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Reading your training zones
Use the five shared intensity bands for pace and running power, with threshold at the top of Z3 rather than treated as a zone of its own.
Zones give you broad intensity ranges for running that should allow room rather than force one exact speed.
A Training Zone — one of five shared pace-and-power intensity bands — has the same number and meaning whether you read it in minutes per mile, minutes per kilometre or watts:
| Zone | Name | Range relative to threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Z1 | Recovery | 65–80% |
| Z2 | Easy | 80–90% |
| Z3 | Tempo | 90–100% |
| Z4 | Interval | 100–115% |
| Z5 | Repetition | 115–130% |
The percentages describe speed or running power, not heart rate. AgentRunCoach does not prescribe heart-rate percentages.
Finding threshold on the table
Threshold Pace — the pace sustainable for 60 minutes — is the ceiling of Z3 Tempo. It is a point at the boundary, not a sixth band and not a zone named Threshold.
This is also why “tempo” and “threshold” are not interchangeable here. Tempo names the whole Z3 range; threshold names the exact pace at its top.
Seeing paces inside a zone
Named paces sit inside the band that contains them. Recovery, easy, steady, threshold, interval and repetition have stable places on the ladder. Marathon and half-marathon paces are derived from the athlete’s race equivalents, so their placement can move with ability instead of being forced into one zone for everyone.
A zone is a range; a named pace is a point
Ask for a zone when any effort inside the band is acceptable. Ask for a named pace when the workout needs a more precise target. The workout’s scoring uses the width of the target you chose.
Pairing pace and power
The pace bands come from your current running-fitness evaluation. When you have saved running-power data, the same five rows also show watt bands anchored by Critical Power — the running-power counterpart to threshold.
These are not rival zone systems. Pace and watts describe the same five levels through different instruments. Without running-power data, the watt column is simply absent and the pace zones continue to work normally.
Ask your coach
“Show me my five training zones in pace and watts.”
“Which zone contains my marathon pace?”
“Why is threshold at the top of Z3 instead of being a threshold zone?”
Related
- Understanding your training paces — See how your current fitness becomes recovery, easy, race, threshold and faster workout targets, including any pace grounded in your own evidence.
- Running with power — Add Critical Power, view watts beside pace, and deliberately choose power as the primary target for newly generated workouts.
- Choosing pace targets and zones — Use a pace for a precise effort, a zone for a range, or fixed numbers when the exact band matters more than changes in fitness.
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