The example training zones presented in the application are not training advice, they are just examples. Verify them using current scientific knowledge and adjust them to your needs.
Training zones
Training zones describe how hard an athlete should work, and how hard they actually worked. In the Good Coach App you prescribe workouts in zones, the athlete's watch receives the zone as a target, and after the session Time in zones shows where the effort really went.
You open the club's zones from Zones in the main menu. Each athlete's own zones are on the Zones tab of their Athlete preferences.
Two kinds of zones
Zones based on metrics are percentages of one of the athlete's performance metrics — for example 70–80% of maximum heart rate. You define the percentages once, and each athlete gets their own numbers from their own metric: with a maximum heart rate of 190 bpm, 70–80% is 133–152 bpm; with 175 bpm, the same zone is 123–140 bpm.
Individual zones are values you type in for one athlete — heart rates from a lab test, paces from a field test, power from a ramp test. Their zones come from a zone template: a club-wide set of zones (their number, names and order) in heart rate, pace or power, with no values of its own. Each athlete fills the same template in with their own values.
Zone templates are what connect athletes. A workout planned in a zone of a template shows every athlete their own values in it, so the same workout can be copied to several athletes or saved as a workout template and still fit each of them. And because every athlete answers the same question — where is your zone 3? — their zones stay comparable.
Use zones based on metrics when a percentage of a metric describes the zone well enough and you keep the metric up to date. Use individual zones when you have measured values that a percentage cannot express, typically from a lab or field test.
The question mark next to the section headings on the Zones screen explains both kinds in the app.
The Zones screen
The screen has two sections, each with its own button for adding:
- Individual zone templates — each card shows the metric the template is in (Heart rate, Pace or Power), its sport, and how many athletes use it. Expanded, it lists the zone names only: a template has no values.
- Zones based on metrics — each card shows its base metric and sport. Expanded, it shows the ranges calculated for the athlete currently selected in the athlete switcher, so you can check the percentages against real numbers. If that athlete does not have the metric yet, it shows the percentages instead. This section also holds any Heart rate (fixed values) profiles from before zone templates — see below.
Expanded, every card also shows the profile's description, if it has one.
The button next to the templates heading, named after the selected athlete (for example Anna's zones), takes you straight to their Zones tab.
Profiles are created and edited in a dialog. Edit, Duplicate and Remove are in the footer of an expanded card. A fixed-values profile has only Remove.
Zones based on metrics
Press New zone profile, give it a name, choose the Base metric, and set the upper limit of each zone as a percentage. Zones must rise from one to the next, and every zone needs a value before you can save.
The base metric can be:
- maximum heart rate,
- heart rate reserve (calculated from maximum and resting heart rate),
- functional threshold power (FTP),
- aerobic threshold heart rate (LT1),
- anaerobic threshold heart rate (LT2),
- anaerobic threshold pace (LT2) — pace zones you set yourself, see below,
- Daniels' paces (from 10k race time) — pace zones from Jack Daniels' tables, which cannot be changed. You get them by choosing the Daniels' Paces method.
Limit the profile to a sport type makes the profile appear only for workouts in that sport. Leave it on all sports otherwise.
How is the heart rate reserve (HRR) calculated?
Heart rate reserve (HRR) is calculated as the difference between maximum heart rate and resting heart rate. Resting heart rate is measured as overnight resting heart rate or can also be measured in the morning after waking up, before getting out of bed.
If the maximum heart rate is 180 bpm and the resting heart rate is 50 bpm, the heart rate reserve is 130 bpm. When our zone has a range between 70% and 80% of HRR, the range is calculated as follows:
- 70% of HRR = 70% * 130 bpm + 50 bpm = 141 bpm
- 80% of HRR = 80% * 130 bpm + 50 bpm = 154 bpm
- The zone range is between 141 bpm and 154 bpm.
Zones on anaerobic threshold pace (LT2)
Pace zones built on the athlete's threshold pace — roughly the pace they could hold for an hour. You set the zones as percentages, the same way as for heart rate, and each athlete gets their own paces.
One thing to remember: the percentages are of speed. Above 100% is faster than threshold pace, below 100% is slower.
With a threshold pace of 4:30 /km:
- 90% → 5:00 /km — slower
- 100% → 4:30 /km — threshold pace
- 111% → 4:03 /km — faster
The quickest start is the Friel threshold pace method: it fills in the zones, and you adjust them from there.
