Question: I keep reading about how zone 2 training is crucial in base building, but after reading Power Training Levels by Andrew Coggan, and seeing how much more beneficial Zone 3 is to Zone 2, I am wondering if I am wasting valuable training time. My goal is to maximize my body’s ability to burn fat as a primary fuel, so my question is: Would it be more beneficial to train primarily in Zone 3 as opposed to my current plan of training primarily (70% of time) in Zone 2?  Thanks!

Answer: If your goal is to maximize your body’s ability to burn fat as a fuel, then I would give you a couple of suggestions. Zone 2 is definitely the fat burning zone in which your body relies most heavily on fat as its primary source of energy. That being said, it doesn’t necessary mean that by spending more time in Zone 2 you will increase that ability. I am not sure exactly why you want to increase your ability to burn more fat, but I can think of two major reasons and for each reason there is a different solution to the problem.

Situation#1: If you are trying to lose weight and burn off excess fat, then you actually need to train more in zone 4 and 5 in order to stimulate your fat burning metabolism.  There is a myth out there that staying in the fat burning zone helps you to lose weight.  Actually, it just makes sure that you don’t burn carbohydrates as fuel and the intensity stays low.  If you want to lose excess body fat, then you have to ’stoke’ the fire so to speak and that means exercising very intensely.  By exercising in Zone 4 and 5, then you burn off all your carbohydrates and then in the 4 hours after your workout, you burn a ton of fat as fuel. That’s the key to really losing some excess weight.

Situation #2: If you want to burn fat in order to extend your endurance range in a racing situation, then I would offer a few different suggestions.  Many pros that I coach always want to improve their ability to burn fat in races and therefore spare essential glycogen reserves for later in the race when they need them most. This means teaching your body to use fat first and foremost in every workout.  One of the ways to do this is to start off every ride early in the morning before breakfast and ride for at least 2 hours before starting to feed.  Ride at Zone 2 and 3 for those 2 hours and then your body is forced to burn fat.  At the end of 2 hours, start eating some carbs and protein and then finish your ride with intensity and intervals. This will help to teach your body to burn fat at a higher level of exercise intensity, thereby sparing your carbohydrate stores for later.

Source

Roots N Blues Half Marathon

My morning started with my alarm clock blaring at 4:00am I know the race does not start until 7:00am but I’m nervous and do not want to forget or leave anything behind. I roll out of bed and start a small pot of coffee, I fix my favorite breakfast consisting of raw old fashioned oat meal, a small amount of honey and peanut butter and vanilla soymilk.

I spend the next 30 minutes stretching with my main focus on the foam roller to help my IT band loosen up. I finish packing my gear and I can hear the rain starting to fall outside, put on my sweats and load my truck and head out to find a parking space downtown.

I find plenty of room for parking in a downtown parking garage, and park my truck. Open my center console to find some change to pay the meter and shit no change, oh hell I’ll take my chances and pay the ticket if I get one. Grab my gear bag and head towards the awesome smell of BBQ at 6:00am. As soon as I exit the parking garage it hits me that I am about to try and run a Half Marathon. I see a lot of other runners hopping up and down trying to stay warm in the cold rain. I make my way in the dark BBQ filled Smokey air to try and find gear check to drop off my bag. I find an event director who points and tells me gear check is in that white tent. I start that way to only find people cooking BBQ, I stop and look around to only find about 50 white tents with people cooking BBQ. Oh what the hell ill walk back to my truck and leave my bag in my truck. While I’m walking back to my truck I run into my friend Elizabeth who showed up to cheer me on. She has her North Face jacket on and her hood up to block the rain, and I almost mistook her as a mugger. She walks back to my truck with me and I drop off my gear and head back to the starting area. As we are walking back it starts to pour and we head for the Diner that is close to the starting area, we hide under the overhang to try and dodge the rain. At this time we make small talk with a man that is confused as hell to why in the world anyone would run in the rain, or run at all. The man then asked “what does the winner get?” “A million bucks?” a “new car?” I reply nope just bragging rights!  As we chat we watch the 10k group head out for their run…………………………. It hits me about 5 minutes later that that was not the 10k group that was the half marathon group that I was supposed to start with…………………..shit!!!!

Now the 10k group starts to gather at the starting line and I make sure to find a staff member and try and break the news to them that I messed up and missed my start. Thank goodness, I find a very nice lady that makes a quick phone call to let someone know that number “751” was supposed to start with the Half Marathon group and missed the start and will be starting with the 10k group ( if you read this thank you so much ;). 2 minutes to go before the 10k start she tells me to run left at mile 4, while the rest of the 10k pack is going to run right. Mile 4, mile 4, mile 4 I keep repeating to myself over and over in my head, mile 4!  Before I can repeat this one more time I hear a fog horn and we are off, the race is on.

I started to freak out thinking that I started thirty minutes behind the half marathon group and that I was never going to see a half marathon runner the entire race. As I ran I kept telling myself mile 4, mile 4 turn left. I fell into a nice pace with a group of two ladies and two men. We dodged mud puddles and kept at it. I felt strong and good just worried about the left turn at mile 4.

We rounded a small turn and the turn off for the half marathon group was clearly marked and I felt much better. I make the left turn and hear a group of people yelling at me wrong way 10k goes to the right, I quickly explain that I missed the start for the half marathon. I make the turn on the Katy trail and see a long trail with no one in site. I tell myself I train by myself, what’s the issue Rogers “HTFU” and Run!

After about 10 minutes of running by myself on the trail I can see a person ahead of me. I get excited and keep at it. I catch up and feel refreshed that I am not going to cross the finish line dead last! Starting 30 minutes behind the half marathon group meant that I would not be passed by anyone on the run, I guess that was a good thing. After running for a couple more miles I started to pass walkers/runners. I kept pace for about a mile with several older ladies that where a hoot to run with. They gave me the nick name “Flash Dance” because of my compression socks. We laughed and talked about the 80’s for about a half mile and I picked up the pace. At this point I exit twin lakes and meet my arch nemesis, Chapel Hill, I know this hill all too well from the Show Me State Triathlon.  I start to chug my way up the hill passing a lot of people walking, making sure to tell everyone that I pass good job and to keep at it! I reach the top of the hill and make a right turn into a neighborhood. I am thankful the hill is over and get back on pace.

Every mile marker had a quote, which inspired me to keep pushing and putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how much my IT Band was hurting. One quote that I remember the most was.

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.” Steve Prefontaine

This made me smile and keep chugging along.

At mile 10 I felt great and knew that I would cross the finish line, however mile 12 felt like it was forever. Back on the Katy trail and under providence, as I rounded the turn to cross providence road a CPD officer stopped traffic, as I got closer I recognized the officer as Keisha and made sure to say hi and thank her as I passed. At this point it was great to feel and know that the finish was only a little ways away. As I crossed the street leading into flat branch park it was awesome to hear the crowd clapping and cheering me on. I entered the finish line chute, and crossed the line feeling great, Half Marathon 13.1 Miles in the books!

I got to pass over 200 people on the run finishing with a time of 2:15:37 with a 10:22 Mile Pace, and most important I had a freaking blast!