The TRUTH About Zone 2

What percentage of your weekly training is done in zone 2? Drop a comment below to let us know... ...Also be sure to join our upcoming free workshop that will help you run faster: coachparry.com/udtk-Workshop

Coach Parry: Zone2 is a waste of time. Also Coach Parry: You should do 80 to 90% of your training in Zone2. Yes, I wasted some time here, but got something out of it. Dont know how I should feel about that...baited?🤷

If your starting running building your base as a endurance runner zone 2 is everything to build the strength to go long distances .

Misleading title. They follow zone 2 as well. 😅

There is one thing most fitness YouTubers forget to tell us: if you start from zero, it will take months to notice any progress. For me, it took eight months of consistent training and heart rate tracking to see improvement. This improvement was very subtle; basically, my heart rate dropped 3-4 beats for the same pace. Only after eight months did progress become much faster.

Good content, but i don't like Click baits!

As a physio since 1992, I tell all my over 50 exercisers to stay in z2, as you avoid injury at that pace. Add 1-2 sprint sessions a week and a couple of calisthenics sessions a week and you’re good to go. Most over-50 people who exercise in z3 are about to get hurt. I see them all the time in my practice. They’re great for my business, but they’re ruining their bodies.

Do better titles.

I'm a 57 year old cyclist and the only time I do any work in Z2 is a recovery ride once a week. I use a trainer for all my training. Sprints ,Threshold and Tempo work makes up 80,%of my training, and because I'm a cyclist do not get injured doing this higher intensity work. RHR of 34 when it's cool.

Great video, wonderful explanation 👍

There are two areas of disagreement among coaches I'd love to see addressed: 1. Zone 2 definition via % of max HR, vs. %HRR (heart rate reserve aka Karvonen method), and % of lactate threshold, all three of which produce different values from lowest to highest respectively. 2. How much of the 20% hard running should be in Zone 3, 4, and 5. GTN (Global Triathlon Network) and Mottiv in some videos seem to suggest that you should continue the pyramid -- for example 10% z3, 6% z4, 4% z5. Coach Parry and Run Elite seem to say go mostly VO2max z5 and only go to z3 and/or z4 closer to race day. What's best? Bonus question: GTN says to go ahead and train at higher BPM in the heat (i.e. your zone 2 HR goes up by 5 bpm as an example) when everyone else says run slower. RPE-wise and talk-test-wise I feel the former (go ahead with higher HR) is correct. Is it?

This video was so well made. The only thing missing would be to emphasize that even the best of the best athletes in the world train like this.

So basically 80/20 principle…you still have to push yourself

Mixing up the sessions is not only more interesting, it also makes a big difference in performance gains. A couple of years ago I just did Z2 runs, now I do 1xZ1 (recovery) each week, 1 interval or fast session, and the rest of the runs, including 1 long run, in Z2.

i love training in zone 2, but i add some sprints or interval once a week. works well for me.

Hi from Argentina... so i tell you in spanish: CLARÍSIMO! BRILLANTE EXPLICACIÓN!🫂

Zone 3 gets the bad reputation but in reality, Zone 2 is a no man's land. It cannot be the best of all things for amateurs. Zone 2 is ideally suited to amateur joggers who want to cross train some jogging into their preparation for a running event. Great for their health and for injury prevention if you aren't a very good runner and are likely to injure yourself trying to run at a running pace regularly in training. But zone 2 isn't running in the form you would in a race unless you're doing multiple day stage races or a huge ultramarathon or something. If zone 1 is a walk or recovery jog, then zone 2 isn't much more than that - it's a light aerobic effort. I understand you can do a lot of zone 2 work, bore yourself terribly, and gain mitochondrial and capillary density. Those exact benefits also occur from doing specific run training in zones 3 & 4. If you're completely unfit, have terrible neuromuscular coordination, awful form, or need to lose a lot of weight before you can actually train to run fast... then fine, do some zone 2 work to lessen the impact on your load bearing joints and poorly adapted tissues. Once you're a bit lighter, stronger and capable of moving well, you'd be better off running a lot of threshold and some over/under threshold work - that gets you far stronger, has exactly the same benefits as zone 2, is far more time efficient and simulates race conditions (you wouldn't run all-out actual race paces). Running a bit faster means more shock to the system which risks injury, so you wear sensible footwear to minimise peak landing forces. But cumulatively zone 2 work can also cause injuries. Ultimately, all training requires adaptation and recovery. Doing predominantly threshold work and forcing yourself to run faster might actually result in your body learning to run faster. Spending 80% of your time jogging in zone 2 and a mere 10-20% in the zones you intend to race in might result in you getting good at jogging in zone 2. You might argue the point that zone 2 is used by elite runners in their training because they can run with a low heart rate and move extremely well... Most amateurs can't do this. Eiltes and professionals will run with remarkably similar form in their zone 2 to their zones 3-5. They're extremely efficient and capable of moving well in zone 2 whereas most amateurs are shuffling/jogging in zone 2 and not running. You're generally training a suboptimal gait in zone 2. It's not entirely useless... it's really healthy for aerobic fitness with low injury risk, but I think it's suboptimal for becoming the fastest you could be.

Even jogging very slowly I’m moving into zone 3 according to my watch - yes, I’ve set it up properly. Now, as I zone 2, I have enough breath to sing a few lyrics of a song (another zone 2 test ). Help! What’s to do?

I don’t understand this. No coach or training regime I’m familiar with ever says “only train in zone 2”. They almost all say “80/20” and this is what the video concludes here. Seems a bit of a hype headline imho…

I run outside most of the year, so I’m ALWAYS popping into z3 when I hear a fantastic song and then stopping to say hello to a neighbor and dropping down into z1. I found this video to be the least useful in execution of just about any that you’ve done. It needed a different script. The 2 people doing it are lovely chaps. But one would try to introduce the topic while the boss would shoot it down and talk about something else. This needed to be a presentation of what CP believe, not a debate. It’s really hard to do “nuance” on video. You all are truly intelligent people. Just stick to the science. Stay away from clickbait.