Progression using conditioning zones

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi team, I have a question that has been really bugging me about training and progression using the conditioning zones.

The crux of it is: when do you know to up the intensity?

The context: I mostly do conditioning on my C2 rowing erg at home, although I’m now trying to slowly build up a run/jog instead of one long erg session. I was doing long easy pace on the erg at a set split, sitting on that split for some weeks until it felt very easy and then going one split faster, rinse and repeat. Now I have a HR monitor chest-band that connects to the erg, and I have an added data point of HR (not just watts and RPE). But I am getting confused: Should I be keeping my HR average in the target zone? Should the max for the workout be under the upper end of the zone range? And at what point do you decide that you can drop the split a little? E.g. this morning I did an hour with an average of 2:07/171 watts, avg HR 150, max HR 160. Do I aim to go to 2:06 when the HR stays under X bpm consistently? For reference if it helps, I did a couple of max efforts around Christmas (a 10k and a 5k) and my max HR seems to be about 195, and I’m currently 38 years old.

Thanks for your help!!

2

Dace,

Like resistance training, the relative intensity for productive conditioning training doesn’t really change. Rather, as fitness improves, you go faster, longer, do more work, etc.

Heart rate ranges for exercise intensity zones (e.g. z1-5) can be useful to serve as boundaries for a person’s physiological response to exercise. If using a HR range, the idea would be to keep your heart rate within that. I do not look at average HR at all. As your fitness improves, you should be able to go faster without increasing HR outside of the range.

-Jordan

2 Likes
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Thanks Jordan, that’s helpful!