Wrong zone training plan?

Since nobody has an answer for me, I contacted Garmin support (wow, that was easy and quick!). They also noted the difference, but could not tell me which one should be right. Z3 or Z4. They are further investigating it and they will let me know later.

While I am waiting for their response, I am still curious if anyone can tell me if interval training (6min high HR, 2 min Rest HR, repeat 3 or 4 times) should be Z3 or Z4?

DaKo said:

(6min high HR, 2 min Rest HR, repeat 3 or 4 times) should be Z3 or Z4?

For a threshold run, zone 4. For a tempo run, zone 3. Tempo runs also improve threshold capacity. A long distance training plan will have a variety of workouts (base, tempo, threshold, anaerobic) but 80%+ majority of volume (training hours) will be in base.

You tell me what is the purpose of this run. First screenshot is the overview of the schedule. Look at the run tomorrow:

below the settings for the run, they tell FR955 Zone3.

I do not know if it is meant to be a treshold run, or a tempo run.

Personally I'd be running that at threshold. 20 min total workout, 5 min on, relatively short rest, sounds like threshold to me.

Yes, the training plan says it is a threshold run. The workout is wrongly using Zone 3. It is likely a bug in the training plan.

Also, be careful with HR targets. Don't be in a hurry to get your HR in the zone. It can take a few minutes for HR to ramp up, in particular in the first intervals. Training is best accomplished at steady effort, so you will have to leanr how to benchmark your effort to have a steady effort and finish the interval no higher than the top of Zone 5.

Alternatively, swith to a pace-based plan if you can run on flat grounds for the training plan, or a power-based plan if you have hilly routes around.

I see your point. It is definitely not correct.

Just for more reading:

Running Science

Training effect

Yes I know HR needs time to go up. Today's run went fine though. I have bad experience with pace-based plans. I run 5:20/5:25 per km in zone 2 on HR based plan. Before I used pace based plan and it gave me 6:15/km for the easy runs.

At that time my stamina went down every day instead of going up. Since I switched to HR-based, it feels more comfortable and I found the way up again. Running gives me energy again!

I contacted Full Potential, the company that created the training plans for Garmin. they confirm it should be Z4. Now I have to manually check and adjust all the interval traing runs :-(