INTRODUCTION

Hey Trainiac, this is our short report on how to use heart rate for your triathlon training.

DISCLAIMER: there are many nuances involved with setting up a proper training plan
that are intentionally omitted from this report in order to focus solely on the athletes just
getting started with triathlon training. I want to make this easy on you.

By the end of this report you’ll know how to test your heart rate, how to determine your
training zones, how much time to spend in each zone, and how to design your workouts
to satisfy the heart rate training requirements.

Lastly, you’ll be receiving this information in multiple ways over the next little while; this
automatic download, email, etc. We want to make sure you’ve received this information
and with spam filters as rough as they are right now we want to get you this info several
different times so you don’t miss it.

GETTING STARTED

At this link here​ you can get the heart rate zone calculator I use for Team Trainiac. If
you haven't yet done heart rate training watch ​this video linked right here​ to guide you
through how to perform a max heart rate test and analyze the data afterwards.

Here are the steps to getting your heart rate zones customized exactly to you beyond
what some "220 minus your age" calculator will give you:

1. Perform a max heart rate test

2. Record maximum heart rate achieved during the test
3. Input that maximum heart rate number into the attached calculator
4. Heart rate training zones will be generated for you
5. Answer yes/no questions below to further customize your training zones

SETTING TRAINING ZONES

Once you’ve performed the max heart rate test you’ve got all the data required to get
your personal customized training zones.
Click this link here​ to get the heart rate zone calculator which will automate the process
for you.

1. Input your max heart rate from the heart rate ramp test in the video above
2. Input your age and answer the yes/no questions in the document to nail
your Zone 2 (top of the aerobic or fat burning zone)

GUIDELINES FOR HOW TO USE HEART RATE ZONES

Hey Trainiac, here are some guidelines for how to use those heart rate zones:

● Zone 1:​ spend about 20-30% of your total training time in this zone. It's used
primarily for complete rest days, warm ups, and cool downs.
● Zone 2​: this is where you'll spend the greatest amount of your time amounting to
a total of 50-60% of your total training time. We use this zone to build efficiency
in our cardiovascular system, increase our fat oxidation (body's ability to burn fat
as fuel), and to build endurance with the longer workouts and to recovery
between harder intervals in shorter more intense workouts. This is your meat and
potatoes Zone that's hard to hold yourself back and stay in, but it's the most
important zone.
● Zone 3:​ this zone is often referred to as the Grey Zone of training because it's
not easy enough to build efficiency and improve cardiovascular function or fat
oxidation​,​ but it's not hard enough to stimulate speed or strength improvements.
The hard thing is that this is the zone most people train in because it feels good:
it's hard enough to feel like we're exercising and making a difference, but not so
hard that it's terribly challenging. We have to fight the urge to be in this zone
because it's tremendously taxing on the body while not offering much training
benefit. You'll spend some time in this zone leading up to races to sharpen up
race pace because most athletes race somewhere in Zone 3. Spend maybe
5-15% of your total time in zone 3.
● Zone 4:​ this is often called Tempo work, it's challenging and builds your ability to
go fast and challenge yourself for a sustained period of time. This is an excellent
training zone for turning you into a strong like bull athlete. You'll want to spend
about 15% of your total training time in this zone.
● Zone 5:​ Finally, this Zone is used for building raw speed and power. You'll spend
about 5-10% of your total training time in this zone. This zone builds
mitochondrial density in your limbs allowing your body to use oxygen more
efficiently, it also promotes recruiting more muscle groups, fat loss for up to 48hrs
after a training session is done, and hormone release which is extremely
 important for athletes over the age of 30 to achieve in order to stimulate
recovery.

If you use TrainingPeaks one of the best ways to use it is to go into Homescreen >
Dashboard > Select your time period top left > Scroll down to the "Time in Heart Rate
Zones" and "Time in Power Zones" charts to get a sense of if you're following the 80/20
rule where 80% of your time is spent in Zones 1 and 2, and 20% of your time spent in
Zones 4 and 5. It's not an exact science but seeing your data in this format helps you
understand if you're going easy enough during easy efforts, and hard enough during
hard efforts.

EXAMPLE HEART RATE BASED WORKOUTS

● Zone 1: ​this zone is good for warm ups and cool downs in all workouts, the high
end of this or the low end of Zone 2 is also the heart rate you'll want to be in for
recovery workouts like easy swims and easy bike workouts. I like to recommend
these workouts on a Monday after a hard weekend, or a Friday after a hard week
preparing for a big weekend.
● Zone 2:​ this is a zone you'll spend a lot of time in, particularly during the Base
Building phase of the year when you're just building your cardiovascular fitness
back up. You'll do the vast majority of your long runs and rides in this zone and
the key to being in this zone is to hold yourself back when you're just getting
used to training in it and it feels hard to keep your heart rate low enough to be in
this zone. Eventually, after spending more and more time in this zone you'll be
able to go faster while staying in this zone, that's the key to training is to build up
your foundation of fitness so that you can push very hard efforts while not maxing
out your heart rate and blowing up, you do that by spending a lot of time in Zone
2.
● Zone 3:​ low zone 3 or high Zone 2 is where most athletes race an Ironman at,
while most sprint triathletes will race a sprint distance in high Zone 3 or low zone
4. This zone is tremendously taxing on the body without a big return on
investment so we don't want to spend a lot of time in this zone. However, during
race season we may do a fair bit of work in the weeks leading up to a race in
Zone three as race simulation workouts, spending extended periods of time in
this zone to "sharpen up" our race pace efforts.
● Zone 4:​ this is the zone where you'll do a lot of your interval training. We'll spend
small amounts of time in zone 4 during the longer bikes and runs, and as the
race season grows near you'll gravitate away from the shorter max effort intervals
 done in the strength and speed building season and change that more towards
longer efforts in zone zone during the shorter intensity focused days.
● Zone 5: ​this zone is where you'll do your short efforts on the track of 200-400m,
bursts on the treadmill, hill sprints during the strength and speed building phase
of the year, and on controlled bike trainer sessions where we're looking for
absolute max efforts. This is very hard to sustain so efforts in this Zone are used
sparingly but they provide a huge return on investment even for Ironman
athletes. I once watched Sara True do 12x400m at the track at a max effort while
training for an Ironman because the training effect achieved from these fast
efforts is so beneficial.

RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT HEART RATE TRAINING

● Triathlon Taren Content

○ Vide​o: ​Incredible results from 3 months of Zone 2 Heart Rate Triathlon Training
○ Video: ​Zone 2 TRIATHLON TRAINING: how fast can you expect when you
change?
○ Video: ​TRIATHLON TRAINING ZONES: The Power of Zone 2 Heart Rate
Training
○ Video: ​Pros vs Cons of Heart Rate Triathlon Training
○ Podcast: ​Four Key Ingredients for a Successful Triathlon Training Program
● Endurance Training and Racing​ by Dr. Phil Maffetone is the seminal work on
building a base of fitness with low heart rate training, our athletes use the
Maffetone heart rate extensively
● 80/20 Triathlon​ by Matt Fitzgerald and David Warren does a fantastic job of
explaining the requirement to have a proper breakdown of the training zones
● Primal Endurance​ by Mark Sisson is great and while aspects of this book
certainly make big claims that I don't necessarily agree with, it does a great job of
explaining the benefits of really long but really low intensity work while saving
time for really short by REALLY intense work

Finally, if you're looking for a training program with all of this zone work taken care of for
you, check out our ​Team Trainiac training platform​ which has all of the workouts
designed with the zone training and proper breakdowns done for you with workouts
customized for your schedule. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and see what it's like.