I’ve self-coached with a general Friel plan for years, and just signed up with TR. I did my first ramp test and am a few workouts into a plan with my new Kickr Core. I was surprised at how low the endurance zone starts.
I would currently put my LTHR around 165, based on how I feel during races and interval training the past few years. According to a table on mountainpeakfitness that has both power and HR ranges, my endurance zone starts at 112bpm (68% of 165). 115-125bpm feels rather easy, and the first endurance ride I did on TR had my HR in that zone for some intervals (running ERG on the kickr).
Fast after 50 puts the endurance work at “about 30bpm < LTHR” and a table in Cyclist Training Bible puts the extensive endurance work at about 130bpm for my LTHR. Tempo starts at generally the same bpm across the different sources (137-140). Is Friel focused on the upper end of z2 (starting at 130)? Do I actually get z2 benefits at 120-125bpm?
You get “z2 benefits” from really any aerobic exercise.
If you did your z2 rides to a HR of 120, instead of 130, the only differences would be:
A very small decrease in training stimulus. Like maybe 5%?
A very small decrease in training fatigue. Probably similar ballpark magnitude.
If fatigue was at all interfering in your training, you might even get better overall training stimulus from lowering z2 intensity, as it would allow you to increase total training volume.
When I started using power, I found it worked better to switch my HR zones from the Friel zones to the Coggan zones, and then tweak them a little, to get everything to jive. That brought my zone 2 down so the top is about at LT1 (instead of LT1 being near the bottom of Friel’s zone 2). I don’t have power on my mtb, so that’s it was a mess trying to understand where I was, but once I made the zone switch, everything made sense.
As a bonus, I’m used to my long outdoor rides in (now) z3.
Z2 is supposed to be easy, right? Any fatigue should come from duration, not intensity.
Settle in to a nice 4 out of 10 on the RPE scale, finish your ride, and then look at your power and HR data when you’ve finished. Don’t let the tail wag the dog.
Then go smash the absolute living sh!t out of your intervals on your hard days.
I guess that mountain peaks site had the outlier in terms of the low end of z2 (69% LTHR). I agree Friel has z2 as 81-89% LTHR, which is how I’m used to thinking of it.
Looking forward to more data points between HR and W. Today’s endurance ride had me at the high end of the power range to get to the lower end of the HR range. Legs were a little heavy, which could drag down the HR.
You’re changing paradigm, which is worth some attention. Over the years I’ve looked at pretty much all approaches and what I’ve learned is that it’s better to just commit to a new approach than put in effort try to make everything fit into a unified approach. It makes sense to try to correlate in order to gain confidence in the new approach you’ve taken but the second-guessing can be detrimental.
In short, don’t worry about HR. The ‘new numbers’ will fit into a new groove soon.
If this is your first experience training with power, we’d recommend prioritizing your power data over your HR data – especially if you’ve just done an FTP assessment via the Ramp Test.
As you continue to train with power, you’ll start to get a better idea of where your HR values align with your power zones.
As other athletes mentioned above, Z2 is supposed to be easy. It’s possible that you were actually riding too hard for Z2 in the past using HR alone. You’ll still see the benefits of Z2 training while going a bit easier, and, as a bonus, you’ll probably feel fresher for your harder interval sessions each week.
Here are a couple of TR articles that compare power and HR-based training that you might find useful:
Thanks, old habits die hard! I’ve been just HR so long.
It’s weird to be in an endurance power zone but trickling along at 120 bpm. I just did Mediane last night, and since the first 65% power zone had me just at the bottom of Friel’s z2, I ratcheted up the effort for the following 55% power zone interval to hold that same wattage.
And the day before in Bukit (ss/th), the 105% power zones didn’t push my HR up above LTHR. I’ve typically pushed those types of intervals a bit harder.
So my takeaway is I should just do the plan and just rate the workout as “easy” if that’s the case. Then I’ll be fresher for the hard days and have more capacity for resistance training here in Base. The workout progressions will adjust for me.
This old dog can still learn new tricks, but “not riding as hard” is a hard one.
At least for me the range, especially the upper end is too high.
I’d always use power as your primary data and heart rate as additional data, which supplements power. HR always needs context (RPE, power, sleep, fatigue, etc.). I wouldn’t fret over heart rate and just stick to power zones. If you are in the lower range of Z2, you can also pace by heart rate (which I feel is more relaxed outdoors).
