The 4 Zone Plan

To help you run more effectively and recover properly after exercising we have put together The 4 Zone Plan. There is no exact point where one zone stops and the next starts and you may find that you experience more than 1 or all of them during hard training or in a race!

The Blether Zone. As the name suggests this zone enables you to easily run along and have a good blether with your running buddies (if you run alone feel free to blether to yourself, but remember what is said about people who talk to themselves!). You don?t need any scientific measurements or principles to run in the Blether Zone, quite simply if you are able to run comfortably and blether then you are not going into oxygen deficit and your heart rate will be higher than at rest but not nearly as high as when you run faster. As a very rough guide each person has a maximum heart rate (MHR) of around 220 beats per minute minus their age (so a 40 year old would be 220 ? 40 = 180). Aerobic running (i.e. running without going into oxygen deficit) is achieved at a level around 60% - 85% of your MHR, Blether Zone would be at the lower end of this range.

This type of running is appropriate for warming up for a harder run or race, or for a recovery run the day after a hard run/race.

To measure your heart rate after exercise it is best to take a pulse measurement from the Carotid artery on your neck, this should be easy to find as it pumps quite hard at higher levels. Measure your pulse for 10 or 15 seconds and multiply by 6 or 4 to get your heart rate per minute. Your pulse rate is the same as your heart rate.

The Puff Zone. This is a gradual step up from Blether Zone. You should still be able to chat to your running buddies but it may not be as easy to get your words out. Most of your regular weekly running should be In the Puff Zone as this will give you the best cardiovascular (heart and lungs) exercise benefit, which is important for maintaining or improving your long term health and also important in building a solid foundation for improving your running times or distances (if that is what your goals are). In Puff Zone you should be aiming for around 70 ? 80% of your MHR.

The Pant Zone. If you start to feel and look like a Husky pulling a sled then you have probably entered The Pant Zone! At this level your heart rate is probably getting up to 80 - 90% of your MHR and you will have started to exercise anaerobically (this means that you have gone into oxygen deficit and are effectively running without oxygen and building up waste products, predominantly lactic acid). Once you have entered this zone it becomes increasingly difficult to sustain your running pace. This zone is usually only entered towards the end of a very hard training run or race, or during specific training sessions where you vary your pace between slow and fast for a period of time or a set distance. For beginners it is not really advisable to do much training in this zone, it is better to build up an endurance/aerobic base from Blether and Puff Zone training. This also has the advantage of minimising the risks of injury or illness from overdoing things before your body has become accustomed to increased intensity of exercise. Once you have been running for several months and perhaps taken part in your first organised race you can then think about introducing Pant Zone training to improve your times, you should also feel that you are running easier in the Blether and Puff Zones.

The Gasp Zone. The Gasp Zone is not a place that you want to be in too often! It would really only be entered at the very end of a full out training run or race, even then only over the last few hundred metres as you try to coax a final sprint out of your weary muscles! In Gasp Zone you will probably be exercising at 90 ? 100% of MHR. The other time you would enter Gasp Zone would be during short interval training at high intensity, which is used to develop speed. For most recreational and health runners it is not advisable to do this type of training, unless of course you have secret ambitions of being the next Lee McConnell or Tom McKean!