In January 2012, the functionality used to manually adjust your miCoach zones has changed. This article explains how and when to adjust your training zones.
miCoach zones 101
• Understanding the miCoach zones
miCoach zones are the building blocks for all cardio workouts with miCoach. Each zone represents a level of effort: Blue is easy, Green is medium, Yellow is hard, Red is maximal. During workouts, simply follow the coaching, such as “Speed up to Green Zone.” To learn more about the miCoach zones, read “How the miCoach Zones Work.”
• Choosing a coaching method
In order to coach you with zones, miCoach either measures how fast you’re going (pace) or how fast your heart is beating (heart rate). Not sure which coaching method to choose? Check out Heart Rate Versus Pace: How to Choose.”
• Personalizing your training zones
No matter which type of training plan you choose or whether you prefer to be coached by heart rate or pace, the assessment workout is key to unlocking your personalized training zones and performing workouts that are efficient, effective, and right for you. To schedule an assessment, log in to miCoach.com and visit the Schedule.
The Assessment Workout appears in Single Workouts and can be dragged over to your schedule. To learn more, read Getting Started with the miCoach Assessment Workout.”
When to adjust your miCoach zones
There are five key times to reassess your fitness and adjust your zones accordingly:
1. When you use miCoach for the first time.
2. Before you start a new training plan.
3. If you’ve been training consistently with miCoach for 6 weeks.
4. If your workouts feel too hard or too easy.
5. If you take an extended break from exercise—say, more than a month off.
Note: Another reason you may want to adjust your zones is if you’re looking to monitor your training with a different program that has different training zones than miCoach uses. Unfortunately miCoach is not compatible with zones from different coaching programs so it shouldn’t serve as your primary monitoring device when following other cardio training plans. miCoach uses different combinations of the four miCoach zones to create varied, complete, and personalized workouts. The miCoach zones include two zones that are above your ventilatory threshold and two below it. To learn more about the science behind the miCoach zones, click here.
How to adjust your miCoach zones
miCoach recommends performing a fresh Assessment Workout to update your training zones. If you’ve tried retaking the Assessment Workout and your heart rate zones still don’t feel right, you can fine-tune your zones manually. Continue reading below to learn how to manually adjust your zones.
Fine-tuning your heart rate zones
To manually adjust your heart rate zones, go under Settings > Training > Cardio Training. From here you have two options:
• Simple
Click “Adjust Zones,” and select how your zones feel—too easy, easy, good, hard, or too hard. miCoach will adjust your zones based on your selection. Remember to save and sync any changes.
• Advanced
Click “manual edit (advanced)” to further customize your training. This method is more complex. When editing your zones, keep in mind that your Top of Red is the highest heart rate that miCoach coaches to (typically 95% of Max HR.) From there, adjust your numbers to ensure adequate ranges between your lowest value (Bottom of Blue) and highest (Top of Red.) For example, your Top of Red should be greater than your Top of Green by at least 14 BPM. Be sure that if you bump up your Top of Green by, say, 4 beats per minute that you also increase your Top of Yellow by half as much (2 beats in this example). Also, your Bottom of Blue should be a comfortable pace that allows your heart rate to recover so that you can then put forth greater efforts in your harder zones. Remember to save and sync any changes
Fine-tuning your pace zones
To manually adjust your pace zones, go under Settings > Training > Cardio Training. From here you have two options:
• Simple
Click “Adjust Zones” and select how your zones feel—too easy, easy, good, hard, or too hard. miCoach will adjust your zones based on your selection. Remember to save and sync any changes.
• Advanced
Click “manual edit (advanced)” to further customize your training. This method is more complex. When editing your zones, keep in mind that your Top of Red is the fastest speed you can sustain for 30 seconds. Adjust your numbers to ensure adequate ranges between your lowest value (Bottom of Blue) and highest (Top of Red.) For example, your Top of Green pace must be 40%-95% of your Top of Red pace. Your bottom of blue should be 75% of your Top of Green. Keep in mind that your zone ranges should be smaller between upper zones since you can’t maintain intensities above your ventilatory threshold (when training in your Top of Yellow and Red zones) for long. Another way to think about it is an 8 or 9 effort on a scale of 1-10. Top of Yellow should be about 7 or 8 out of 10 and Top of Green roughly 6 or 7 out of 10. Think of your Blue Zone as roughly a 3 or 4 out of 10. If you try to set too large or small of a difference between the upper and lower boundaries of your zones, an error message will display and you will need to readjust your zones. Once you have your zones as you like them, remember to save and sync any changes.
The chart above illustrates pace zones. Notice that as speed increases, the time spent in the zone decreases. Pace zone ranges should be smaller between upper zones since you can’t maintain intensities above your ventilatory threshold (when training in your Top of Yellow and Red zones) for long.
For more training tips and help getting started with miCoach, check out the posts tagged Getting Started in the miCoach blog or visit the support center.
