What is Zone 2 training and should you be doing it?

Zone 2 Training

Something that has come up a lot lately in training articles, blogs and podcasts this year has been the term ‘Zone 2 training’.  Perhaps you have heard about this and may be wondering what this new training system is and whether it might be something you should be doing in preparation for RAGBRAI.  So let me first describe what Zone 2 training is and then explain why it should be a big part of your RAGBRAI training.

What is Zone 2 Training

‘Zone’ terminology comes from standard cycling jargon that define training intensities. The typical training systems use a 5, 6, or even 7 zone model, where Zone 1 is very easy exercise, light walking at a moderate pace, or riding at an easy pace. Zone 2 is where you pick up the pace but your effort, heart rate and breathing are still under control. It’s often described in terms of a talk test – you should be able to speak in complete sentences while riding in Zone 2 without having to stop talking part way through a sentence to take a breath – known as the breath test.

Zone 3 is harder. I describe it as an uncomfortable pace requiring some concentration to keep it up, such as when you are trying to keep up with riders a little faster than you. Speaking in complete sentences is not possible.  Zone 4 is hard efforts – chasing friends or pushing up a hill. You are breathing noticeably hard now and your heart is starting to pound. Zone 5 is very hard, and you can only keep this up for a handful of minutes – think of riding away from a large, snarling dog. I’m not even going to get into Zone 6 and 7, obviously they are very hard efforts and nothing you will do if you don’t race.

Zone 2 isn’t a very hard pace. It’s actually the pace you will ride for most of RAGBRAI.  And it’s nothing new. Many decades ago when I first started training, we called it LSD, not after the drug popular at the time, but it stood for Long Slow Distance (some referred to it as Long Steady Distance because they didn’t want to be thought of as slow).

So it’s nothing new, it’s just that some podcasters have grabbed on to this Zone terminology and have run with it (or rode with it?). Kind of like all of a sudden everyone was talking about HIT or HIIT training – high intensity interval training. Decades ago we just called them intervals. Bottom line, don’t bet hung up on the terminology, Zone 2 training is just basically endurance paced training – a pace you can maintain for several hours and the pace you’ll be riding on RAGBRAI for the most part.

What are the benefits of Zone 2 training?

There are several physiological benefits to training in Zone 2. The greatest one is that it increases your endurance. How does it do that?  This type of long, moderate riding increases the number and efficiency of your mitochondria, those powerhouses in your cell that convert your food into forward motion. This training also increases the blood flow to working muscles by the increase in number of capillaries. You will improve the function of your heart with greater stroke volume, so you are able to move more blood through your body with each heartbeat. 

Ultimately these and other enhancements to your fitness will allow you to ride longer and even faster. And the great thing is this is at a fairly comfortable pace. The only hard part of Zone 2 training is when you get to longer rides (2+ hours) where you start getting fatigued. But this fatigue is what helps make you better.

Should you be doing Zone 2 training?

Of course! As a matter of fact, the vast majority of your training should be at this pace. Your main objective for getting through RAGBRAI feeling good and good about yourself is to prepare your body and mind for long hours in the saddle. You cannot maintain Zone 3 or higher for hours at a time. But you can in Zone 2. As you do your rides, you don’t really have to worry about your speed. Go at a comfortable pace that you think you can maintain for more than 2 hours. Then as you build fitness, actually go for rides longer than 2 hours. That’s your Zone 2 pace. You can also do some of your riding in Zone 1, especially on days when you may be tired such as after a longer ride, or when you just want to add some extra time to your training volume. It all counts as time in the saddle. You can also do a little bit of training at Zone 3 and higher which I will touch on in future articles.

So get in the Zone, Zone 2 that is.

Find All 2025 Training Blogs

Find all of Coach Ertl’s Training Blogs, as well as the 2025 Training Plan in our Training section on RAGBRAI.com.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Advanced Certified Coach. He coaches individual cyclists through the Peaks Coaching Group www.peakscoachinggroup.com/davidertl . He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: www.CyclesportCoaching.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].