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HR zone 3-5 but Running Power always Zone 1

Please help no matter what my HR zone is, no matter if it’s a tempo run threshold run… my Running power stays in Zone 1? How do I fix it? I tried resetting it and I get the same problem… how do I know what values I should manually put for running power? What tests could I do to get these zones? Any help is appreciated. I’m tired of seeing my running power always zone 1… 

(Please explain any solutions the simplest of terms)

thank you!

  • Power zones for running or biking are fairly easy to get roughly accurate.  Any type of benchmark strong workout that would target your Threshold is a good place to start.   If you do a 3x10min threshold effort and it feels pretty tough, but could likely do another interval after... wouldn't really want to... but could.  HR likely should reach 85% of maximum HR (real... not some calculated max!).  Look at what your average power is for those intervals.... that is likely in the fairly high end of zone3 or low zone4.   Adjust your Threshold Power until that is achieved.   Similar would be 2x15min or `1x20min .... something that is hard but sustainable for 45-60min if it was a Race!  

    Alternatively a fairly long run at your zone2 effort in Heart rate and RPE... well then adjust your power Threshold until the easy zn2 run puts your power at zone2.

    Monitor future runs and shift higher or lower as you see fit.  Keep in mind that unless you are a regular marathon runner or long term high level runner, often your power zones will be higher then your HR zone equivilant.   So if you run at zone2 Power.... HR will drift up up eventually into zon3-4.

    Let me know if you need any help or clarification.  I used RPE / HR for years on my bike... honed in to effort fairly well.  Then I got a power meter for bike... low and behold ....my workouts were pretty spot on once I found out my Threshold Power! lol  Running power is a bit wonky and not super accurate it appears to me usually... so stick with paces and HR typically (unless on treadmill, then power is great if read from treadmill.... can adjust slope and pace to target a power, but at various paces and incline!)

  • You need to make sure your power zones are set correctly based on a reasonably accurate threshold power. If you don’t, they will be meaningless in relation to your actual effort.

    Did you set these yourself? My power zones auto detect pretty accurately (auto detect settings on) when I run outdoors.

    I see that this is an indoor virtual run. I’d recommend running outside, with auto detect on to detect your FTP and try from there. That’s assuming you haven’t done that already and these are the values detected.

  • Agree, I guess now thinking about my post (geared at estimating or finding Threshold Power easily with your day to day runs yourself)... the best route would be to google how to find that number.  Likely it is very similar or the same as finding it for cycling, good strong warmup... then 20minute time trial (hopefully steady power), take 95% of that power total (of the 20' lap).  That is your FTP / THreshold Power ... since almost no one is going to do a 50-60minute TT and actually get a real result that matches 'their best'.  Much easier to use a 20minute test as a proxy.  (or 3x 7-8' intervals with 2min recovery works pretty well in my experience)

  • I just use the running power value and zones provided via auto-detection and they seem to be accurate enough!