Heart Rate Zone Training
Zone 1
A recovery based ride of one hour or less. The legs should not feel any strain during this ride other than soreness from the hard riding your recovering from. Small gears, spinning easily, getting the lactic acid out of your legs. This will require that you address even small hills in your smallest gears. Ideally you will pick a course that is flat. A recovery ride is like a message for your legs. When you’re finished you should feel like you did not go hard. At the end of the ride your legs should feel fresh and you should not be tired. This type of ride stimulates recovery a lot more than doing nothing.
Zone 2
An endurance based ride of two to five hours. This is an easy, conversation paced ride. It feels too easy. You’re taking it easy on the hills and not really straining the legs very much. This ride will require a lot of shifting. Shifting down to easy gears on the uphills and quickly back up to maintain constant pressure on the downhills. Stay seated on the uphills and use your gearing. This is a fat burning ride. It will put very little strain on your legs. Other than your backside getting sore you could maintain this pace for hours. It is a fat burning ride at a sight seeing pace. At the end of an endurance ride your legs will be fresh, your back, neck, backside, and hands might be sore and you will be tired, but not beat up. This type of ride burns fat, stimulates the heart, and improves fitness while putting very little strain on your body.
Zone 3
This is a slightly faster version of an endurance paced ride of two to three hours. It is the pace where you start loosing the ability to comfortably speak, but are not really getting out of breath. The leg muscles start being used more on hills. The pace feels more comfortable because some of your body weight is being taken off the saddle and bars by the leg muscles. This pace feels good, but you’re not getting out of breath. This is a gray zone pace. It limits the amount of fast work you can do and does not deliver the benefits of a fast ride. This pace burns a mixture of fat and sugar.
Zone 4
This is a pace where things start getting uncomfortable. It is the strain a rider feels when hanging onto a big pack during a fast ride. Leg muscles and the heart are working hard and your field of vision becomes very limited. You would like the pace to get a little slower, but you can keep it up for the length of the ride. At the very top of this zone you hit your time trial pace. This pace simulates the effort required to stay in the pack at your average race. You can only do riding at this pace two to three times a week and it is not as beneficial as a maximum effort. This pace burns nothing but sugar. If your blood sugar is low you won't be able to maintain this pace.
Zone 5
This is a pace where the leg muscles are burning, your breathing is strained, and you don't know how long you can keep up the pace. You were sitting in the pack then you got on the front and started setting the pace. It is as hard as you can go over a given distance and you’re not going to be able to do this for very long. Instead of resting your weight on the bars and saddle, you are either pulling on the bars or putting no weight on them and you are barely touching the saddle. Everything has to be working well and you have to be rested to do work at this pace. You can only do it two or three times a week. This type of work requires a lot of motivation. This pace improves your ability to ride in Zone 4 more than simply training in Zone 4. It builds muscle and fitness at the same time. It is the type of effort required to win a race. This is your chance to go really fast. Being able to go this fast is the reason you maintain discipline during the slower rides. This pace burns nothing but sugar. If your blood sugar is low you won't be able to maintain this pace.