Psychopasta

I’m a 65 year old rider getting back to cycling. I stopped when Covid hit and didn’t restart until now.

I’ve been reading a lot about zone 2 training and it makes a lot of sense to an old geezer who needs to lose weight and get fitness back. My problem is that I live in a very hilly area, and I can’t see me climbing some long steep hill, keeping to zone 2 and going fast enough to not fall off. What do other zone 2 peeps do when the road points steeply up?

terrymorse 

When the road gets steep, I go harder. Then I recover and get back to zone 2.

Zone 2 is neither special nor fragile. You can go faster, it won’t mess up your training. The main benefit of zone 2 is that you can do more of it with less fatigue. Don’t buy into the mumbo jumbo.

diphthong

bump it up to zone 3 but try not to red line things. go at your pace. look to work on your bike handling at low speeds in hard to turn gears on paths near or on grass (think mission bay) if you're worried about falling over at 3-4 mph.
if it's a shortish hill (50 yards-.25 miles) of less than 6% gradient, you should be good. it's when things get obscenely steep/punchy or long
(torrey pines grade outside is 1.6 miles at 6%). stay seated as long as you can but that's difficult once the road gets above 16%. stand if you like on the short, steep affairs like those around balboa park and some of the upper ramparts of mount soledad along with climbing up from mission bay to mission hills via jackson, presidio, bachman, washington, juan, bandini, california...
if it's a longer climb of a half mile or more, look to stand every few (2-3 mins) for 25 pedal strokes or so to mix it up and reset things. if you're doing longer climbs (5-12 miles) like honey springs, lyons valley, japatul, kitchen creek, palomar (either), montezuma grade, banner grade, sunrise hwy, etc, would look to stand closer every 5 mins for 25-35 pedal strokes. if a tailwind (a guy can dream), then maybe an extra 10-20 strokes.

worst case scenario...you can always stop to catch your breath/recalibrate or turn around and try a different way or another day.

what area of san diego do you reside?

Psychopasta

Thanks guys. I guess they say to be in zone 2 for 80% of the time and in higher zones 20%. I guess hills will count towards the 20%

Sierra_rider

I live in a very hilly area, where most of the mileage/elevation is above the golden ratio. On my easy days, I'll try to stay in zone 2 the best that I can...I recognize that isn't possible on some hills, so I just do what I can to keep the intensity down. A couple times a week, I'll do my "hard" rides, where I'm attacking the hills. I'll do my best to recover on the flats and lesser gradients, in order to hit the steeper sections at a higher quality/intensity.

I ride at a high enough volume per week, that a polarized method works best for me. While I have seen some research that argues a polarized training method(80/20) for riders doing less volume(also contrary evidence,) I think just going out and riding is just a good start. Anything will be good and just go out and ride without overthinking it.

chaadster

Yeah, as Sierra_rider pointed to, the 80/20 paradigm is for elite athletes doing large volume, and I’ll add that doing a Z2 ride does not mean, as I understand it, that there is no higher level activity on the ride, but rather that the overall ride intensity should be endurance level.

If it is really hard to avoid upping the intensity because of the terrain, maybe taking a look at your gearing may be appropriate. It could be as easy as getting some bigger gears out back (i.e. the cassette).

PeteHski

Also worth noting that z2 covers quite a wide power range and the top end of z2 is not that easy going. With low gearing I can comfortably stay at the upper end of z2 for long climbs up to about 8%.

Iride01 

Zone 2 can be unrealistic for many of us. If you live in constantly rolling terrain or where you have long hills to tackle, it's not the training program for you. Some will tell you just need to get and use lower gearing, but to me riding a bike at 3 mph at times just to stay in zone 2 is not a enjoyable ride. Which is what cycling should be, enjoyable!

HR zones, right? If you are talking power zones then ignore me. My HR and Power zones are nowhere near the same in the lower range.

asgelle

No, no, no, and may I add, no. If you subscribe to polarized training (80/20), then 80% of your workouts should be Z2 and 20% should be high intensity. Just as there will be low intensity recovery time during the high intensity workouts, it doesn't hurt* to have periods of intensity during Z2 workouts (though you should try to minimize these).

