Use training zones to make your goals reality
Whether your goal for this season is completing your first sportive, winning your local time trial champs or taking on an epic challenge ride, training using training zones will really help you in achieving your goal.
Training zones make training extra efficient as they ensure you’re riding at the exact intensity that’s right for the aim of the session or training block you are doing. If you own or use a Wattbike smart bike you can also take advantage of training zones within the Hub app or directly in the Wattbike Performance Monitor. This takes all the guesswork out of training and leaves you more time to spend on important things like friends and family (or re-watching the Track Worlds for the third time!).
You can choose between 2 training zone methods on the Wattbike, Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and Maximum Minute Power (MMP). The zones are divided up as a percentage of those figures. The break down and stratification of the training zones are below:
FTP Training Zones:
*Functional Threshold Heart Rate
| ZONE | FTP | FTHR | RPE | FEELING | PURPOSE |
| Z1 | <55% | <68% | 2 | – Relaxed, able to carry on a conversation – Easily maintain for hours | – Active recovery – Warm up/cool down |
| Z2 | 56-75% | 69-83% | 3-4 | –Working but feeling warmer – Heart rate and respiration up – May sweat | – Light activity – Warm up/cool down – Base endurance development – Your ‘all day’ pace, helps to build and Improves your endurance ability |
| Z3 | 76-90% | 84-94% | 5-7 | –Breathing elevated – Becoming more challenging – Borderline – Uncomfortable – Sweating | – Moderate activity – Pushes your endurance ability and a good intensity to work on technique whilst working at a moderate level – At the top end of the zone it’s the ‘sweet spot’ between endurance and hard work (83 - 88% FTP) |
| Z4 | 91-105% | 95-105% | 8 | –Short of breath – Panting – Sweating freely – Hard work | – Vigorous activity – Just above Time Trial effort, pushes your ability to hold your power under stress |
| Z5 | 106-120% | >106% | 9 | –Gasping – Sweating heavily – Very hard work | – Intense activity – Develops your top end fitness – Helps to improve your anaerobic energy system |
| Z6 | 121-150% | - | 10 | – Gasping – Extremely hard/maximal work | – Improves maximum power output and improved lactate tolerance |
MMP training Zones:
| Training Zone | MMP | MHR | RPE | Feeling | Purpose |
| Recovery | >60% | <35% | 1 | Very relaxed Able to carry on a conversation | Promotes recovery and training response |
| 1 | 61 - 65% | 35 - 45% | 2 | Relaxed. Able to carry on a conversation | Establish base endurance develops a more efficient use of energy and prepares the body for harder training |
| 2 | 66 - 75% | 45 - 55% | 3 - 4 | Working. Feeling warmer. Heart rate and respiration up. May sweat | Improve aerobic efficiency allows you to produce more power with the same level/ effort |
| 3 | 76 - 82% | 55 - 65% | 5 | Hard work. Heart rate and respiration up. Sweating. Breathing hard | Improve sustainable power |
| 4 | 83 - 89% | 65 - 75% | 6 | Panting. Sweating freely | Push threshold up, improves your sustainable race pace and is useful during pre-competition periods |
| 5 | 90 - 94% | 75 - 85% | 7 - 8 | Breathing very hard. Sweating heavily | Sustain a high percentage of maximal aerobic power, improves time trialling and develops a resistance to short term fatigue. |
| 6 | > 95% | 85 - 100% | 9 | Gasping. Sweating heavily | Increase maximum power output, increases your maximum power output |
| Supra Maximal | ≥ 100% | N/A | 10 | Gasping. Sweating heavily. Absolute maximal effort | Increase sprint power output |
How To: Set Up Your Training Zones
Setting up personalised training zones on a Wattbike is easy. All you need to do is complete a test, don’t forget to warm up and cool down correctly. Once you’ve completed your test you will be presented with your results and new training zones.
In summary, whilst your overall goals like building power or developing race specific skills may be the same as an elite athlete, training zones allow you to train at the exact intensity that’s right for you. This makes training as efficient as possible, meaning no wasted time or effort. What could be better?
