Zone Compression: What My Mask Test Revealed | Ep21

<p>Coach Alicia just found out her zone two had been lying to her.</p><p><br></p><p>After months of easy runs that felt harder than they should, Alicia went through a full metabolic assessment: mask on, treadmill ramping, breath-by-breath data on how her body shifts from burning fat to burning carbs. The result forced her to drop her own lactate threshold and rebuild her zones from scratch, and it&#39;s a reminder that a training zone is data, not a trophy.</p><p><br></p><p>In this coffee chat episode (kombucha in hand), Coach JW and Coach Alicia get into what a metabolic test actually tells you, what &quot;zone compression&quot; means, and why more high intensity isn&#39;t the shortcut to getting faster. They walk through field test options like the twenty minute test and the bike ramp test, how JW decides an athlete is ready to move up a zone, and why RPE still matters more than any number on a watch.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus: JW&#39;s daughter Runa just finished her first 28k trail race at ten years old, mom running alongside her the whole way. The story behind that finish line is worth the listen on its own.</p><p><br></p><p>Fitting the training into the chaos, one zone at a time.</p>