I just finished my first 30/30 running interval workout and was a bit confused by the feedback from the AI coach afterwards. It told me that I spent too little time in heart rate Zones 1 and 2, but when I look at the planned HR zone distribution itself, the targets already seem questionable to me.
The workout was 3 sets of 6 × 30/30 intervals, yet the planned time in heart rate Zone 3 and above adds up to only around 3 minutes total. For a VO2max-style session, that doesn’t seem very realistic.
I fully understand that workouts like 30/30s should not be paced by heart rate, but rather by pace or power—which is exactly what I did. I used Stryd power as my target metric (it’s set as my default running metric in Athletica), and I stayed within the prescribed range of 390–440 W on every single 30-second repeat.
The run also wasn’t particularly hilly, so even though I focused only on power, I would still have expected the pace distribution to be at least reasonably close to the target zones. Instead, the pace analysis showed significantly more time in Zone 7 than in Zone 5. How can the pace and power zones differ that much if the power targets were executed correctly?
As a result, the AI coach criticized the session because of the HR and pace zone distribution, despite the power targets being executed nearly perfectly throughout the workout. Needless to say, that was a bit disappointing after what felt like a very well-executed 30/30 session.
To me, it almost seems like the planned HR targets for this type of workout are not set appropriately.
