Great to see Johannes Klæbo of Norway—the greatest Winter Olympian ever and one of the most dominant and versatile endurance athletes of all time—communicating the importance of Zone 1 training in a recent podcast interview.
The host actually interrupted Klæbo to guess that he would say “Zone 2” was his primary training zone. Nope! Eighty-eight percent of Klæbo’s weekly training volume is in Zone 1. If you watched the Winter Olympics, you saw Klæbo win gold in anything he tried, including a race that lasted less than four minutes. Eighty-eight percent of his training in Zone 1 to win a four-minute race! That should make us reconsider some of our assumptions about what effective training looks like.
As we get overwhelmed by promoters touting “science” as the end-all arbiter of truth, I think we should pay more attention to what the real athletes are doing every day. Of course, I review the data and research, but as a masters sprinter and high jumper, I also look closely at the best masters athletes and coaches because whatever they’re doing is working. Former B.rad Podcast guests and world masters champions like Sue McDonald, Lion Martinez, and Cynthia Monteleone are great examples. I’m interested in what produces results in the real world, not just what sounds convincing in a study or makes a good social media post.
This is one reason I want to give Zone 1 more attention. We hear so much about Zone 2 training these days that it’s easy to overlook the value of exercising at an even lower intensity. Elite endurance athletes build their aerobic base in Zone 1 while minimizing the musculoskeletal stress that comes with constantly pushing the limits of their aerobic capacity. Zone 1 still stimulates the aerobic system, but it can also refresh and rejuvenate the body rather than leave you depleted. That’s especially valuable when you’re recovering from a demanding workout, a race, or an injury.
Here’s the important part for recreational runners: your Zone 1 might be walking, not jogging. Elite athletes have such tremendous aerobic capacity that their easy training pace can look pretty impressive to the rest of us. For many recreational runners, though, maintaining a genuinely low intensity means slowing down considerably, sometimes all the way to a walk. The intensity is relative to your own fitness, and walking still delivers aerobic benefits.
One of the problems with Zone 2 training is that people often drift above the intended intensity without realizing it. You hit a hill, start feeling good, or decide to pick up the pace a little, and before you know it, your easy aerobic session has become a much more demanding workout. Walking the hills helps keep your effort in check and lets you build an aerobic base without piling on unnecessary training stress. Besides Klæbo, retired marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge revealed that he did 83% of his weekly mileage in Zone 1. These athletes understand that going easy is an essential part of training, not time wasted between the hard sessions.
Building an aerobic base is important well beyond endurance sports. Sprinters, high jumpers, strength athletes, and anyone who wants to maintain physical performance as they age benefit from an aerobic system that efficiently delivers blood and oxygen to working muscles and supports recovery between demanding efforts.
And you don’t have to schedule a formal cardio session to get started. Everyday movement—including walking the dog, taking the stairs, and getting up for regular walking breaks—contributes to your aerobic conditioning. Combine that foundation with appropriate strength training and occasional high-intensity efforts, and you have a more balanced approach to fitness than trying to make every workout hard.
So take a lesson from Klæbo and the other elite athletes who devote so much of their training to easy aerobic work. You don’t have to go hard all the time to get fitter, and for most recreational endurance runners, Zone 1 means walking rather than jogging. Walking is an excellent way to build your aerobic base without the repetitive impact and recovery demands of running.
It’s also a chance to work on natural gait mechanics and foot function, a subject Mark Sisson and I explore in Born to Walk. I like walking in Peluva’s five-toe minimalist footwear, designed to support a more natural gait pattern while allowing your feet to work and strengthen naturally. Visit Peluva.com and use code BRADPODCAST for 10% off.
