At Blizard Physiotherapy, we see hundreds of athletes from all over the country keen to maximise their running potential by getting their individual heart rate zones set as part of our now famous lactate threshold testing service here at the clinic.

The basic premise of the service is clear. The athlete comes to see our resident former GB international, Dave Tune, for a two hour session in the testing room, where everything about the runner’s lifestyle, diet, training, PBs and goals are discussed, health measurements are taken, before the inevitable treadmill run takes place.

Within the treadmill session, the athlete runs wearing a heart rate monitor and a foot pod, all linked to a watch held by Dave aimed at keeping track of how the increasing effort is affecting the runner, along with regular communications checking on perceived effort, and blood samples taken and tested every few minutes to keep tabs on the build up of lactic acid in the body.

All of this data is then collected by Dave, and, after the treadmill session is complete, collated into a thick report which is discussed after the athlete has taken a well-earned shower.

The athlete then takes that report home, complete with their new heart rate zones, and a basic sample training schedule to set them up for their new heart rate training regime, including the infamous ‘threshold’ runs.

However, it is these zones, the variances in zones from one person to another, the term ‘threshold’ and ‘tempo’, and how the heart rate is affected by running outside compared to on the treadmill, that often throw up a whole of confused queries, particularly on Strava, the running social media site.

So we have collated a number of the most popular and common questions asked about this subject, put them to Coach Tune, and here we provide the answers!

Feel free to ask more questions if your query isn’t answered here, we’re all ears!

Lactate Threshold Test and Heart Rate Zone training FAQ’s

Q. What are the heart rate zones set for athletes within the threshold test?

A. The first zone is called the ‘Recovery Zone’. This often throws up lots of questions from non-tested athletes on Strava, as a large number of runners’ recovery zones appear quite high, and their pace (although irrelevant when heart rate training) is often comparatively fast. This zone is set in the lactate test, when, by Dave measuring the lactic acid levels circulating in the body, alongside the heart rate at that point, while the athlete is running, the body is starting to work harder, benefitting fitness as a result, but not so much so that it is stressing the body. Any effort below this heart rate zone is not beneficial, and is therefore termed as ‘junk miles’.

The second zone is the threshold zone, which is set in the same way as the recovery zone, but clearly involves the athlete running harder, becoming more fatigued, and producing more lactic acid. This zone is where the magic happens! It is in the threshold zone that fitness levels are improved the most, and by completing an increasing number of threshold zone runs, the body is able to build up a greater ability to maintain a steady effort for a significant amount of time. However, the first few weeks of threshold running are not plain sailing, and you should expect to find it hard until your body - and mind - adjusts to the effort. A decent warm up is necessary to get the heart rate elevated into the zone, and sometimes it is better to build up to full threshold runs by completing them in shorter sections with recoveries in between.

The next zone is the ‘tempo’ zone, which is where athletes should aim to be racing in. However, this requires the body to be fully conditioned to running very hard indeed, and the mind to be able to deal with that sustained effort. Even the very best athletes have to be patient with this process, so don’t beat yourself up if you are struggling to get anywhere near it yet - you will get there!

Q. Why do Blizard’s lactate threshold tested athlete’s heart rate zones have different names to other heart rate training schedules on the internet?

A. When Dave first started heart rate training himself, these were the terms used for the zones then: Recovery = actively maintaining a high level of fitness, and allowing the body to recover from a harder session the day before; Threshold = actively increasing a higher level of fitness and encouraging the body to use oxygen more efficiently in the blood; Tempo = racing speed, or interval speed in training.

Q. Why are some peoples’ heart rate zones so wildly different to others? For example, one of our Blizard athlete’s threshold zone starts in the 180’s, whereas many others finish in the 150’s!

A. We are all different! There are many reasons why athletes’ zones vary so much, such as genetic differences, family history, medication being taken, lifestyle, diet. Never compare your heart rate zones to others’, one size most definitely does not fit all.
The same rule applies to the Strava or Garmin heart rate zones - these are set up generically based on a far too simplistic system, and cannot be compared to those set in a specialist lactate threshold test completed in a controlled environment by experts.

Q. Why is my heart rate getting lower despite me running faster a few months into my new Blizard lactate threshold training schedule? Will my zones be altered to reflect this change?

A. If a runner finds they started off their heart rate training running an average of 8min/mile pace at the top of their recovery zone, which measures between 150-160bpm, but six months later finds they are running at 6.30min/mile pace at the bottom of the same zone, this reflects a significant, but common, increase in fitness. The zones would not be changed, it simply means the athlete is getting fitter and faster at the same heart rate.

Q. Conversely, why can I not get into the tempo zone, no matter how hard I run, or how long I warm up to get my heart rate higher?
A. One word - conditioning. Even the great Andy Ward of Clowne Runners, who, under Dave’s coaching ran a superb 29:38 10k as a V40 in 2014, struggled to get into his tempo zone in a 10km race initially. However, with patience and a lot of determination, he managed to do just that, hence recording his UK V40 rankings topping time in style. So the lesson is don’t give up at the first hurdle, keep training in your zones, keep following Dave’s advice about warm ups, drills and strides, and you will get there too.

Q. As the zones are set up with a treadmill test indoors, how can you be sure that they are going to match the zones that would be seen outside on the road. Treadmill running is very different to training outdoors, with all the associated variations in temperature, gradient, terrain etc. Surely it is easier to run at a certain pace within a zone on a treadmill than it is outside on a windy day in the mud!

A. What many runners forget is that heart rate training is just that. Training in the heart rate zones is all that matters. Disregard pace completely. Whether you’re doing a recovery zone run one day on a flat road on a lovely sunny, still, cool day at 7min/mile pace, and the next you’re in exactly the same zone but you’re running cross country into gales and driving rain at 9min/mile, it has EXACTLY the same physiological effect. We would actually recommend turning off the GPS function of your watch to disable the speed data, so that you are only focussing on the heart rate reading.

They are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions related to lactate threshold testing and heart rate zone training, but feel free to ask us if you have any more!