Training

Plenty of triathletes set one zone 2 heart rate and use it everywhere: same number on the bike, same number on the run, same number for every easy session in between. Then the ride feels suspiciously comfortable while the legs burn out before the watch says anything, or the recovery run somehow drifts ten beats […]

Zone 2 has had a strange couple of years. It went from a training zone triathletes used quietly to a thing longevity podcasters talk about like it’s a supplement. Somewhere in that jump, a few claims got repeated so often they started sounding like settled fact. Some of them are not. I went through the

Type “how to find zone 2” into any search bar and you’ll get four different formulas within the first five results, each claiming to be the correct one. One site tells you to subtract your age from 220 and take 60 to 70 percent. Another swears by 180 minus your age. A third wants you

You just crossed the line at your first Olympic distance race, and the 70.3 is already living in your head. Everyone says it’s a step up, but nobody tells you what that actually means week to week. Is it just more of the same sessions, stretched longer? I’m going through that exact jump myself right

Your watch handed you five heart rate zones the day you took it out of the box. It worked them out from your age and nothing else. Every zone session you have done since is built on an assumption about an average person who is not you. The fix does not need a lab, a

Your watch shows you a VO2 max number, and it feels weirdly official. Mine crept up over a training block and I wanted to believe it. But the watch never measured my oxygen. It made an educated guess off heart rate and pace. So the fair question, and the one worth answering before you get

Here is a pattern that shows up in almost every beginner’s training log. Every run sits in the same narrow band of pace. The easy days are not really easy, and the hard days are not really hard. It all feels productive, because every run leaves the legs a little tired. That constant tiredness is

You open your plan and it says “tempo run.” Your training partner’s plan says “threshold run.” You compare notes and realize you might be doing the same workout, or two completely different ones, and neither of you is sure. It gets worse when you read three articles and get three answers. The terms get thrown

You lace up for an easy run. Comfortable pace, normal effort. Then you glance at your watch and your heart rate is sitting at 168 bpm. That is not a Zone 2 number. You slow down, it drops a bit, but the moment you hit any kind of incline or mild headwind it creeps straight

Most runners and cyclists have seen the number. It shows up every morning on your Garmin, your Whoop, your Polar. Two digits, sometimes with a coloured status next to it, and absolutely no explanation of what you are supposed to do about it. That number is your HRV score, and it is more useful than