00:00zone two training only for 6 weeks what
00:04has it done for me 6 weeks ago I went to
00:07sports science lab I did a step test and
00:10a ramp test to find out my fitness
00:12levels and my zone two since then I have
00:16tried to train in zone 2 and Zone 2 only
00:20not as easy as it sounds it's meant that
00:23sometimes I haven't even broken a sweat
00:26but has it made me any fitter I'm
00:28heading back to the sports sence lab to
00:33out so what have I been doing for the
00:36last 6 weeks training in zone 2 of
00:39course but if you are unfamiliar with
00:40what zone 2 is then make sure to head
00:42over and watch my first video where I
00:44explain what zone 2 is and why I am
00:47doing this challenge so I was coming
00:49from a period of not riding my bike very
00:51much so the plan consisted of ramping up
00:53the hours throughout the weeks and I
00:56think the shortest ride I did was 1 hour
00:58and the longest ride I did was just over
01:003 hours and the biggest week on the bike
01:06hours I did the majority I'll say about
01:0980% of my rides on the indoor trainer
01:11because I found it was so much easier to
01:14stick to Zone 2 on the indoor trainer
01:16cuz turns out it is very hard to stick
01:18in zone 2 when you head out to the real
01:20world and start riding up a hill
01:22thankfully I had coach Laurence planning
01:24and my training out which helped
01:26massively he even added some intervals
01:29into my my training sessions which
01:31really made it a lot easier than just
01:33sticking to one power throughout the
01:35whole thing so essentially I guess one
01:37of my training sessions might have
01:39looked something similar to this so I'd
01:40have an hour and a half on the turbo do
01:42a 10-minute warm-up and then I'd do a 20
01:44minute block right at the top of Zone 2
01:47so the aim of the session was to hold my
01:49heart rate between 150 to 155 beats per
01:53minute which is a 5 beat margin which is
01:55quite hard and then I'd have a 5 minute
01:58rest and then repeat that through three
02:00or four times within a session and that
02:01just mentally helped break up the time
02:04and it felt a lot more manageable than
02:06just sitting on the turbo doing one
02:08power for an hour and a
02:09half so did I actually manage to stay in
02:13zone two for all of my training I caught
02:16up with Coach Lawrence to find
02:19out so so I've taken your all your rides
02:22from from um that you've uploaded and
02:24had a look at them and put them into
02:25these graphs here so we can visually see
02:27it a little bit and what stands out is
02:29that you really have spend most of your
02:31time in zone 2 which is good that's the
02:33point of it so if you look at heart rate
02:36obviously we got heart rate and power
02:37but if we look at heart rate half your
02:39training was in zone two another 25% in
02:42zone one and then quite a bit of time in
02:44in what I class as a recovery zone but
02:46that's just things like freewheeling or
02:48descending it's going to happen when you
02:50start off obviously heart rate takes
02:51time to get up at the end of other bits
02:53and Bobs um set of Junctions all those
02:55bits so a load of training in was in
02:58zone two and at the bottom and we can
03:00see then I've sort of put it below
03:01lactate threshold and we'll see that on
03:03your results and that's kind of the top
03:04of Zone 2 and almost 95% of the training
03:08there was in that zone so Absolut heaps
03:10of time in that zone which is what we're
03:11looking for I had quite a lot of people
03:13on stra commenting and analyzing my
03:16training and being like oh you've gone
03:18out you you're in Zone 3 for a few
03:20seconds here and there and kind of
03:22pointing it out does it really matter
03:25that much if I went into Zone 3 for 20
03:30here and there yeah absolutely not it's
03:32there's no really like hard line
03:34although we call it a Zone 2 and there's
03:35a power number that might be two WS
03:37different the body doesn't work like
03:38that it's a bit of a transition you can
03:41spend time there and nothing too much
03:43happens if you had if you weren't just
03:46doing zone two training let's say you
03:47had a really big day of efforts planned
03:49for tomorrow and today's ride you
03:51pressed on a bit too much and spent a
03:53load of time in zone three that might
03:54tie you out for that hard ride um but
03:57even then not for a few seconds you know
03:59and if you think about going up a hill
04:01if you think about it's pretty
04:02impossible to say Z two get up a hill
04:04exactly you've got to keep moving going
04:06away from traff lights you've got to put
04:08bit more power down all those bits so no
04:10don't worry about that it's just about
04:12the idea of it being a steady ride
04:14something where you can go longer rather
04:16than harder I like to see it as quite a
04:18realistic well what I've done is quite
04:20realistic cuz if anybody else was going
04:22out to do this they'd have to go out of
04:24Zone 2 for a little bit so that's how
