Is Zone 3 Training A Waste Of Time?

now a lot has been made of which zone you should train in mostly zone two is good zone three is bad The Gray Zone that must be avoided but why what really is the reason for this and should you really be avoiding this gray Zone [Music] so let's start by examining the question we're asking here is training in zone three bad well first an explanation of what we mean by zone three when we talk about intensities of training zone two would be the aerobic training Zone that is the Zone where you can and do generate most of your energy needs aerobically mostly using fat as your fuel source zone four would be a higher intensity where you're working a lot harder and producing a significant amount of lactate and using far more carbs as a fuel source whereas Zone 3 sits between these zones it's not so hard as to be unsustainable but it's not an easy Cruise either it feels like you're doing work it's a level that feels challenging but not painful comfortably hard novice athlete they could probably sustain this kind of intensity for around 20 to 30 minutes and for your average age grouper probably between one to two hours for a good age grouper perhaps between three to four hours and then for an elite long distance athlete they can and doing fact sustain this sort of intensity for around eight to nine hours over the course of an Iron Man so why then is it called The Gray Zone well the main reason is that the recovery time from working at this kind of intensity is far longer than that say working at zone two and also that recovery period of time is less predictable for some athletes it may be a case of just a few hours to recover from whereas for others it may be a few days and actually trying to get any constructive training in during that recovery period is pretty darn hard if near impossible so for that reason many coaches actually prescribe zone two aerobic training where the aerobic gains are substantial but the workload and recovery time are more predictable now they may on top of that then prescribe some intervals or Tempo sessions working in zone three or zone four but they're manageable blocks where the recovery times are more predictable [Music] but then their athlete heads out for their training session their long ride their long run their group ride or group run and they start dipping in and out of that gray zone or Worse they're not doing the entire thing in the gray Zone and this is where that work recovery balance of their training program can fall totally out of whack because the next time they're actually required to go hard in their training they can't because they're tired or even on the easier rides or runs they're fatigued from having gone too hard elsewhere everything just sends up a little gray and for this reason Zone 3 has been banished to the naughty step don't go into zone three don't bother with the gray zone go hard or go easy nothing in between but this is very much not the case Zone 3 training is not bad in fact it might be your best training Zone keep watching as I'll explain why but before I do if you're enjoying today's video please do give it a like below and if you're not subscribed to the channel already or give us some love subscribe to the channel and make sure you don't miss any of our future videos [Music] well as I've said already an average age group could probably hold the Zone 3 intensity for around one to two hours which is pretty much an entire Sprint distance Triathlon at that kind of level and then for a very good age grouper they can hold this sort of intensity for around three to four hours which is a standard distance Triathlon or even most of a 70.3 distance Triathlon and then for a long distance athlete they're probably able to hold this for an entire iron distance Triathlon so zone three is literally race pace and obviously we want to make sure that we are training at the pace that we want to race also zone three is fantastic for building muscular and strength endurance there are a lot of benefits to training and working at this kind of intensity so what gives should we or shouldn't we train at zone three is there even a gray Zone well the truth is that most triathletes should actually be building up to doing a substantial amount of Zone 3 training within their training program by the pointy enter season for their goal race but this is where the confusion and that Gray Zone rule can come in because the amount of Zone 3 work we can do Depends heavily on our fitness so early in the season when our fitness may be okay but our tolerance is a little lower Zone 3 training may be very time inefficient because it takes a lot out of us and therefore also the amount of recovery time is increased quite substantially you're probably far better off actually spending more time working in zone two aerobically with some shorter and more controlled efforts into zone three and four but the problem with zone two work is that because it is that much slower it can feel like you're crawling along whereas zone three work you feel like you're really getting fitter from it and so many athletes jump into their training and jump into this Zone 3 work but then effectively end up chasing a tails for the entire Seasons they do these hard sessions but they're unable to back up those sessions upon other sessions and effectively build up their training volume so they are advised and correctly So to avoid zone three work to allow them to build up this aerobic fitness and tolerance to the training loads and by strictly avoiding zone three they're able to build up the training volume over time and also an added benefit to this is that it reduces the risk of injury whilst they are building up the volume but as you get fitter and closer to your goal Raceway you're going to be required to hold this kind of intensity for sustained periods you are going to want to start doing Zone 3 work within your training now this needs to be controlled some intervals probably starting out with some short intervals with some long recoveries between and over time as you start to get used to those and fitter you'll start doing longer intervals with shorter recoveries until you're finally building these into your Tempo runs and rides with nice long sustained intervals at that intensity still with me well let's try and sum this up for you a little bit then now zone three is obviously a very important intensity to train and get comfortable if you want to race Triathlon well but it should be second tier in the pyramid you don't want to start building up until that base layer of the pyramid is well established already so don't be scared of zone three don't avoid it but equally don't get carried away and start doing all your training at zone three even if it does feel rather good because when you're required to do some of the higher intensities you just simply can't because you're fatigued from all that zone three work that you've done so I hope today's video has been helpful maybe just cleared up a few of the misconceptions around that Gray Zone of training let us know if you've got any more questions in the comments section down below maybe let us know how much Zone 3 training you do and how you feel about Zone 3 training I hope you've enjoyed today's video see you next time

Channel: Global Triathlon Network

Views: 273,147

Keywords: fitness, health, zone, zones, zone 2, zone 2 training, training zones, heart rate training, heart rate, zone 2 benefits, why zone 2, zone 2 running, zone 2 cycling, zone training, ftp, threshold test, ftp test, mitochondria, zone 2 training benefitsGTN, Global Triathlon Network, triathlon, Triathlon (Sport), tri, ironman, Sports, swimbikerun, triathlon training, triathlon skills, iron man, tri bike, triathlete, swimming, cycling, running, training, skills, coaching, Վ, ኟ, Ꮽ, Ᏹ, Ᏼ, ψ, ꖧ, ꔣ, ᠫ, К, ೊ, की, ፕ15

Id: GC_Ycvn1MEM

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023