When I started Zone Training a month ago, I was both hopeful and skeptical at the same time. As I explained in a post I made about it at the time, the method made sense to me logically when I thought it through. But there was a lot of debate about this method online, no one agreed, and sometimes what makes sense “on paper” just doesn’t make a lot of sense in real life.
I get the theory. Build up the size of your aerobic engine. Train more efficient, as opposed to training persistent. Run slower in order to run faster. I know the arguments. But it just seemed crazy to go from running regular 8 minute paced miles to running 12 or 13 minute miles. How can that work? It was hard to imagine that doing that wouldn’t end with a collapsing state of fitness that had taken years to develop. Why throw it all away by running so slow?
Well, here I am, one month into this training plan, and I’m happy to announce that my skepticism is gone. You can even call me “Zone Boy” if you want. I’ve been converted. In fact, I’m so blown away by the results of this method so far that I’m truly surprised that more people aren’t using it. Now, I get it - results plateau. I fully expect the big results I’ve seen in month one to get smaller over time - and perhaps even stop at times. Maybe so, but I’m just shocked by what I’ve seen so far. So let’s talk about it.
Pacing
To remind everyone, my training plan per week is pretty much the same. I run six days a week. Of those six runs, four are in Zone 2 (80% of mileage). I do three 10k runs and one long run, which fluctuates between 11 - 15 miles. My fifth run is a Z3 tempo run, and my sixth run is a threshold Z4 run which is 4 x 1m with 0.25 walks in between. I have put the raw data for this month below.
Notice that my 10k runs, week by week, dropped from a 12:40 average in Week One to 10:38 average in Week Four. That’s a drop of 2:02 off the average pace in a month. That’s huge. Now. I’ll admit - those Week One runs were painful. I had to stop and walk all the time, because my heart rate would race into Z3. It was pure torture to run (is 12:23 running?) so slow. I got passed by people walking their dog. I was used to running fast all the time. I wanted to put a bag over my head with eye holes cut out from the shame of it all. By Week Four, I was averaging 10:38. A respectable pace.
My long runs really improved a lot as well, dropping from 12:23 to 10:16. In fact, when I finished that last one (a half-marathon) I wasn’t even slightly tired, sore, or in any discomfort, My finishing time was 2hr 14min, and it suddenly appeared clear to me that it wouldn’t take long before I was able to get a sub-2 hour half completed while in Zone 2 the whole time. Looking back on my previous half marathon runs, usually run around a 9:00 pace, they would always start in Z2, and then move to Z3 and end in Z4. Give it another month, perhaps two, and that pace will possibly be all Z2. That’s just amazing. Not sure what else to say.
In fact, take a look at these two charts of my heart rate, from the half-marathon I ran in Week One to the half-marathon I ran in Week Four, in both cases running by Zone 2 as the method.
Look at how chaotic my heart rate was - ranging wildly between 115 and 155. I had to stop all the time to bring it down - which is the explanation for the wild swings. Now look at Week Four’s half-marathon.
There’s no comparison. Here, my heart rate stayed consistently between 130 - 144 (I think 144 is the start of Z3 for me). I didn’t stop once due to the need to slow my heart rate down. In fact, I didn’t stop to walk at all - a few times when I hit Z3 I would just slow down until I dropped back into Z2. It’s a remarkable change in one month.
Looking at my faster runs, in Z3 (5 miles straight) and Z4 (4 x 1m repeats), there's clear improvement there as well, as I’ve shaved off 27 seconds off my Z3 run time, and 47 seconds off my Z4 time. In fact, I was really over the moon happy that I crushed the last Z4 runs averaging 7:58 per mile, as I haven’t seen averages in the 7s for a while. And what was most interesting was that in the past, Z4 runs would really wipe me out in terms of aerobics - I would be breathing really heavily and just out of gas. That last Z4 was hard, but I could tell that it was a more “controlled” run aerobically than I’ve had in the past.
Physical and Mental Condition
The difference in how I feel physically, compared with how I felt using my old training method, is stark. Before, I ran only by pace. I wanted all my runs to be in the 8s in terms of pace, with some high 7s tossed in now and again. I could live with a low 9 here and there. I never relented. I would run 30 - 40 miles a week that way, at 54 years old. Did I get fast? Well, yeah. Or at least fast for a 54-year old.
But there’s a high cost when you train that way. First, you’re always exhausted. I simply felt beat up - all the time. My legs ached, and I had to drag myself around all day long. In addition, I got hurt a lot. Most of the time it was minor but a nagging issue - an ankle, a calf muscle, a knee, a shin - but it was always something. And less often but still consistently I would get more serious injuries. Stress fractures, inflamed IT band problems - you know the drill.
What’s the culminating result of that kind of training? You don’t enjoy it. I always made my runs, but sometimes I dreaded them. Especially speed runs. How could I not? I was beating my body up and then on speed run days expecting it to perform at top level. That’s not going to happen - or at least it’s not going to happen while you maintain a positive mental focus. I turned into Grump Runner.
How do I feel now? The exact opposite. I still get a little tired and sore, but nothing at all like before. And it has been a month now and I have had no nagging issues or minor injuries at all (I am knocking on wood right now, you just can’t see me). When my speed runs come up, I still dread them - but not because I’m feeling beat up and exhausted, but because I just don’t like speed runs. But when I run them, they go well now. But most importantly - I like running. This method has turned me from Grumpy Runner to Happy Runner.
And that’s the most important thing of all!
Future Zone Related Posts
My original plan was to check in every week on progress. That seems too often to me, so I’m going to now do these check in posts once a month. That allows for sufficient data to be collected, and it allows me to do some good reflections about the method and its strengths and weaknesses. So I’ll be checking in next time at the end of February or first week of March.
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As always, thanks for reading.