I agree with (at least) one full-day off. I used to do 7-days with one day being "very easy" (maybe an easy/short run or bike..but, just one). I switched several years ago, to a full-day-off, and it helps a lot---both from a recovery standpoint, and a SO-acceptance-factor perspective. I have one day to do nothing but what she wants.

I would also suggest maybe to assess the accuracy of your zones. Or if you are working in the upper limits of zone2 (or creeping into z3) vs. the lower end z2? Maybe I'm just biased by my own experience. But, I have a hard time reconciling 8-ish hours / week of mostly z2 being as taxing as you describe. When I go out for a long run/bike, I ride the z1/z2 boundary...and maybe creep into mid-z2 from cardiac drift by the end...if I get near z3, I slow down/walk, and drink more.

Slow down, still being the response, but perhaps the root cause is you zones are set too high? Dunno....just grasping at straws.

I think also most people get too caught up in all these metric. The ultimate metric is perceived exertion. To simplify, go hard twice a week and go long once per week (something like Tue+Thu hard workouts, Sunday long). There is no rocket science to all of this. Everyone makes it way more complex than it needs to be. They do the same thing in racing. I remember racing an Ironman in 33C heat and a guy I know passed me. I said, "hey buddy you will die on the marathon, your pace is too hot". He pointed to his SRM and said, "not this is Zone XYZ". I said, "I don't care what your SRM said, we are on loop one of a hot ironman...dial it back man, you're gonna overcook yourself and you won't be able to digest following your SRM. Your SRM does not understand the thermal load on your body.

He insisted on following his prescribed SRM heart rate zones and I later passed him on the run. I was essentially going at jogging pace equivalent on the bike and then I kept going jogging pace on the run because it was way too hot for anything else and I had to adjust things. It also helped that I was racing with no watch, no bike computer, no heart rate monitor, no power meter. I qualified for Kona on that race just by following my body.

My track coach used to have us run 400m repeats on a target interval, except we did not get to see how fast we were going on our watches, and he would announce the 400m times at the 400m. Pretty soon you knew exactly the feel for 70 s vs 72s vs 75s vs 77.5s vs 80s. If you do any amount of swimming you know before looking at the clock what time it is going to be for what exertion

I agree with all that.....but, RPE isn't infallible either. RPE assumes one understands what "easy" should feel like (at the boundary of z1/z2). In a race scenario, it also assumes that one understands the impacts of adrenaline, and race conditions on target efforts.

That said, I don't know how much that applies to the OP, or not. If the OP has "never" truly run at a Z1/2 pace, and has more typically run at a z2/3 pace (which feels like a nice easy pace until hour 2-3)...that might explain things. What easy truly is, has to be learned.

Funny post and very realistic.

I see a lot of posts on X from people asking well known names in physiology about ideal lactate ranges for training and stuff about mitochondria / metabolism who are just picking up endurance stuff and have no fitness at all - just coming off the couch types.

I get it partly - if its fun to you to have a hobby and try to nerd out on all the stats and science stuff behind it then that's fine. Its also partly the likes of these physiologists and celebrity doctors who over complicate things to make money and prey on $ / ignorance

But at the end of the day we are dealing with basic concepts here and there is freedom and self experimentation to it all. Whinge over.

All this talk about "zones" just overcomplicates things into nebulous definitions.

Rather to simplify

1. what effort can you hold for 15 seconds
2. what effort can you hold for 1 minute
3. what effort can you hold for 6 minutes
4. what effort can you hold for 20 min
5. what effort can you hold for 1 hrs
6. what effort can you hold for 4 hrs
7. what effort can you hold for 10 hrs

Largely, I think with not that much experience, pretty quickly EVERYONE gets a feel for these at least the first 5 (or at least they get a feel). Its not that tough to realize that you can't hold your 1 minute effort for 1 hrs. You may get confused between your 1 min pace and your 6 minute pace (because they are just slightly different), and you may get confused between your 6 min pace and your 20 min pace, but likely you won't get confused between your 6 min pace and your 1 hrs pace (although we have seen countless people sprint out of the gates at the local 10km like they are Mo Farah in the final 400m of a 5000m haha).

In a swimming context it does not take too much experience before you know what you can hold for 25m, 100m, 400m, 1500m and 4000m. It becomes obvious. Talking Zones just confuses discussions because the definitions are not universal.

But if I ask anyone what their 6 min pace is and their 4 hrs pace, they likely won't confuse them. They likely won't confuse their 20 min pace and 4 hrs pace. They may confuse their 1 hrs pace and 4 hrs pace a few times, before they smarten up (it does not take too many blowups to smarten up).

Largely the OP needs to train mainly at his 10 hrs pace, with a solid dosage at 4 hrs pace, some 1 hrs pace and maybe intervals at 6 min pace since his volume is so low and recover at 4 hrs to 10 hrs pace between those intervals.

Really none of this is that complicated. We don't need lactate tests, we don't need fancy defintions, we just need to get a simple feel for what effort we can sustain in what sport for what duration.

I think every swimmer knows they are not holding their 100 fly place for 6 min, 20 min, 1 hrs, 4 hrs, 10 hrs. But somehow cyclists are clueless without fancy meters and runners are so depended on their GPS that they have no idea what is going on when their battery dies (and I come from a running background) ...and just to be clear, I have all the toys

I would love to watch someone try to hold their 100 fly pace for even 3-4 minutes. There are some funny threads on here about people losing the plot on the back half of a 200 fly, but there is even a video of someone dying on a 100 fly SCY or SCM which is even funnier.

Pretty good way of summing it up. Don't need to go and buy a lactate meter to figure out those different ranges. The longest race I have done is about 3 hours and I put my best 1 hour pace on about 20-30 minutes too early. The last 20-30 minutes were very difficult.

Some of the riders used to go on feel when the PMs first came in - I think Contador is probably the last big name rider that would go on feel that I can recall. I am not so tuned into that sport to know, though.

If I was training for a 10 hour event I would just be going out training easily listening to podcasts

I think in swimming it is much easier for all of us to self select appropriate paces for the distance at hand. Literally everyone settles into their 3800m after the stupidity of their mass start sprint where they start at their 100m pace and then realize they are toast. In cycling it is just too easy to access your shorter duration paces too frequently before eventually it adds up. Same thing with running early in an event, but we quickly go into a self selection mode.

I used to coach teenagers at XC skiing. In that sport, they have no "meters" it is all based on exertion and snow glide, wind and hills all change the speed vs effort. it does not take too long for the teens to self select paces that they can sustain over 10 min to 30 min races. Then I would take them cycling in the summer and I would say, "go as hard as you can up that hill, it should take around 5 minutes". Amazingly even these testosterone laced teens quickly figured out their "5 min pace" and they were not cyclists....just XC skiers and runners who had to ride bikes to diversify training since they can't train on snow in the summer.