[Travis Gerbatsch]

Good evening,

Just wondering if zone 1 workouts improve aerobic capacity or do they only maintain your base? I’m finding that this iteration of the training group incorporates a lot of zone 1 workouts.

Essentially would like to know if my zone 1 training runs are adding to my base?

Thanks.

Travis

Topic

[pedro]

pedro on May 7, 2023 at 4:12 pm #77969

Hi Travis,

Trainings in zone 1 and zone 2 improve your aerobic capacity. In The beginning , the tendency is to do more trainings in zone 1 to recover and zone 2 to improve aerobic capacity.
With training and the consequent improvement , your aerobic threshold heart rate value will go up, you will need to balance training with more trainings in zone 1 to avoid overreaching or overtraining .

Cheers

Pedro Carvalho

[Andrew Nevins]

Andrew Nevins on August 3, 2023 at 7:05 am #80199

Hey Travis – Zone 1 does help improve aerobic capacity, endurance and helps facilitate mitochondria production. Alan Couzens has studied and written a lot on this topic. He is a well-regarded endurance coach that has coached many athletes to great performance victories. During his several decades of studying and coaching, he found that spending significant time in Zone 1 is very beneficial to an athlete’s development.

You can find his substack and book at the link below. I am a big fan of spending time in Zone 1 & Zone 2. Consistency with training and increased volume over meaningful periods of time will help build a great aerobic base.

https://substack.com/@alancouzens