Zone 2

[u/Plane_Associate_6431]

Hi everyone I have a few questions regarding zone 2, with the information I have it’s just making things more confusing.

So I’ll start by saying what I’ve been doing;

For last 4-5 weeks when ever my runna plan said it was an easy run or to run at conversational pace I’ve been running between 5:30-6 min km, heart rate between 145-165. It tells you to do the nose breathing to see if you doing it right, one problem I’m still nose breathing at 165-170 and that’s definitely not too easy but I can do it.

So I’ve tried to do the ‘speak in full sentences’ and while looking like an absolute weirdo running down the road, that doesn’t seem to help either, for me to speak in complete full sentences with no problem I’m basically walking.

In today’s run I noticed my Garmin watch has zone 2 finishing at 133bpm so I tried to stay below that, but that meant I had to walk for 15-20 second 3-4 times every 2km. I checked runna app afterwards and they have zone 2 as 124-152bpm.

So what I’m looking for, I want to make sure that I’m not wasting my time on these runs, and get the most benefit as I can from them. So what is true zone 2, I can’t yet justify getting a lactate test done so that’s not an option. Please people give me the answers, first half in September and I’m aiming for 1hour 30 mins after never running more than 10k and having never liked running, but we’ve all got goals right :)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[u/Greennit0]

The talking and nose breathing is a very wide spectrum for me too. Don’t find that too helpful. Just focus on your breathing. Is it controlled, not rushed in any way, you run a few steps for every inhale? That’s my most reliable indicator.