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Training Metrics 101

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April 29, 2025•3 min read

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Training Metrics 101

HRV

Heart rate variability, or HRV, is essentially the time interval between heart beats, and changes and the variability of that interval throughout a day. While there is no set parameter that you should shoot for, generally a higher number is better. When we are lacking sleep, or have high stress those numbers tend to drop. Other factors such as gender, age, and metabolism play a role as well. Use this number, as well as how you feel, to determine things such as overtraining, or if training is being affected by outside factors like stress and sleep quality.

VO2 Max

Your VO2 max is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can utilize and is measured in mL/kg/min. The better your body is at using oxygen the better it will be at generating energy for metabolism and performance. For runners this directly affects your ability to sustain harder paces for longer periods of time. This number isn't just for athletes either, it can be used as a benchmark for cardiovascular fitness and overall health and longevity. More advanced watches will give you an estimate based on your runs, but you can get a professional test completed here at Return 2 Sport for more accurate and specific data/metrics.

Lactate Threshold

This metric is the threshold at which you can sustain a given pace and still flush lactate from the bloodstream and muscles without switching from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. So think about your race history and those moments when you go out too hard and burn out quickly, you likely exceeded this threshold and lactate accumulation proceeds to cause exhaustion and muscular pain. This can be trained and goes down over time with proper workouts and effort to improve speed and allow you to run faster, for longer periods.

HR Zones

Heart rate zones are simply measures of HR at various levels of intensity in relation to your individual max HR. The standard zones are: Z1 50-60%, Z2 61-70%, Z3 71-80%, Z4 81-90%, Z5 91-100%. Lower zones are more aerobic and have higher levels of fat metabolism, and the higher zones start to become anaerobic and switch to more carbohydrate metabolism. While zone 2 has become popular in reference to fat burning capability and improving endurance, all zones should be addressed in a comprehensive training program. We will dive more into training zones in upcoming articles.

With all that being said, sometimes we get to tied to the data that our devices provide and sometimes they are not as accurate as we may think. The best advice we can give is to learn how to sense what different types of efforts feel like and get a good grasp of how hard you are working at different paces. Never be a slave to your watch. Once you are good at going by feel, the data can be useful to make sure you are progressing correctly towards your goals.

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