*Inigo San Milan disagrees but he's working with top professionals looking to absolutely maximize performance and other coaches and physiologists don't agree with him.

PeteHski

Yeah it’s a bit different if your z2 rides are 5 hours long as part of a 20+ hour per week training regime and your z2 power zone is 250W+.

McFlyRides

Since you’re getting back into it after a time away, I wouldn’t worry too much about leaving z2 on the uphills. If you can find places to ride with fewer hills, even if you take your bike somewhere, that could certainly help. Just get consistent rides and recovery in, and your z2 will get you more power.

slow rollin

My general goal when starting up riding again is not to cramp, stop less frequently, and don't push it too hard. Cramping just cramps my style for the next ride/day and pushing too hard just makes it harder to stay consistent unless you have some serious goals/races in mind.
So I do a certain loop, then add on to it/go faster up hills/stand/ etc when I have built the consistency.
The zones could be broken down to like 3 when you are slower. "just riding along", "this is hard", "I am not going to make it". Oh, and "walking+coasting downhill"

MoAlpha

Good stuff above. I will add that there also seems to be significant variation among athletes in sensitivity to exercise stress, for both adaptation and fatigue. You have to find what works for you.

wheelreason

Patient: Doctor, I can't keep my effort in Z2 early in the season when going up hills
Doctor: Don't go up hills early in the season
Patient yeah, but the 80% 20% ratio polarized sweet potatoe training ratio I saw on YT....
Doctor: I'm gonna change your meds...

rm -rf

The "three zone" version of Zone two is somewhat higher than the 5 or 7 zones version. But even so, climbing doesn't really work for me to stay in Zone 2.

I'm 70, with a current FTP around 160 watts or so. So Zone 2 climbs are very slow! Riders with bigger FTP could still stay in Zone 2 on moderate climbs and keep a rideable speed, where I'd have to pedal above the zone or I'd be two slow to stay upright.

I really liked doing an hour of Zone 2 watts in Zwift this winter. Zwift workouts set the target watts and keep it in that range if I pedal reasonably consistently. And in Zwift, you can't fall over if your speed is very slow!

Zwift!
I made a simple Zwift workout, with a short warmup, then blocks of 8 minutes Zone 2 watts, 30 seconds free ride, repeated. I originally did just one lone Z2 block, but I need to get off the saddle and/or stretch out while standing on the pedals. Ha, it started extremely easy, but toward the end, it wasn't as easy.
And some of the stock workouts with sprints are good, too. I liked the one with 2 min hard efforts, 1 min recovery, 1 min even harder, 1 recovery, then 20 seconds of very-hard-for-me watts. 3 sets with a 5 minute cruising speed in between. That's probably not difficult for stronger or younger riders, but it was perfect for me.

Zwift made an obvious improvement to my riding last year.

