Hi Jordan,
Had a follow up question from ig. I thought it better to ask here. You mentioned you’d like to see most cardio done in zone 2, rpe 3-4 “with significant fuzziness on either end.” However, in the podcast you describe zone 2 as rpe 5-6 in the 5 zone model. Which one should I be doing? I’m probably missing something. Thanks
Yes, we described the talk test -anchored RPE scale in the podcast, where the onset of some breathlessness (can only speak in short sentences) would represent the top of zone 2. When using breathing rate for a proxy, RPE 5-6 is the target.
Some will use an effort anchor for RPE, e.g. very easy, easy, moderate, hard, very hard. And others will use a pace-type anchor, e.g. active recovery (z1), aerobic endurance pace that could be sustained for hours (z2), tempo work (z3), max pace for ~ 45 min to 1 hour (z4), and vo2 max training (z5).
Combining all of these together is quite difficult and can be confusing, I agree. I was hopeful the podcast would be somewhat actionable regarding RPE and the anchor system we were using. Similarly, I was optimistic the tweetorial posted (using a different RPE anchor) would give people the target needed for conditioning if they weren’t already doing some.
To your question, I think the majority of your conditioning work should be done right at or under the aerobic threshold, which is approximately the 1st lactate threshold, and ventilatory threshold. This is ~ RPE 3-4 using a pace or effort-anchored scale or RPE 5-6 using a breathlessness anchor.
Not sure if this helps, but here’s how I try to feel after completing a workout:
Zone 1 (Recovery): exactly the same as when I started, maybe even a bit better
Zone 2: fine - not tired
Zone 3+: tired