04:27anyway I've had a few easy days leading
04:30up to my next lab testing and I'm
04:33nervous but I think I feel good but at
04:36this moment in time it's really hard to
04:39know whether my results are going to be
04:41better because it literally just feels
04:43like I've been riding my bike it doesn't
04:44feel like I've been training I've not
04:46done any hard efforts I've not reached
04:48my Max it's just a weird really weird
04:51position to be in but I'm feeling
04:54positive I'm really hoping they're going
04:56to be better but there's only one way to
05:00it's back to the lab we go and this time
05:02I have Coach Lawrence to give me some
05:03extra motivation and encouragement and
05:06of course take me through my
05:11results right we're back in the lab I'd
05:13like to say it's nice to be back I'm a
05:15little bit scared and I'm going to be
05:17doing exactly the same test as last time
05:19but Lawrence give us a run through of
05:21what exactly I'm going to be doing today
05:23so Manon you're going to start with the
05:24step test so there'll be 4 minute stages
05:26where the power increases by 20 WS per
05:28stage just nice and gradually until
05:30you're above threshold so getting
05:31towards a bit of a hard effort but not
05:33quite not quite there Max yet bit of a
05:35rest and then you're go into the into
05:37the uh ramp test that'll be 1 minute
05:39stages increasing by 15 wats a stage
05:41until you can't go anymore that's the
05:43fun one that sounds quite hard not
05:45looking forward to that one but I'll get
05:47a good warm up in I think my legs are
05:49feeling good but it's hard when I've not
05:51I've not done any hard efforts I've just
05:53been sitting at you know 150 heart rate
05:55for the last six weeks so it might be a
05:57shock of the system going out of that
06:09see so today what we're hoping to see is
06:12some changes in the blood lactate curve
06:14for Manon so we hopefully see a a higher
06:16power output for a given blood lactate
06:18concentration and we'll see the the
06:20curve shift that would mean that the
06:21zone 2 power an intensity has increased
06:24as well as a consequence of the training
06:26we might also see some changes to
06:28maximal oxygen take with V2 Peak and the
06:31power output there and that'll be in the
06:32ram test but more likely what we're
06:34hoping to see and what we expect to see
06:36is the the bottom end changes which is
06:38where manon's done most of her training
06:41any encaging worse than
06:43Manon I feel the pressure now the
06:45pression now just keep pedling thanks
06:57thanks so so when we're thinking about
06:59adaptations to training and responses uh
07:02they can be quite different between
07:04those who have previous been Elite
07:05athletes like man on here um and those
07:08who are just starting out what we might
07:10see is that Manon actually adapts and
07:11responds really quickly compared to
07:13someone who's less trained uh which
07:15sometimes we think about it being the
07:16other way but actually our body can
07:18remember where it was before and adapt
07:20really quickly so we might see some
07:22better responses from this test for this
07:24test from man on than we might do with
07:25someone just starting out
07:34thought it was going to be full a
07:34dribble then oh that went on a lot
07:38longer than last time so I'm hoping
07:45sign there's a rum test coming up I'm
07:48scared then let's do
07:54this so coming up now is the ramp test
07:56last time Manon got up to 270 Watts she
08:00went about 20 wats further in the first
08:02part so my guess now is 300 wats you'll
08:17hopefully so M's currently at 240 WS um
08:21so she's got a little bit more to go but
08:27go plenty more on the tank now go man up
08:32up up go with the change push push
08:36push every extra little bit counts let's
08:41go that's it man I'm we on Drive keep
08:44going going to go up to the next level
08:46you can go with it done well done
09:03I think they both hit just as much I
09:06feel like I could maybe go a little bit
09:07deeper in this one like going to the
09:08hurt lock a bit more but I mean it still
09:11hurts no matter what your Fitness levels
09:15Grim so that's the testing done and
09:18dusted now it's time for Lawrence to
09:21analyze the data and let me know the
09:24results um shall we get on to the
09:27results results right
09:30okay is it better or
09:32worse so the good news is man on it's
09:35moved on a lot good really good um
09:39really good here so I'll talk you
09:41through so we'll look at the blood
09:42lactate curve first so that was the
09:43first part of the step test yeah we did
09:454 minute stages and a and a 20 W
09:47increase so we can see on here we've got
09:50the blue line was last time and the
09:52bottom one is for blood lactate and the
09:54top line is heart rate the red line is
09:56this time so what we can see is last
09:59time there was never really a level bit
10:01of line it just went up that blood La
10:04was just going up and you know
