How long should I be able to stay in HR zone 5?
I'm a very fit triathlete one month away from my first Ironman. I'm strictly following Don Fink's training plan, which includes "interval training" in HR zone 5, or 90%+ max HR. (Fink actually calls it "zone 4" for some reason.)
The workouts used to involve more traditional intervals: bring your HR up to 90% for a few minutes, then rest, then repeat. But at this point in his plan - at the peak of the "peak phase" - he's asking me to do 12 minutes straight in zone 5 on the run, and 30 minutes straight in zone 5 on the bike!
I'm having a great deal of trouble with this.
How long should I be able to stay in zone 5? Am I simply not pushing myself hard enough, or did I just fall behind at some point?
Edit: on Fink's zone definitions, he writes:
Zone 4: 90-95% of maximum heart rate (primarily anaerobic training)
Zone 3: 86-89% of maximum heart rate (middle zone)
Zone 2: 75-85% of maximum heart rate (higher-end aerobic training)
Zone 1: 65-74% of maximum heart rate (lower-end aerobic training)
His example puts a 35-year old at 166-175 bpm. The vast majority of his plan is in "zone 2."
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You should not be able to last more than a couple of minutes in Zone 5. Maybe the problem is that he is talking about Zone 4, and you are thinking he means Zone 5. What is Fink's definition of Zone 5? Here is a detailed decriptions of the zones www.3-fitness.com/tarticles/zones.htm
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