Zoning out

This week started using my new training zones that were developed based on my fitness assessment. I'll still be keeping an eye on the perceived exertion but it's more of numbers game now.

Maya the Virtual Coach provided these training zones for me:

Zone 1=<146

Zone 2=146-159

Zone 3=160-166

Zone 4=167-175

Zone 5=176-179

Zone 6=180-184

Zone 7=185+

The bad news is that now I need to start wearing my heart rate monitor (HRM) during my outdoor riding -- something that I have resisted. I acquired bike mount for my Polar F6.

One interesting thing is that now that I know that what my lactate threshold (LT) is, I can feel my body "switching over." I can look at the HRM but it only provides confirmation of what I already felt.

Another thing that I've noticed is that some spin instructors keep me right in the "base" zone and up to the tippy top of that and they jump to T2 and others would have me sit in T1 if I am not paying close attention. This is important to know since base improves endurance and T2 improves LT and T1 just feels like hard work. It's too hard to be efficient and too easy to improve LT.