Words: Jenni King                                                                                         Photos: Robert Conroy

The answer depends on whether you use a heart rate monitor, power meter or neither, and also on which method of training zone calculation you want to use. There are in fact, many ways to calculate your training zones from a wide variety of methods - and it can be quite confusing when you read the related literature. In this article I will attempt to summarise some of the most widely-used methods of training zone calculation. Hopefully this will help clarify which method best suits your training needs.

2 - Perceived Effort

3 - Heart Rate Zones

4 - Power Zones