4. Cycling Zones Description
• Zone 1 – Recovery
Intensity: < 81% of your FTHR, < 55% of your FTP. Duration: 30 – 90 min.
“Easiest” zone, workout at this zone, we could colloquially call “coffee ride”. The main goal is to recover your body after hard efforts like intervals, increase blood flow in your legs to let oxygen “clean” your muscle from fatigue. Workout in this zone should be done at least once a week.
• Zone 2 – Endurance
Intensity: 82% – 88% of your FTHR, 56% – 75% of your FTP. Duration: 60 – 300 min.
The relatively easy zone where you increase your aerobic capacity and learn your body to use fats like a source of energy. You should be spending time in this zone but remember to move to zone 1 if you need recovery or to zone 3 if you need to get ready for racing and group rides. Workouts time in this zone can get up to 6 hours.
• Zone 3 – Tempo
Intensity: 89% – 93% of your FTHR, 76% – 90% of your FTP. Duration: 60 – 120 min.
This zone is very good preparation for racing and more intensive intervals like sweet spots and threshold workouts. It is necessary to spend time in this zone during the Base period.
• Zone 4 – Sweet Spot
Intensity: 94% – 97% of your FTHR, 91% – 97% of your FTP. Duration: 20 – 60 min.
Sweet Spot zone is a very good place to be to increase your FTP, get ready for time trials and long climbs. Do at least 6-8 sweet spot workouts before moving to the next zone.
• Zone 5 – Threshold
Intensity: 98% – 102% of your FTHR, 98% – 105% of your FTP. Duration: 8 – 20 min.
Most important zone with zone 4 where we “push” our Functional Threshold Power and you are going over it to prepare our body to really high-intensity workouts.
• Zone 6 – VO2 Max
Intensity: 103% – 105% of your FTHR, 106% – 120% of your FTP. Duration: 3 – 8 min.
The very hard zone where you can’t stay longer than a few minutes in the row. Very good for shorter uphills or long finishes. Intervals up to 8 minutes.
• Zone 7 – Anaerobic
Intensity: 106% – 110% of your FTHR, 121% – 150% of your FTP. Duration: 30 sec. – 3 min.
Your ability for long finishes, short uphills. Hard to breathe.
• Zone 8 – Neuromuscular Power
Intensity: N/A – N/A of your FTHR, 151% – Max of your FTP. Duration: 8 sec. – 12 sec.
In this zone, you can spend only about 8-12 sec. It takes about 2-3 min. to recover. The most important part of intervals in this zone is to go as hard as possible for about 8-12 sec. and then go as easy as possible for about 2-3 min. Zone 8 improves your maximum power, very useful at finishes and short fast accelerations.