Use of the training zones

The training zones in swimming differ from the other sports, because there is no control by a heart rate monitor, so you have to train very strongly according to feeling.

At the moment we change our swimming units to the speed indication. The training units refer to either the speed feeling or the training area.

The indication of the speed should point in a direction and help. It should be weighed and if necessary the speed feeling should be trusted. Influences like water temperature, daily form, track length or fellow swimmers often have a big influence on the swimming speed.

We subdivide into the following training areas:

Training Zone	Percent of CSS (critical swim speed) in %	Perceived Effort
Zone 1 - Recovery	84-86	Very easy
Zone 2 - Basic Endurance 1	92-94	Easy
Zone 3 - Basic Endurance 2	95-98	Medium
Zone 4 - Sub Treshold	101-103	Hard
Zone 5 - Super Treshold	105-110	Very hard
Zone 6 - Aerobic Capacity	106-119	All Out
Zone 7 - Sprints / Anaerobic Capacity	>120	Sprint

Note:

In endurance sports there are unfortunately no standardized training areas, not only in the percentage height is often defined differently, also the naming of the individual training areas is very different. We orientate ourselves on the obviously common standards of sports science and have made consistently good experiences with these values over the last few years.

In most cases, the different existing training areas overlap in different areas and have individual reason for existence.

You will notice that our training zones do not merge seamlessly, there are gaps - we call these areas grey areas.

For example, the human body does not switch its metabolism from fat burning to carbohydrate burning within one heartbeat, but there are always smooth transitions between the training zones with a predominant part of one zone.
With the gaps between the training areas we try to emphasize the weighting of the training area more clearly and to set an accentuated training.