Academy·Step 3

Power zones and workouts of your own

Seven drawers that hold all of endurance training — and three bricks you can build any session from.

A zone is a range in which the body does something different from the range next door. That's why "ride in Z2" is a better instruction than "ride at 250 W".

Every threshold below is worked out from this number.

Seven zones in your own watts

The same split the app uses for "TIME IN ZONE".

POWER ZONES
Z1Active recoveryup to 55%
Z2Endurance56–75%
Z3Tempo76–90%
Z4Threshold91–105%
Z5VO₂ max106–120%
Z6Anaerobic121–150%
Z7Neuromuscularfrom 151%

In the app you see these same ranges converted into your own watts.

The boundaries are worked out from your FTP, so they move as it does.

Z2 is where most of a season's hours go, Z4 is work on FTP itself. Sweet spot (88–94%) gives nearly the threshold stimulus at a lower cost. The distribution that works: plenty of Z2, one or two hard sessions, the rest recovery.

The catalogue covers nine sessions out of ten

The presets ("Sweet Spot 3×15 @88%", "Jazda ciągła Z2 1 h") come with their load already worked out. The tenth session — from your coach or a podcast — is the editor.

Open the workout library

Step, ramp, repeats

Those three build everything.

Build it in the editor

  1. Name the workout — the name has to be unique in your library.
  2. In "WORKOUT STRUCTURE" tap the empty slot — "Add block" offers "Step", "Ramp" and "Repeats".
  3. Tap a block to change its power and duration; drag it to move it.
  4. A slot inside a group adds a block into that group — we don't nest repeats.

Open the workout editor

The bars of "POWER PROFILE" above the structure can be dragged too: vertical is power, horizontal is duration.

Watch "METRICS"

Similar TSS and IF mean a similar cost, even with a different structure.

Ready-made workoutSweet Spot 3×15 @88%

To start: add the preset, tap "Edit", stretch the efforts to 18 minutes and see how much the TSS grows.

You can build a session. What's left is how many to do and in what order.

Read next

Step 4 · 3 min readTSS and a plan — the end of random trainingWhy an hour of intervals costs more than two hours of easy riding, and how to turn that into weeks that actually differ.