In it for the long haul? If you are looking at distance running / racing you need to build your base levels through effective zone training. Where do you start though?

The first thing you need to work out is your Zone 2 ranges, this is where the majority of your training will take place and it becomes the most important for developing your fitness levels. There are many training factors that can affect your Zone 2 levels – cardiovascular fitness, running efficiency, dynamic strength and mobility to name a few. Today we are keen to help you find this training zone so you can get the plan in place to build your long term base fitness. The fast stuff is important and will work for single race training however for long term endurance running and to develop your speed this needs to be at the heart of your training plan.

To work out the ranges you need to complete tasks to give us the base to work off. The first one is simple take your Resting Heart Rate each morning for the next three days and work out the average. This will be your resting heart rate.

You then need to complete a 3-5 minute run challenge, ideal up an incline so maybe a treadmill will work. You will need your fitness watch, Garmin, FitBit or Apple etc, so you can track your heart rate following the training session. Make sure you complete a good warm up first, including a few runs to prepare your body for the session. Now you can complete the test which is to run at near on maximum pace you can manage for 3-5 minutes, longer if not uphill, and check your watch afterwards to review your maximum heart rate achieved through this run. You will peak and hover around the target after about 60-90 seconds.

To put this into an example then you should have a;

Resting Heart Rate – 48bpm

Maximum Heart Rate – 192bpm

Your Zone 2 can then be calculated as the range where you are working at about 60-75%, any lower and you are just at recovery pace, any faster and you are moving into Zone 3 which is adding fatigue into the system, an important zone however not the target here.

The calculation follows;

Maximum HR (192) – Resting HR (48) = HR Reserve (144)

60% x HR Reserve (144) + Resting HR (48) = Lowest Zone 2 Training HR (134)

75% x HR Reserve (144) + Resting HR (48) = Highest Zone 2 Training HR (156)

This becomes your main training zone to develop aerobic fitness. Time to get to work, test and then track your progress. Working above this level is fine as part of a complete training programme, however working constantly and daily above this level will likely affect your training plans, injury risks and therefore your race results.

The key to building results here is to be patient, there is no silver bullet solution to this type of development. It comes through constant training at the right levels as part of a complete programme, which means you need to monitor your progress and re-evaluate your HHR regularly to track how your training can develop and change.

Build Your Running Base