Feb 14, 2023

HOW TO DETERMINE ZONE 2

THE GODFATHER OF ZONE 2 IS THE GREAT PHIL MAFFETONE. I learned about Phil while studying the great Mark Allen, aka The Grip...

... who destroyed his competition, staying in Zone 2.

Mark Allen was a devastating competitor who's epic battles with the great Dave Scott at Ironman are legendary.

I wanted that for the type of racing I was doing at the time. long distance MTB events.

The idea of chasing my competitors down who always went out too fast continues to captivate me.

According to Phil, Zone 2 is 180 - your age. It's based on the idea most people have a max HR of 180 in their prime. At the time, my max was 198 and I was 40.

Was my zone 2 158bpm?

No, of course not.

Was it 140?

Probably.

There are many systems and ways to come up with our zone 2 range.

60%-70% of Max HR
Resting HR x 3
180 - age

There is the Power world, where HR is somewhat disregarded and zone 2 is based on a percentage of max power.

Or, the Perceived Exertion method, where any pace that is conversational is zone 2.

While these methods are based on the traditional 5 zones, there is also the 3 zone camp where zone 1 is the hero zone.

What I'm currently using, and think is quite accurate are the ranges generated by Strava. For me, that is 107-142. That is based on my max hr I hit last year at the Tucson Bicycle Classic TT.