Originally Posted by
OBoile
I would seriously question any expert who stresses this. Your body doesn't have "zones". The thresholds between them are entirely arbitrary. As long as you keep your easy rides easy, you're going to be fine. Low zone 3 is not significantly different than high zone 2. Taking a couple minutes off while you ride down a hill isn't going to destroy your adaptations, nor is the one 30 second effort you have to do to get over the steep part of a hill.
Good advice. Zones aren't metabolic, but they are a way to talk to an athlete about how hard they're working. I think of zone 2 rides as a way to get exercise while waiting for the fatigue from harder efforts to go away. Stress -> fatigue -> recovery. Some studies suggest that recovery from a high intensity effort can take up to 72 hours.
But if you're trying to get that mysterious Garmin algorithm to say "productive", I don't know what to say. That thing is nutty. I let my power numbers tell me if I'm improving or declining. To quote (from memory) Andy Coggan, "the best measure of performance ability is performance itself".
Originally Posted by
mschwett
5 days a week, all year, 25,000+ miles would be 100 miles plus ever ride ! nuts.
Yes, that's nuts. 25,000 km is somewhat less nuts. Since the poster above mentioned height in meters, they probably meant distance in km. But half a grade deduction for not including units.