zone 2 is kind of like the age old principle, if you want to get fitter then ride your bike more, not to hard, not to easy but ride regularly and consistently. I reckon Manon will gain quite a bit, as a former elite athlete but now being on lower fitness scale (relative to her former levels), she'll have a good response simply from the consistency of the 6 week training block and waking up all the muscles. It will be interesting looking forward to seeing how it all progress 👍 Would be good also to see a 3 way test of low unfit level, a mid level & higher level rider.
So Dan is apparently a real doer! We are already seeing the front pocket idea on GCN merch!
As someone dealing with chest pain/tightness/breathing issues for several months, (looks like I'm getting diagnosed with EIB finally.) This video is exciting for me, as anything above z2 really starts to bother me. I'm going to slowly ramp my z2 workload until we get my health stuff sorted. (Don't worry I've been checked for heart issues, lung infection, I've been getting plenty of medication guidance.)
take it easy! and we're glad that Zone 2 can help you out! 👍
You’ll be fitter! Well done, Manon. Go for it (Zone 2 only). 😄👍🏻👍🏻
I think you’ll love it,. You’ll be able to take much more in, of the beautiful countryside. Have fun! 🙂
Z2 is a must for me. I like DH on my MTB which means uphill as slow as possible.
I found my zone 2 with breathing alone. The powermeter and HR monitor is only used to stay in zone short (PM) and long term (allowing some HR drift) I do 4-6 hrs of Z2 per week plus 1hr vo2 training, depending on season. To improve further I would need to do more, but its not worth it.
High volume, low intensity exercise is greatly underestimated for its impact on physical fitness, so I wouldn't be surprised if you saw significant improvement.
This is actually what I am doing at the moment. I've hardly cycled since beginning of December last year. FTP went from 199 to 166w and my vO2 from 49 to 41 currently. I want to improve my base fitness first then start increasing the load. I only have around 4-6 hours a week to ride. Using Wahoo system X to plan my indoor sessions.
4-6 hours is good enough if you can manage to do it consistently for months or even years.
@@ketle369 4 weeks and I gained 11w on my FTP and 20w on my MAP.
Being an older rider, nearly always in zone 2, far more enjoyable both physically and mentally, so more sustainable, resulting in always feeling quite capable on the bike even when I have to really push it (maybe that mitochondrial efficiency?)
I wanna join in on some zone 2 zwift rides. Let's goooo!
This is very interesting topic that I would like to try but not yet. I hope Zone2 can help improve a lots. We have no need to "no pain no gain" anymore.
Great question about HR vs power. My question to Manon would be, are you planning to do the sessions on a trainer (if so, how are you managing boredom), or outdoors (if so, how are you managing to stay within the zone) ?
From what I remember of San Milan and Attia's chat, you still need that high intensity training. Though i will say, going from unfit, not having ridden in a couple of years to riding 4 days a week, I did almost all zone 2 for 6 hours a week or so and I was much much fitter. But that is mainly because I was exercising vs not at all.
I usually do 6-8 hours of zone 2 training per week at 75% of ftp. I can say that I'm improving my fitness especially my stamina on doing long ride and faster recovery time on pushing red zone.
Thanks for sharing! That's great to hear 🙌 Have your got a goal in mind?
@@gcn my current goal is just having a higher ftp and ride faster.
In the ramp test, they missed the first lactate turn point completely (the first sample at 120w is already at 2 mmol/L) and used steps too large to correctly estimate Manon's lactate profile. Without a basal sample and seeing the lactate first creep up, it is challenging to determine LT1. I assume they determined Z2 with the progressive test with gas exchange, for which we did not see results, so the prescribed zone is probably still correct, but 3mmol/L as the top of Z2 still looks crazy high to me.
I did a similar test at Loughborough sports science and they measured my LT2 at 3mmol. My LT1 was 1.36mmol.
Good eye! Made me go "huh" as well - the lactate curve in the test looks like it has way too few datapoints and starts way too far to the right. We can only *assume* they found FatMax via spirometry (as we can see her wearing a mask) and used lactate as an adjunct metric - and hopefully not that they started at too high a wattage, overcooked the subject, and completely missed the LT1. 3mmol for top of Z2 is indeed questionably high - these days the consensus value for AeT is Baseline bLa + 1 mmol - it's maybe worth to back off the intensity and conservatively target mid-low Z2 (125W-ish) with the prescription, and back off even further in case of significant HR decoupling in long (90min+) bouts, instead of running the risk of turning it into a Tempo workout.
Good luck staying in Zone 2. I try it but every time I hit a hill I am way out of zone 2. It just isn’t possible.
Sounds great to me look forward to joining. Im just back on zwift and zone 2 would be nice rather getting involved in destroying myself as usual when very unfit :) Craig Murphy Isle of Man
Very interesting!!
I am looking forward to see the results. Also, it would be nice to give us a little hint on how to maintain zone 2 while roding outdoors.
Hi, thanks for the comment! Hopefully this video helps out kzhead.info/sun/ZdOKoMOhmXyNgH0/bejne.htmlsi=16d13Guir8qk2ANI Cheers
I love Johnathan, he’s the most amazing dude.
I’ve just got an 11-40 cassette to enable z2 living in a hilly area. That’s how it is. All bikes are woefully overgeared for normal humans.
Do you use grx 810 rd for it?
Something like that worked for me after long unwanted break. 1h on a trainer 3-4 times a week. It was better than nothing, I could do longer rides outside straight away.
Little and often is a good idea when you're trying to get back on the saddle 🙌
Good luck Manon. I've been doing a bunch of Z2 through the the autumn and winter in preparation for the Marmotte this summer. In the next three months I'll be shifting to hillwork, heatwork and higher intensity but do plan to continue to pack in as much Z2 as possible as it allows loads of volume without the risk overtraining. As was mentioned in the video, I've found that the power I can output at the top end of Z2 without going into Z3 has gradually risen by 20-30W over the winter so I'm positive It's working.
Thanks Andy!
I only ride for fun to stay active. I suspect most people like me bounce between zone 1, 2, and occasionally 3. I'll be curious to see the results.
This is brilliant but also soul destroying because I’ve probably not got my zone 2 training right! I could only follow heart rate
I’m a cycling based personal trainer and I do metabolic testing and interpretation for lots of cyclists and athletes. I’d love to hear more of an argument for cross training for cyclists! A lot of your metabolic data is contextually sport specific and not a real elaboration on full metabolic health. A lot of cyclists and a lot of my clients understand the benefits of gaining that metabolic flexibility through other planes and functional movements as well!
Hopefully I'm not being too presumptuous, but congrats on the nuptials. I'm sure the zone two training will hit your goals perfectly. I myself have been doing zone 2 training for the last 4 months and can confirm that the ftp gains are real. The finesse gain are real also. I'm sure the dress will fit perfectly.