Heart Rate Zone Training – Smarter Aerobic Conditioning For The MX Athlete

In a past article titled “Go Fast Science, The Basics” we covered some of the basic science behind modern day training methodology. That article covered the overload principle, workload and training intensity vs. body fuels. This article is an extension of the past article; the purpose here is to give you a starting point in training via heart rate for your aerobic conditioning. Heart rate zones will allow you to moderate your intensity during aerobic activity so you can stress the various fuel systems your body uses during exercise and competition. Smarter training!

Establishing Heart Rate Training Zones:

The first step in the process of making your smarter training is to establish your personal heart rate training zones. This is done with a field test to measure Lactate Threshold Heart Rate in whatever cross-training activity you have chosen for aerobic conditioning. LTHR is the heart rate at which lactic acid accumulates in your muscles at a faster rate than you can eliminate it.

The following test is for cycling or running. You need to utilize a heart rate monitor that has the capacity to calculate an average heart rate for the time period being measured. The test is simple but requires you to be well rested, hydrated and fed as it involves a maximum effort!

Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) Test (for cycling or running) – Warm up for about 10 minutes. Start a 30 minute all out effort. You should strive to hit an effort level that will allow you to complete the 30 minutes at as high and intensity level as possible for the entire test. You don’t want to fade towards the end of the test but you don’t want anything left when you are done. When you are 10 minutes into your 30 minute all out effort, start your heart rate monitor recording function and stop it when you hit the 30 minute mark. This means you are recording only the last 20 minutes of your effort. Cool down for 5 minutes. The number you need from this test is the average heart rate for the last 20 minutes of your effort. This is your LTHR.

Now that you have your magic LTHR number you need to calculate your five heart rate training zones:

Zone Purpose Fuel % of LTHR

1 Recovery Predominantly fat <83%

2 Aerobic conditioning Mostly fat, some carbohydrate 83-89%

3 High level aerobic conditioning Fat and carbohydrate 89-93%

4 Aerobic/anaerobic threshold predominantly carbohydrate 93-100%

5 Anaerobic conditioning All carbohydrate 100%<

Add one beat to each zone starting number beginning with zone 2 to get the correct range of numbers, i.e. add one beat to 89% of the LTHR (high zone 2 number) to get the low heart rate number for zone 3.

OK, Now What?

Now that you have your 5 heart rate training zones established, what do you do with them? This is where the task of creating an actual training program starts. In general:

1) As intensity goes up, duration come down. This applies to how you do one workout as well as how you plan for an entire week. For example you may do one hour of cycling in zones 1 and 2 but you may only do 3 intervals of 4 minutes each in zone 4 for a total of 12 minutes in zone 4. It also means that weeks that have only lower zone workouts in them will have more total weekly volume of training than weeks that include work in the higher zones.

2) You progressively work from lower zone workouts to higher zone workouts. In January you may be only using zones 1 and 2 but in April you have workouts that include zones 4 and 5. You cannot gain the advantages of working in the higher zones until you have done enough work in the lower zones.

3) The higher the zone is, the less total weeks you can be working in that zone. You may be able to work for 12 weeks in zone 1 and 2 but only use zones 4 and 5 for 4 weeks total.

4) The closer you get to your important race, the more you add higher zone work but the less total volume you do. The few weeks before your important event are the least in total volume but have the most bouts of higher zone work.

5) View any work above zone 3 like a pill: the proper dosage at the proper time will yield excellent results but take it at the wrong time or take and overdose and it can ruin your season.

6) You should always be doing some zone 1 and zone 2 work. These are the pure aerobic, fat metabolizing zones and you always need the ability to do this efficiently. As the season progresses and higher zone work begins work in the lower zones decreases but is never totally eliminated.

These are just general pointers on how you create workouts and training plans. There is a mix of art and science to creating workouts, training weeks, and annual training plans. This is beyond the scope of this article but it will be covered in future installments of the Vurbmoto.com Coach Seiji’s Corner.

Now that you have some basic knowledge about exercise intensity, body fuel systems (both of those from the mentioned past article), heart rate training zones and general rules for creating workouts and training plans, you are well on your way to smarter training. Any racer can just train harder and harder but the ones that continually gain fitness and speed, season after season, are also training smarter. Do what you can to train as smart as you can so that your training produces the most rewards!