With Zwift, I can be ready to ride in 10 minutes, and the rides are usually an hour or maybe 90 minutes. Since I rarely coast, that's a good session for me, comparable to my 2 to 3 hour outdoor rides.
~~~
Getting back to riding? A mix of riding will be fine. I'd try to keep extending the ride length / time over the next few months. Any kind of riding will be fine: long, easy rides, or flats+climbs, or occasional shorter, hard "interval" efforts.

PeteHski

I also use Zwift for zone 2 rides, but I just free ride on their easier rolling courses rather than using erg mode to fix power. I basically treat it like an outdoor ride on a suitable road course, varying my power and cadence naturally within the zone. It doesn’t matter if you drift into zone 3 for a short time here and there, especially later in the ride.

Barry2 

I changed from 52/36 to 50/34 & from 11-30 to 11-36

much better !

ZHVelo

Get some lower gearing. I find it hard to believe you live in an area where you can't have a route that doesn't go above 5% or so. And if you want to go on a longer ride where you will encounter this issue, still get lower gearing and just hit zone 3 for a while if the climb is that steep, won't hurt you or the purpose of the ride if it is long enough and you go a bit harder for parts of it. Just don't hit the climbs like mad on the days you have scheduled a zone 2 ride.

KerryIrons

Relax! While it's not bad to have a plan and understand intensity, if you are "getting back to cycling" you are a long, long ways away from where you have to seriously worry about keeping your riding in various zones. You need some intensity but mostly you just need time at a pace you can sustain. You have to balance how fast you can improve with not constantly going into the red and wrecking yourself. At your age the prescription is beyond simple: just ride.

Camilo

You've already gotten plenty of good advice about the hills.

But - and this is just a matter of curiosity, not a challenge - why did you quit cycling when the pandemic hit? Outdoor activities were one thing that didn't change a bit, in fact were recommended for recreation vs. indoor fitness clubs, classes, etc. The bike industry boomed.

70sSanO

My advice is to find the zone that works best for you.


John

70sSanO

I wear an iWatch and rarely check my HR during a ride, but I do after a ride. Before I had a monitor, I had no clue on zones. But I live in hills and nothing is flat.

For me it has been distance and speed for decades. It is also about power at different cadences, which I lack at low cadences.

I would never back off on a climb to hit a zone. But it might be necessary to complete a climb. Unless your cardiologist recommends a max HR, ride with the idea of improving. Hills will make you stronger.

John

LarrySellerz

I “traverse” or zig zag my hill, I live on a hill and don’t like engaging with the climb. I use the whole road and keep my ears open for cars. You can pretty much nullify hills with the zig zag, but it takes a lot longer than climbing normally.

Hermes

I live on Mount Soledad so when I leave my house on the bike, it is up or down. I use 50/34 on the front and 11/32 on the rear.

If I want an easier ride with a zone 2 level of perceived effort, I design the route I want and then put my bike in the car and drive to the location. If I want to do laps around Fiesta Island, I could ride my bike from the house through Pacific Beach and then do my workout and ride home. However, the traffic, poor roads and etc through PB is not worth it. I drive to MB and then do my workout.

Six continuous laps around Fiesta Island is a very solid hour of power. For you, 4 to 5 laps would be a solid hour of power at z2 because it is continuous, flat and relentless - tough workout. A continuous Z2 is a difficult workout and is supposed to be. It is fatiguing.

For you as a restarter of cycling, I suggest 1 or 2 laps and then rest for 5 minutes and do it again. Shoot for 30 minutes to one hour of riding or more depending on how you feel. It is the continuous non stop riding without breaks that builds endurance the fastest. But as a restarter, you will have to throw in some recovery but shoot for 10 minute intervals of sustained effort.

I also ride the coast. I park on Sante Fe road and pick up the Rose Canyon bike path through UCSD and then descend Torrey Pines and ride to Swamis or Carlsbad and return. I can ride that route San Millan z2 which is the top end of z2 for me. The climb up Torrey Pines on the return may look hard to a restarter but it is totally doable in z2 with low gears. In fact, I use the same starting point and descend Torrey Pines and then do repeats up Torre Pines.

Also, I drive to Oceanside and ride through Camp Pendleton to San Clemente to get flatter ride with less stopping.

And I can do repeats of Mount Soledad. Sometimes I ride up all the routes to the top.

These are examples and depending on where you live, you will have to map out routes that provide the terrain to allow workouts that are varied that you can handle.

I lived in San Diego from 1979 to 1995 and thought it was hilly. Later, I lived in NorCal and rode the terrain including all the climbs and rode from Silicon Valley to the coast and back. I moved back to San Diego in 2016 and think it is flat and not that challenging. Does terrain bias the cyclist, the training and the fitness. I say yes.

Embrace the terrain that you have and use it to your advantage.

NVFlinch 

First, there is no magic "CLICK" when going from one zone to another. At our age (I'm 73 and average 4500 miles/year) these 'zone rules' are far lower on the priority stack than just getting out and riding. If you are like me, (and have been waiting all these years for the Tour de France to call you up to fill in Froom's place), you are not training for the Big Race.

***************** IGNORE ZONES *****************

Personally, I find that short intervals, and I mean fun ones like pushing hard up short hills, and making myself do every third ride at a slower pace than normal, are more beneicial than sticking to any Zone-magic. And long hills? Great - go at whatever pace you feel like for that day.