Thanks your HRmax is much higher than mine, so our HR zones look similar on a relative basis (because yours are higher).
I’ve read enough of Seiler to know that HR can be used to estimate a threshold (e.g. lower ventilatory and lactate thresholds) where increases in HR can be considered a proxy for increases in stress in at least the autonomic nervous system (his paper from 2007?). Seiler also talks about hormonal stress, but can’t recall if this is more related to threshold vs VO2 intervals. It is part of Seiler’s training polarized discussions. Playing around a bit with polarized myself last year - I didn’t reach any conclusions on the stress aspect. But I didn’t really play around much with polarized as the harder vo2 sessions didn’t go well. I really needed a lot more “base” fitness and more importantly durability before tackling harder vo2 intervals.
However like I said above a lot of really good things happen when I do around 60-80% zone2 work. More from power production standpoint, but a side benefit has been a reduction in HR during zone2 power workouts.
Exactly! I’ve only logged 5 years of training, and have found a base period of 20+ weeks before doing a build has given better results. But everyone is different!
Be patient!