Heart rate Zones in Percent

by Espen S
(Norway)

If you have some uncertainty concerning the heart rate zone in percent vs. the actual numbers in the 100 day plan and have to adjust to your personal heart rate :

"Hi Marius,

I really enjoy you program, and have a few questions relating to the Sub 3:30 Plan:

Some of the heart rates examples laid out in the plan do not match the actual percentages for someone with a heart rate of 190 (I have the same max pulse as the example (i.e. 190) so I noticed the differences): E4 sais 175, but should it not be 171 (90% of 190)? The same goes for E1 (137), but it should be 133? Or am I missing something? The Effort zones being: E1=60-70, E2=70-80, E3=80-87, E4=87-90 and E5=90-95.

Jumping to session 3 of Week4 (Sub 3:30 plan), what is the correct Speed Info for this session? The text refers to the same Effort zones: "Variation of pace. Vary between 2 min Effort 3 + 2 min Effort 3 (you change every 2 min). Thanks, Espen. "

Answer: Hi Espen and thanks for your question. Right before I released the program I had a number of test runners using it. To avoid having to walk on the some of the (or too many of the) easy runs, I adjusted the easy zone up a few beats - and I did the same with the harder zones I believe, as I could see that the cardiac drift (heart rate increase without actually producing more lactate acid) seemed more for non-elites vs. elites.

So I would use the absolute numbers you see there, get it into percentage ,then adjust it to your own max HR.

The session you talk about should be Effort 3 and Effort 2 ; a quite comfortable session.

Kind regards and all the best,
Marius

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