MH Squad coach, CrossFitter, powerlifter, and all-around good guy Scott Britton is celebrating his incredible strength, amazing fitness, and fitness through Battle Cancer, the global charity fitness competition he founded. And he is known for his unwavering kindness. Now he’s taking on a new challenge – and it’s going to take a little longer than a 10-minute metcon… Scott is ready for the next step in his transition into the world of Ironman triathlon: heart rate. Talk about mastering zone training.
For years, my only training was explosive lifting and fast CrossFit sprints, but the last few months of preparing for Ironman have taught me a huge lesson in heart rate management.
Heart rate zones are closely related to aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, the points at which the body shifts to different energy systems. Understanding this is very helpful when considering the pace of your training sessions, especially your heart rate zones when running. As I’ll explain later, for me this was a game changer. First, let’s take a look at what the different zones are.
There are five different heart rate zones (1-5), and your training plan can (and should) include workouts for all five zones. This HR zone graph shows the subjective level of intensity and percentage of your maximum heart rate for each zone.
Zone/Intensity/% of maximum heart rate
Zone 1 Very Light 50-60%
Zone 2 Light 60-70%
Zone 3 Moderate 70-80%
Zone 4 Hard 80-90%
Zone 5 Max 90-100%
In CrossFit, I always aim to be in the highest gear and spend most of my training time in zone 4, reaching about 80-90% of my maximum heart rate. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to sustain this for more than an hour because of that level of effort. As a result, my body was able to work at a high heart rate, rest, and then raise the heart rate again. But I had never worked out by moving for more than an hour.
Now I’m doing an Ironman, so I had to quickly get used to working out for 4-5 hours at a time, and I definitely couldn’t do it in the heart rate zone above 4. . Zone 2 was definitely on my side.
This helped me build a strong foundation of cardio and allowed me to move forward for hours without collapsing. Less impact on your heart rate and muscle performance for cycling, running, and swimming means you can train more than ever and complete a 12-15 hour Ironman (consisting of 2.4 hours) My goal is to become like this. Swim 1 mile, bike 112 miles, run 46.2 miles).
Here are some tips to help you focus on controlling your heart rate and improving your endurance.
playlist
I went from fast beat heavy metal music to a combination of podcasts and BPM focused music. Podcasts can help you slow down and focus during long workouts.
You can also search for songs directly by beats per minute and search by the type of workout you’re doing. For my Zone 2 training, when I search for 140bpm songs, Spotify brings up a list of great playlists.
nutrition and hydration
The amount of sweat you produce during long training sessions is truly shocking. Now I’m sweating almost twice as much as usual. I’ve been able to track this through Garmin and have put a big focus on increasing hydration and salt levels during training.
In addition to water and salt, I place particular emphasis on nutrition. By continuing to train, I increased my calorie burn from 3,500 calories a day to 4,500-5,000 calories a day.
record everything
It is very helpful to record your heart rate during every workout and note the changes. I use Whoop to monitor my resting heart rate and the impact of every session.
Keeping a record helps you see your improvements and progress, but it also allows you to see how sleep, stress, and recovery are affecting your body. Using both Whoop and Garmin helped me focus on staying in the training zone I wanted. Losing sight of this can lead to burnout and overtraining. The goal here is to be able to vary while increasing the volume.
Even if you don’t want to participate in a triathlon or ultrarun, try adding some Zone 2 work to your training. The goal is to live longer, gain more muscle cells, and be healthier overall, regardless of your sport or type of training. Try this session to find your Zone 2 and get used to staying there.
zone 2 workout
Complete as many of the following rounds as possible in 50 minutes or more.
1) 400 meter run
2) 400m bike (any stationary bike)
3) 40 air squats / 40 lunges (alternating each round)
Add 200 meters to your run and bike, making each round 50 minutes long. The goal is to keep your heart rate from exceeding zone 2. If you feel yourself gradually increasing, slow down.
Andrew, who has worked in the health and fitness field for nearly 18 years as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breathing coach, and writer, has spent nearly half his life finding ways to improve people’s bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor, he writes and tests thousands of workouts each year, delves deep into the science behind muscle building and fat loss, and conducts health research to help improve men’s fitness. We pride ourselves on keeping health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and trustworthy fitness information. Psychology of performance and recovery.
While constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew loves practice as well as theory, from CrossFit and Strongman competitions to ultramarathons and multiple 24-hour workout stints. , we work on everything and test our training regularly. (Very unofficial) World record attempt.
You can find Andrew on Instagram (@theandrew.tracey) or hold up a “Free Pizza” sign and wait for him to show up.
