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All Terrain Conditioning Zone 2 Cardio Recommendation?

SUOMI-PUKU

SUOMI-PUKU

Level 6 Valued Member
What is this situation where your friend, who knows what zone 2 cardio is, comes to you for advice while you don’t know what zone 2 cardio is?

Also how is he familiar with the phrase zone 2 but not how to train it?

You’ve already been given lots of good answers but I’m just curious on the actual context as it seems like a strange situation in my head!
 
John K

John K

Level 8 Valued Member
Certified Instructor
Bill Lets said:
So I assume the talk test is done while moving whereas checking your pulse you have stop yes?
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Bill Lets said:
So how can you tell if your in zone 2 as opposed to doing just cardio?
I‘m okay with doing cardio for 30 minutes just to get it in. Thanks
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Talk test is a sort of continual evaluation - can you talk in sentences or 10-12 word phrases? It is based off of something called your first ventilatory threshold (VT1) - as you begin to exert yourself, your breathing deepens (bigger breaths). At a certain point, it cannot get deeper and you have to start breathing quicker (more breaths per minute). This change over is called VT1 and is largely synonymous with the talk test and the top end of Zone 2. For a lot of people, this also corresponds to the exertion level at which they can still breath through their nose. Some people are very good nose breathers and can breathe well above this point, so while nose-breathing can be A guide, and usually works well for new folks, over time you start paying attention to the breathing depth/rate too.
 
watchnerd

watchnerd

Level 8 Valued Member
Bill Lets said:
So how can you tell if your in zone 2 as opposed to doing just cardio?
I‘m okay with doing cardio for 30 minutes just to get it in. Thanks
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You don't have to use HR as the metric.

You can use watts or metts if on a piece of gear that tracks that (e.g. rowing machines, exercise bikes, stairmasters, etc).

There are calculators that will tell you, for a given piece of gear, how much power you need to be putting out to hit a given Zone using a number of inputs (e.g. age).
 
offwidth

offwidth

Level 10 Valued Member
  1. Strapping an HRM around one’s chest is not dangerous, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
  2. But no need for an HRM. Talk test will work just as well for many peoples purposes
  3. Yes you can take your pulse with a watch with a sweep secondhand. But you can’t really do it easily whilst you are running or cycling or whatever, and if you stop to take it, it won’t be representative. (but see #2 above)
  4. I seriously ran in harsh snowy winter climates for decades. No reason not to, just do it right.
 

Bill Lets

Level 5 Valued Member
offwidth said:
Strapping an HRM around one’s chest is not dangerous, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
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Thank you, perhaps not but it’s not in my budget anyway.
I’ll never forget the image of cancer spots shaped like a cell phone on a woman’s chest from supposedly carrying/training with a cell phone in her bra (OFF TOPIC). EMF’d
 
watchnerd

watchnerd

Level 8 Valued Member
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