Details:
- The fastest zone is open — it has no upper limit, like the fastest zone of individual pace zones.
- Running only. The sport is set for you.
- Percentages can have one decimal place (77.5%), because published methods fall between whole numbers.
- Every limit can be changed, unlike Daniels' paces, whose zones come from his tables.
Where the athlete's threshold pace comes from
An athlete does not need a threshold test to get these zones. The app uses the first of these it finds:
- their anaerobic threshold pace (LT2) — typed into performance data or saved from the threshold test,
- their 10 km race time — threshold pace worked out from it with Jack Daniels' formula,
- their estimated 10 km time — the same, from the time the system estimated.
The Zones tab and Performance data say which one is used. An estimate is marked as one: nobody ran that time.
The athlete needs the metric
A profile based on a metric gives an athlete values only once that metric is filled in their performance data — for a heart rate reserve profile, both maximum and resting heart rate. Until then, the profile shows no values for them, and on their Zones tab it is listed last with the missing metric marked. You can fill the metric in right there.
Zones on anaerobic threshold pace are the exception: a 10 km time, or even its estimate, is enough — see where the threshold pace comes from.
Methods
Methods gives you a ready set of zones from a known training method to start from: Coggan's FTP, Burke HR Max, Daniels' HR Max, Napier HRR, Daniels' Paces and three by Joe Friel. After choosing one you can still adjust the zones.
Friel — zones from a threshold test, the method behind the 30-minute test in the threshold test calculator:
- Friel LTHR (running) and Friel LTHR (cycling) — on anaerobic threshold heart rate. The cycling zones are a little lower, as Friel publishes them.
- Friel threshold pace — on anaerobic threshold pace.
Three things differ from Friel's own tables, because the editor needs one clean upper limit per zone:
- His top zone (5c) has no upper limit. The heart rate methods end it at 110% of threshold heart rate; the pace method leaves it open.
- His zones 4 and 5a overlap in the pace table. The method splits them at threshold pace.
- He gives pace zones as a share of time. The method converts them to a share of speed, so the paces come out exactly as his: 129% of the time is 77.5% of the speed.
Daniels' Paces is special: its zones come from Jack Daniels' tables for the athlete's 10 km time, so the sport is fixed to running, and zone names and values cannot be changed. You can remove zones you do not use, and change their colours and descriptions.
Threshold pace and heart rate can be worked out from a 30- or 20-minute test with the Threshold test (LT2) calculator, and training paces from a 10 km time with the other calculators — open them from the top menu of the application.
Zone templates and individual zones
Creating a zone template
Press New zone template, give it a name and a sport, choose Heart rate, Pace or Power, and name the zones. There are no values to enter — each athlete gets theirs on their Zones tab. Methods works here too: it copies a method's zones, without values.
A template can also be created from an athlete's Zones tab, together with that athlete's values — see below.
Filling in an athlete's values
On the athlete's Zones tab, press Create individual zones:
- From a zone template — pick one of the club's templates. Templates the athlete already has are greyed out.
- New zone template — build a new template and enter this athlete's values in the same dialog. The template is saved for the whole club, so for the next athlete you just choose it under From a zone template. Starting from a method, the values are calculated once from the athlete's metrics — they will not change when the metric does.
Values are typed straight into the card and saved when you leave the field. Each zone has to be harder than the one before it: a higher heart rate or power, a faster pace. The fastest pace zone has no upper limit, so it has no field — it is open.
Individual zones start working only once every zone has a value. Until then, workouts planned in them show no target for that athlete, and the card opens itself and says which values are missing. Half a set of zones would put the athlete in a zone at a boundary nobody chose.
Changing a template athletes use
Edit a template from its card on the Zones screen, or with Open zone template on an athlete's card. Changes reach every athlete who uses the template:
- Renaming a zone, changing its colour or description — applied straight away; the athletes' values stay with their zones.
- Adding a zone — it arrives in every athlete's profile empty, so their profiles are incomplete until you fill it in. Before saving, the app asks for confirmation and says how many athletes are affected.
- Removing a zone — the athletes' values for it are removed with it.
Once athletes have values for a template, its sport and metric can no longer be changed: bpm are not watts, and running heart rates are not cycling ones.
Removing
Remove individual zones on an athlete's card removes that athlete's values; they go back to the zones based on metrics. A template that athletes use cannot be removed — remove their individual zones first, and the app tells you how many there are.