10:05metabolism metabolic profile not really
10:08that strong this time a lot better you
10:10can see a nice flat line where you've
10:11got two stages there yeah which is
10:14really good and then it's also a lot
10:16lower than before last time it went up
10:18to sort of 9 M which is pretty high this
10:21time it's peaked out significantly lower
10:24there around about 6 mm so really good
10:27move on um and if we think about about
10:29then your we've got LT lactate threshold
10:31and lactate turno on there they've moved
10:33on by about 15% so last time your uh
10:37lactive threshold was 140 Watts now it's
10:39about 160 Watts um and that is the point
10:42at which you kind of want to that's the
10:43top of zone two is around about that so
10:45your Zone 2 power has M on by about 20
10:48watts that's pretty good which is a lot
10:50so that's awesome right and then one of
10:53the reasons we looked at heart rate
10:55zones a minute ago is that your heart
10:56rate and your zones kind of stay the
10:58same yeah so the fact you trained to
11:00heart rate as well as power if you just
11:02trained to power you'd have actually
11:03been training now 20 wats too low yeah
11:06so you used heart rate in combination
11:07with power to understand that and see
11:10that which is awesome yeah I'm actually
11:12really surprised with how much that has
11:15because well five and a half six weeks
11:18is not a long time and plus when you're
11:20training at such a low well felt like
11:23intensity it's hard to get your head
11:25around how you're going to get fitter
11:27and better because in my head to get fit
11:30you have to be going full gas all the
11:31time which isn't necessarily the case as
11:34we've proven and and there's different
11:36mechanisms for for the low intensity
11:38adaptations it's about the duration not
11:41the intensity so there's a minimum
11:42intensity after which it's about how
11:44long you go for going harder doesn't
11:46actually lead to any more adaptation any
11:48more signaling when you're going hard
11:50it's about how hard you go for and
11:52that's the difference so when you're
11:53actually riding easy getting the miles
11:55in you don't need to go hard you just
11:57need to ride so you can have a
11:58conversation so you can keep talking and
12:01just go longer rather than harder and if
12:05I was to do a totally different program
12:07maybe doing like lots of intervals or
12:09hit workout what do you think the
12:11difference would be if I tested again
12:13doing something completely different so
12:16on here you had about 15% increase in
12:18your lactate threshold and that sort of
12:21more metabolic peripheral adaptations
12:23and your your maximal auction uptake
12:25your V2 Peak only increased by about 7 1
12:2712% which is still pretty good there's
12:29still a lot I think if you would have
12:32done more of the top end stuff I think
12:34we probably would have seen a bigger
12:35shift in that a bigger shift in aerobic
12:36capacity to maybe a bigger shift in your
12:39sort of four to 10 minute power output
12:41mhm and probably less of a shift in your
12:43thresholds okay interesting I reckon
12:45yeah and going on now I've done this
12:48zone two block what would happen if I
12:51carried on doing it for another six
12:52weeks would I still see the same
12:55improvements I think you started from a
12:58level um which wasn't the highest level
13:01it wasn't compared to your past thank
13:02you for pointing that out but you've got
13:04a really good block of training I think
13:05it was sort of 33 35 hours of training
13:07which is awesome around work doing that
13:10if you were to continue it you probably
13:12would see much smaller improvements and
13:15now it' be the time to go okay what next
13:17how do you overload and stress the body
13:19so I think that's where you you could
13:21either go longer and if you had more
13:23time actually extending out to doing to
13:25doing more 3 4 Hour rides building up to
13:2810 or 15 hours a week that would
13:29probably move this on really well again
13:31yeah if you haven't got that time which
13:33most people don't with work it's about
13:35then building in some efforts so that'
13:37be building in the midweek hard efforts
13:39to create that overload and keep driving
13:41the adaptations on so there we have it
13:43zone two it does actually work in my
13:46case anyway but a big thank you to
13:48Lawrence for helping me out with this
13:49video it has been great to have him
13:51along but I also want to know what you
13:53guys have learned from Zone 2 what are
13:55your experiences been have you benefited
13:57from it let me know down in that comment
13:59section below and I'm also going to do a
14:01follow-up video of what I've learned
14:03from training in zone 2 for the last 6
14:04weeks because there's been a lot of
14:06questions asking how I've managed
14:08boredom if I've been training outside if
14:09I've been doing it to power or heart
14:11rate so I'm going to answer all of those
14:13in the next video so I hope you enjoyed
