It's All About Zone 2 Baby! (Part 1)

The title of a recent post says it all about my past training methods, Training Like A Dummy... At the time, I did not know any better. I pushed hard each and every session. Over the next two to three years, I improved my training methods. On November 3rd, 2012, I signed up for Ironman Florida. Therefore, I had to figure out the best way to train quickly. I only had one year to go from a nervous newbie triathlete to a confident well-trained triathlete by November 2nd 2013. I wanted to not only survive Ironman Florida training but to also comfortably finish the 140.6 miles on race day. In order to keep this blog post from being overwhelming long, I broke it up into two posts. This post provides a little history as to why I trained in Zone 2. The next post will cover more detailed information about determining heart rate training zones.


In early 2012, I started listening to the Garden Variety Tri podcast hosted by a local, Jon. We later became friends. His podcast was about triathlons and being fueled by a plant-based diet. I had been thinking about going plant-based but I just could not get my head wrapped around the idea of giving up some of the things I ate - meat, fats, and, oh yes, butter!!! I listened to the show to learn about the way he trained since he was, as he puts it, a "garden variety triathlete". With me being a newbie, I figured it was a great place to gather information. The show evolved into a new podcast, FitFatFast, once Jon changed to eating high fat and started discussing making your body metabolically efficient. The new podcast added a co-host, Debbie, and has since added another co-host, Brock. From these two podcast, I learned a lot.  Plus, both podcasts were the gateway to other podcasts, books, and reference material that helped me learn to train the way I do today.

Throughout this time, I kept hearing things like fat adaptation, metabolically efficient, Paleo, low carb high fat (LCHF), Z2, Zone 2 training, Maffetone Method, and then some... At the end of 2012, I decided to switch to eating a very high fat diet since I felt it would work for me but I also figured it may help me achieve my goal of completing a full Ironman.  The new "diet" worked extremely well for me. I was determined to be fat-adapted and planned on 2013 to be the year of Zone 2 training so I could build a solid base to continue improving over the long term.

The first two weeks of eating low carb high fat, I was extremely sluggish. I've heard some people call it the "keto flu" since it feels as if you have the flu without having the flu during the time the body is switching its fuel source. My body was so accustomed to burning carbs as its fuel due to the higher carb "diet" I was eating. I was eating lower carb than most people at that time but I was definitely eating a heck of lot more carbs than I do now. During this transition period, training was difficult to say the least. I kept my heart rate in Zone 1 and low Zone 2 during this time. Once my body switched to being fueled primarily by fat, my energy level sky rocketed. It took 30 days of eating high fat before I could really say I was a fairly efficient fat burner.

Athletically I improved since I had shed roughly 20 pounds in about two months. The burning sensation I get in my legs when I pushed hard during a run was becoming less and less uncomfortable. I experienced one drawback when I initially started being fueled by fat versus carbs.  I was unable to do quick bursts of speeds during my run.  I was getting faster but I just had to gradually increase my speed during the run.  My goal was to race a full ironman so the speed burst was not needed. Today, I have the ability to do speed bursts; however, it took months for me to get it back.

In early 2013, I started setting personal records (PRs) in many of the races I ran in. I was so excited about how training in Zone 2 was helping me improve. In January, I had started training for my first half Ironman that was scheduled for May in Panama City Beach, Florida. I used a half Ironman plan I purchased from Triathlon Geek. I followed the training plan but I did everything in Zone 2. I did no interval work that was in the plan. During the several months of training, I continued to improve. I was getting stronger, getting faster, and becoming more and more efficient at fueling my body via fat. I was running and cycling faster at significantly lower heart rates. I needed less and less nutrition on long training days.

Internet Meme created by my friend Roy

I was not using sugars at all as I had the prior two years. Funny side note: I had initially started using oils and almond butter as nutrition on bike rides and long runs.  I tried using olive oil as a fuel. Yes, EVOO baby! Vinnie Tortorich, a host of the podcast America's Angriest Trainer, is an ultra-distance cyclist and he mentioned he used olive oil on his bike rides. The people I was training with during my "olive oil days" got a kick out of it. The jokes and comments from them were down right funny. Well, the use of olive oil did not last long; especially on the run! My first and only attempt when running was during a 10 miler. I was fine after taking my first swig. The second swig was, well, ok-ish. With my third and fourth swig, I wanted to puke! I did try it several times during bike rides but the use of olive oil died off quick, very quick! I started using other nutrition that I will discuss in a future blogs.  I still use almond butter on very long bike rides.


When I raced the half Ironman in Panama City Beach, I did better than I had expected overall. I had also enjoyed all of the training since staying in Zone 2 almost all of the time made training days very enjoyable. The race also gave me confidence going into full Ironman training. I still had to select a training plan.  I had been thinking about going with the full Ironman training plan from Triathlon Geek but I really wanted one that was based on training by heart rate and time. A couple of friends, Eve and Mitch, had mentioned to look into Don Fink's Be Iron Fit. The plan was exactly what I was looking for. Plus, the training schedule was also very consistent week to week.

Since the Be Iron Fit plan is based on Zone 2 training, there is just a little interval work built-in. I did not do much of it since I wanted to stay in Zone 2 since I was enjoying the heck out of the training. Looking back now, I know I did not do enough interval work. Nevertheless, even with minimal to no interval work, I was getting faster and faster on the bike and run. For the swim, I did not do any of the swim workouts.  I only swam the distances specified.  I needed to get my endurance up since swimming was by far my weakness sport. I never did swim drills or speed work in the pool. So I got into a comfy slow swim pace doing lap after lap after lap. My endurance was great but my swimming never improved much. I should have followed the swim plans and I should have done tons of drills. I also did so little open water swimming since I figured I needed to improve my endurance I could do it in the pool and it would carry over into open water. Well, at Ironman Florida, I was disappointed with my swim. 1 hour 58 minutes for the 2.4 miles when I thought going in I could do 1:30 with a worst case 1:45. Coming out of the water, I was upset with my swim but the amazing thing was when I finally got past my disappointment I realized that I was not tired one bit! Nearly two hours in the water and I felt as if I had just gotten out of bed!

In Part 2 of blog post, I will discuss how I determined the heart rate training zones I used on the bike and on the run. I will provide the equations and methods I used last year. Plus, I will discuss what I do today. I will also discuss how I had to remove running pace and bike speed from the displays of my running watch and bike computer. It was tough at first to see how slow you were going when attempting to stay in Zone 2.  But as the saying goes, "you must go slow to go fast!"