Power Zones and instructor terminology
- Easy. Just the weight of your legs is enough to move the pedals; bad bounce at high cadences (increase resistance if you are bouncing).
- Flat road. Some bounce at high cadences (increase resistance). Feels like an easy ride outside with just a bit of a head wind. (HMC may say "flat road that you can feel")
- Moderate. No bounce. (HMC sometimes says "riding through mud")
- Challenging (HMC says "difficult, but not the most difficult you've ever done")
- Hard
- Very Hard
- Extremely Hard/Max (CDE says "everything you've got")
Note that different instructors use slightly different language, so use these as general guidelines but definitely adjust based on your effort and the level of perceived exertion that the instructor seems to be describing.
Heart rate zone and HRZ-based workouts
See HR Zones page.
Metrics rides involve perceived-effort metrics. Many of them have an arms section. Different instructors may use different terminology. They typically call out recommended baseline resistance and cadence. You should adjust resistance to your perceived effort or zones. Roughly speaking, here are the rules to get the most of them:
- If the instructor calls out a climb, this is sweet-spot to Power Zone 4 effort (see below).
- Out of saddle efforts must be in PZ 5-PZ 6; you may stay seated.
- Intervals: PZ 5 or PZ 6 effort. See below.
- If you are skipping arms section, take a short break and gradually increase resistance to ride it out in Sweet Spot (high PZ 3/low PZ 4). Make it a small climb.
- Try to keep your average output in Sweet Spot for best TSS, but obviously you do you and listen to your body.
These rides involve bursts of work intervals followed by recovery intervals. You need to pay attention to the instructor call outs with regards to the length of the work interval. (Guidelines for Power Zones to consider below are just recommendations)
- Work intervals 10 mins long: sweet spot to low PZ 4
- Work intervals 2-5 mins long: PZ 4-low PZ 5
- Work intervals 1-2 mins long: PZ 5
- Work intervals 1 min or less: PZ 6
- Recovery intervals are in the zone 1- zone 2 (see note in Time-Crunched version); listen to your body
Climbs are sustained efforts of mid-Power Zone 3 to mid-Power Zone 4. Your average output for the entire ride should be around sweet spot. A 45 min Climb ride will result in roughly 70-80+ TSS; a 60 min Climb ride will be 90+ TSS. [Not sure what TSS is? Ask in #AskAnything!]
Do whatever makes you happy. If you are trying to get the most out of it (in terms of fitness gains), aim for average output for the entire ride (including warm up and recoveries) to be around sweet spot so you get roughly 70-80+ TSS for a 45 min ride. But if you prefer to focus on something else, that's totally fine, make this YOUR challenge!
Substitutions and equivalencies
This is more art than science:
- Climbs: Power Zone
- Intervals: Power Zone Max, Tabata
- Metrics: Power Zone, Power Zone Max
- HRZ Endurance: Power Zone Endurance
- HRZ Power: Power Zone, Climb, Intervals, Tabata
- HRZ Max Capacity / Threshold: Power Zone Max, Tabata