I’ve got means to measure my heart rate so I can definitely ride within zones. It just feels so unnatural going that slow sometimes, more running for me than cycling. Need to learn about what zones I should be in and put a plan together. From a brief look last night it’s a different set of HR zones than I’m used to. Seems with HR training the max isn’t 220-age etc, the max is something much lower.
is that 4kg of cooked boiled potatoes in your pockets or have you had too much coffee
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Just go for long / slow rides or walks. You don’t even need a heart rate monitor - just make sure you keep yourself in the “zone” so you are able to have a conversation whilst continuing to ride/ run
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Z2 is perfect for endurance.
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this^
easier (and look less a pyscho) if you run/cycle with someone else 
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This was my ride up “Ventoux” at the weekend. I thought I paced myself really well (for what I was attempting to do) but I guess just need to go down a zone. The Z4 was near the end when I felt I had enough in my legs to go for a good finish. The Z2 was mainly during warm up/down I reckon
Cycling is a little different to running in that it’s non-impact and the heart rate gets less elevated, but the rough guidelines are broadly the same. The only thing I would say is that I wouldn’t have Z1 as Endurance - that’s more Recovery for me.
My take is that 80% of your mileage should be in the moderate zone. Train in that zone and you will get faster at the same effort. This is a pace at which you should be able to hold a conversation.
Tempo pace is ‘comfortably hard’ and should be maintained for no more than an hour, preferably less (40 minutes if you’re running)
What that chart calls Threshold zone is where you should be doing intervals - very hard, but short bursts of pace with a recovery afterwards.
This is in training though. Your ride up Ventoux was presumably treated as more of a race. In those circumstances, it’s not unusual to spend most of it in the Tempo zone, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
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oh yeah, races will be different. Just working out where I am. I’ve never particularly training for HR, I’ve always felt I’ve got more out of a a run/cycle where I’ve gone harder, obv without destroying myself. I need to rethink…The benefit of lower intensity I guess is less fatigue physically, so you can do it more regularly without feeling it too much
I guess because most of the riding I’ve done since I started has been with other people at a chatty pace, that’s what I’m used to, so that type of endurance riding feels way more natural to me than actually “going for it”. It’s taken years for me to feel okay doing something where I’m actually, properly, getting my heart rate up.
Really miss this
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I do go out with other people. There’s a few of us through work who go out pretty regularly. We’re at different levels of fitness but we all go the same pace. The fittest guy (regular marathon runner and triathlete) always has a HR about 25 lower than the rest of us! I can’t imagine where he’d be if he didn’t drink so much all the time. Don’t know how it does it.
coincidentally to my newfound interest in endurance fitness this book just came out and I’d really quite like to read it now.
the 6-week Zwift training plan I did started with Z2 intervals, then slowly built it up so you’re doing intervals in Z3 then eventually Z4. This was to build overall strength and improve FTP, so if you’re looking for building endurance, then yeah, long cycles in Z2 is probably a good thing. For that I’ve done 100km and 110km Z2 rides on Zwift - just went to the desert, picked a wattage and cadence and sat in for the long haul.
Those 11 seconds were when the raffle thing was spinning and all you got was some fucking polka dot gloves
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haha mental. I really enjoyed it. I’m quite keen to do more climbing. Wouldn’t mind the Tron bike as a reward…
I’ve only been zwifting about 5 weeks. I did the Fondo plan but found it pretty unrewarding tbh. It don’t know if it was because it was low intensity or just not long enough to get enough out of it. most of the sessions were sub 1hr.
think I’ve been up 18 times now and I still don’t have those feckin Meilensteins
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This really makes me want to resub Zwift tbh