Combined talk and breathing test to judge top of Zone 2?

[Strahan Spencer]

I live overseas and don’t have access to labs to do a lactate test, so am looking for rules of thumb to use to work out what heart rate is at the top of Zone 2 / my aerobic threshold.

I have done the Karvonen Formula that uses Reserve Heart Rate with 60-70% for Zone 2 and see that you also have it on this website which is great. This gives me 135 – 147 for Zone 2.

I have just come across the Heart Drift Test on your website and will try it when I do my next long run next week. It sounds like a great way to fine tune the location.

But I have also been trying to apply the ‘Talk test’ as potentially a way to get in the right ballpark. I tried it today and found that above around 140 bpm I couldn’t say a full sentence without needing a breath. But I wonder if this is too slow, since I am able to stick with 3:3 breathing until about 155 bpm when I needed to switch to 2:2 breathing, and 3:3 breathing can also be used as an indicator of Zone 2, right? So maybe to judge the top of Zone it is useful to combine them and say that it is where you can say about half a sentence while maintaining 3:3 breathing? I used this for my 12k run this morning and my heart rate started around 140 and ended around 149.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Runningversity]

Hi Strahan

You don’t need to stay right at the top of Z2 for all your easy runs. You can do some in Z1 if you want, especially if you have had some tough training or racing recently. As long as you are able to do lots of running without getting injured, you will improve.

However, I believe you will find the Heart Rate Drift test very useful. Try 140 as your start point for the test 🙂

[Strahan Spencer]

Thanks Charles. Yes I appreciate there is a risk from doing easy runs too hard.

[Strahan Spencer]

I just did the drift test and used 140 bpm as you suggested. Managed to get exactly 140 for both halves of the test, and have come out with a drift of 4%. So you were spot on in suggesting 140 – thanks! But I have heard that the aerobic threshold can be a range, so will try 145 bpm another time to see. Does that make sense?

[Runningversity]

Yes, it makes sense – you can check a few different BPMs, but don’t obsess over it too much – it’s a guide, not a number you have to stick to for your entire run! I’ll reply to your PM in a sec.

[Strahan Spencer]

I have just repeated the heart rate drift test, this time at 145 bpm. Interestingly it came out  at 3.7%, so still within the required range to be aerobic threshold. I will try it at 150 bpm next weekend.

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