My first official week of training is complete.  Right in the middle of it I got a really bad cold so was out for 3 days sleeping – trying to convince my coach I am not a slacker…. after the Run and Bike tests, I got a first pass at my target heart rate zones and spent the last two days trying to train in the lower part of the zones.  I totally get it, most people go all out all the time and overtrain so Z2 will seem lower than I think/lower than I normally run or bike.

Bike

Endurance Training Zone	Metabolic Training Purposes per Zone	Perceived Exertion per Zone	MHR% per Zone	Your Heart Rates per Zone
Zone 1 (Z1)	Recovery, Warm-up, & Cool-down	Very light; you feel like you are doing nothing	< 61%	< 93
Zone 2 (Z2)	Extensive Aerobic Endurance Training	Comfortable; you feel like you could go all day	61-70%	94-106
Zone 3 (Z3)	Intensive Aerobic Endurance Training	Manageable; you feel you are working, but you feel no pain	71-80%	107-121
Zone 4 (Z4)	Anaerobic Threshold Endurance Training	Hard; you feel burning in your muscles and chest	81-90%	122-143
Zone 5 (Z5)	Lactate Tolerance Endurance Training	Very hard; you are in pain and want to stop	> 90%	> 144

Run

Endurance Training Zone	Metabolic Training Purposes per Zone	Perceived Exertion per Zone	MHR% per Zone	Your Heart Rates per Zone
Zone 1 (Z1)	Recovery, Warm-up, & Cool-down	Very light; you feel like you are doing nothing	< 61%	< 103
Zone 2 (Z2)	Extensive Aerobic Endurance Training	Comfortable; you feel like you could go all day	61-70%	104-118
Zone 3 (Z3)	Intensive Aerobic Endurance Training	Manageable; you feel you are working, but you feel no pain	71-80%	119-135
Zone 4 (Z4)	Anaerobic Threshold Endurance Training	Hard; you feel burning in your muscles and chest	81-90%	136-150
Zone 5 (Z5)	Lactate Tolerance Endurance Training	Very hard; you are in pain and want to stop	> 90%	> 151

This is how I did:

Bike – supposed to do an hour in Z2 ~100 bpm at a 90 cadence (right foot) with a few accels into Z3 ~115.  I used Zwift and a NYC course which had some unexpected steep hills so had to change midway through…

Results:

HR = 114 avg (vs. target 100 bpm) and I did manage to keep it ~100 for some of the time.  But it had to be so easy that sometimes my w/kg (level of effort on bike) was so low the app thought I had stopped!  I don’t have a good cadence monitor for bike yet but we did metronome for a bit and I was way slower than 90 with right foot.

Run – this felt way further off despite a serious attempt to run slow.  Mind you, I had just watched a youtube video where a trainer who was explaining pose method was making fun of crossfit folks who did their runs in the middle of a metcon almost shuffling out the door.  I really struggled keeping my form OK (knees higher, cadence 180) and my heart rate low.

Results:

Avg HR/bpm = avg 123 with max 158. (vs target 104-118/151).  Note fitbit avg = 145, max 167

Cadence per TICKRx 153-157 (vs. target 180).  During accels I was at 180.

Also, runfit app didn’t seem to display right so I eventually gave up and just tried to run slow and relaxed to see what happened in the end.

Conclusions/Lessons Learned:  I need to learn how to run/ride easy and how to use this technology !