When I prescribe zone 2 running (as a trainer), I rarely tell my clients to focus on the heart rate or a specific speed. Rather, I want them to bring their attention to the flow of running itself. You should feel free, bouncy and relaxed. You shouldn’t feel pressure to synchronise your breathing with your movement.
I don’t mind any metrics to create rail guards. But ultimately, zone 2 should be an easy run as long as it is not a long run. So, what should never happen is that some metric forces you out of the zone.
The mind has to get rest also. From my experience, if the mind is at the right spot, the physical aspects sort themselves out.
“Light” and “bouncy” aren’t terms that I’d connect to riding. So, I am wondering: How would your describe the feel of a proper zone 2 ride? (Flowery descriptions are perfect!)
Running is a lot harder than cycling. Light and bouncy would describe a recovery ride, perhaps. Pottering about with friends who don’t train.
Holding 65% of your FTP continuously for 3-5 hours pedalling without pause doesn’t feel like that, it’s a moderate but concerted effort.
For me, it starts feeling easy, you need to hold back for the first hour, remind yourself you drink/eat small amounts every twenty minutes, then after the first hour my body starts to recognise the workload isn’t going away and a bit more focus is needed but breathing is still easy and it’s still easy to get distracted. After three hours fatigue is starting to take effect and it feels harder accordingly, the desire to keep going wanes and the saddle is getting uncomfortable.
Best thing to do is take a toilet break, refill bidons and snacks the. read a book, listen to podcasts or put on a tv series you’re really engaged with from that point forward to keep going.
Z2 or endurance rides rule of thumb - enjoy the scenery, you’re looking around and likely going slow enough to notice the little things in life around you. Those were my mental queues, along with just noticing if I started sweating more or breathing harder - then i’d just pull back.
It actually kind of the same feeling, but expressed a little differently. Your pedal stroke should feel easy and smooth and not ‘load’ up during the ride. Your breathing should be relaxed and easy to hold a conversation with someone else. The difficulty with z2 riding is going too hard on hills or head winds. You need to keep that same feel regardless of the terrain and wind.