Heart Rate Training Zone 1.

Easy, recovery time. Below 70 % of max heart rate.

This means below 140 in heart rate for my friend (with maximum heart rate 200) that I referred to in the heart rate training overview page. Which means a heart rate training zone below 70 % of your maximum heart rate.

You feel good.

It is easy.

You are out on a jog.

Just really taking it easy.

This is where the "bulk of all training" should be.

In this training zone you are improving your running economy by strengthening ligaments and tendons. You learn a more economic way of running.

If you learn to deal with this zone and actually manage to stay here for a bulk of your training you have come a long way.

Marathon training in this zone feels easy. And it should. But it is hard to stay here because it feels so much better to push the pace a little bit.

Yepp, I know the feeling.

Tip : if you have a good day - increase the minutes ; not the intensity

If you "have the day" and feel really light on these Zone 1 trainings it is much, much better to increase the minutes you are out on your run than to increase the pace because you "feel so good".

So the point is : feel good - increase the length. Feel good, never increase the intensity.

Zone-1-respect, no matter how great you feel, fuels the other training zones with extra energy. Respect this type of training in your marathon training schedule

As I explain in the article about Zone 3 training - you can combine this first zone with Zone 3 with great results.

Ready to go to the next level?

Click on the following link and you can read about the 2nd of the heart rate training zones.