Profiles with fixed values
Before zone templates, a heart rate profile could hold fixed values — the same bpm for every athlete, or one athlete's values in a profile of their own. These profiles are marked Heart rate (fixed values) and listed with the zones based on metrics.
They still work: workouts planned in them keep their targets. But they can no longer be edited or duplicated, only removed, and athletes do not see them on their Zones tab. For new plans, use a zone template.
A profile marked "(replaced by individual zones)" has already been moved: its athletes have the same values as individual zones on a zone template, and upcoming workouts use those. The profile's description says when, and which template. You can remove it.
To move one yourself, open the athlete's Zones tab, press Create individual zones → New zone template, and type in the values from the old profile. For the next athlete with similar zones, choose the same template under From a zone template. Once no planned workout needs the old profile, remove it.
Who can change zones
The same rules apply as for activity types and workout templates:
- Club zones — the templates, the zones based on metrics, and the individual zones filled in on a club template — can be changed by coaches with the Manage Templates permission (a club Owner always has it), and by whoever created them.
- A coach without that permission sees every zone and plans with them, but cannot create or change them.
- Private zones belong to whoever created them, and nobody else can see or change them.
- Athletes see their zones on their Zones tab, but cannot change the club's.
Planning workouts with zones
Workout plans
In a workout plan, choose a Zone profile and then Select range of intensity. The ranges are calculated for the athlete you are planning for. Paces read from faster to slower (06:00–06:59 /km); the first zone shows only its limit (≥ 08:00 /km), and the open fastest zone where it starts (≤ 03:29 /km).
A zone template the athlete has not filled in yet is listed as no values yet, and the hint below the field links to their Zones tab. You can still plan in it: the targets appear by themselves once the values are entered — see Keeping planned workouts up to date.
Intervals
Each step of a structured workout can target a zone. The athlete's watch receives the zone as a range in the athlete's own values — heart rate, pace or power — including the open first and last zones.
Duration and distance of a step can be calculated from the intervals. A step in individual pace zones needs nothing more — its paces are already there. Heart-rate zones and Daniels' Paces need the athlete's 10 km time for that, and the interval designer tells you when it is missing.
Workout templates and copying
A workout template is not written for one athlete, so it offers every zone profile of the club for its sport and shows no athlete's values. The values are filled in when the template is added to an athlete's calendar — each athlete gets their own. Copying a workout to another athlete works the same way. More in Templates with training zones.
Keeping planned workouts up to date
A planned workout keeps the values its zones resolve to, so the calendar and the watch always show concrete targets. When something those values depend on changes, the app recalculates them for you:
- an athlete's performance data — maximum or resting heart rate, FTP, 10 km time, LT1 or LT2 heart rate, LT2 pace,
- an athlete's individual zones — filled in, changed or removed,
- a zone template — zones added, removed or renamed,
- a profile based on metrics — its percentages, metric or sport.
Workouts not yet completed, from the past week to two months ahead, are recalculated: their targets, and the estimated duration and distance. Those from today on are sent to the athlete's watch again. The calendar refreshes by itself a few seconds later.
Changing only a zone's colour or description recalculates nothing — they never reach a workout.
The estimated 10 km time changes after the athlete's runs, so it only updates workouts planned in anaerobic threshold pace zones — and only for an athlete whose threshold pace comes from that estimate.
If a zone is removed from a template, a step planned in it loses its target rather than moving to a neighbouring zone — a wrong target on the watch would be worse than none.
Zones in the analysis of a completed workout
When analysing a completed workout, Time in zones shows the zones the athlete was in and the time spent in each. Only the profiles for all sports or for the workout's sport are offered.
Which zones the analysis opens on:
- the zone profile the workout was planned in,
- otherwise the athlete's individual zones for the workout's sport, then their individual zones for all sports,
- then the zones based on metrics, for the sport first and then for all sports.
Within each group, heart rate comes first, then pace for running or power for cycling, then the rest. You can switch to any other profile in the Time in zones window.
Below the training chart, a bar shows the zones throughout the workout. Click a segment to zoom the chart in on it; the bar also zooms when you select one or more laps in the laps window.
If the workout was planned in a zone, the comparison window shows how often the athlete reached that zone and for what share of the workout.
Disabling zones preview during workout analysis
If you do not want to use zones, you can disable their preview in the workout analysis screen.
