As the title says. How many power zone is appropriate?
I see there are 5, 6 and 7 power zones. I asked the question of a trainer and all I got was it depends on your goals or what “you” are trying to accomplished, yet that person did not elaborate. So, I responded that I don’t compete and just training to get stronger, faster and efficient. The person never responded. So I decided to ask here. How many power zones is appropriate - 5, 6 or 7 and why?
Thanks…
The Levels for Dr. Coggan are some of the more common references.
What TrainerRoad uses.
According to Dr. Coggan, there are 7.
1 - Active Recovery
2 - Endurance
3 - Tempo
4 - Threshold
5 - VO2Max
6 - Anaerobic
7 - Neuromuscular
TR workouts use 7 zones as well but add Sweet Spot in between Tempo and Threshold and combine Active Recovery and Endurance.
For most of us, there is not much practical training difference between zones 6 and 7. I think the Sweet Spot zone is important for training but it means the Tempo and Threshold ranges are fairly narrow.
And when I was typing I thought…Chad will have found the blog/podcast references already…
Too Many!
Thanks all. I will go do some reading now.
You forgot Dr. Stephen Seiler’s three zones. I love the three zone model. It’s so easy to train by.
Zones are an interesting academic exercise but your body doesn’t know the difference between 86% and 89% even though TR might call them separate zones. The adaptations are going to be the same.
wrote a blog on that. Know Your Cycling Power Zones: Which Should You Use? | EVOQ.BIKE
Let me know what you think, thanks!
Brendan
Thanks for the read.
I can’t figure out if my garmin power zones are configured right to match TR?
Could someone post their setup?
So where does the 429% come from? I don’t quite understand. Are you trying to match 1000watts? Can anyone confirm this is the right way to do it?
