Discussion: Training intensity

I noticed most people train at an intensity between 2 and 4 on the training chart. I am just curious as to why people go out to train if they aren't going to run hard. Whenever I train I run as hard as I can unless I am doing some kind of intricate map reading training. What are most people doing when they are training at such low intensity?

I have a couple of answers to that. obviously, the intensity value doesn't mean anything specific, so the idea is that people are free to assign meaning to it however they like. having said that, it would make sense to distribute the 5 options among the range of efforts that you might consider "training". (more on that below) so in your case, it might be more meaningful to record 5=really really hard,4=really hard, 3=hard, 2=almost hard, 1=not that hard, rather than always 5. note that 4 is not necessarily twice as fast as 2.

I usually use it to mean aerobic intensity, or roughly correlated to heart rate. here's how I do it...(obviously the hr's and paces would be different for you)
5) anaerobic. at least the intensity that I would race 5k on the road/track, or even 5 miles XC. this usually means hr>183 or road pace<5:30. if I couldn't sustain the effort for more than 30 minutes in a _race_ situation, then it's intensity 5. I do intervals in this range.
4) aerobic threshold or just below. usually meaning hr>175 or the effort of 5:50-6:20 pace on the track. nearly all hard classic o-races fall in this range. races longer than 30 minutes can be at most intensity 4. 100 minutes is about longest I can sustain an effort and still call it intensity 4.
3) aerobic. maybe a little too hard to easily carry on a conversation at the same time. usually about 7:00/mi on the road or hr 156-165. I do most of my training in this range or just below.
2) easy aerobic. conversation pace. usually more like 8:00/mi and hr 145-155.
1) anything easier than 2, but that I can still call training for whatever reason (e.g. walking line-o or something). I used to record mapping in this zone, but I don't record that anymore (even though it's good training) and instead just make a note about it.

now to the other part of your question. sustained training in your aerobic zone brings the most important physiological adaptations [for orienteers] in your body, e.g. the growth of capillaries to provide more blood(oxygen fuel) to your muscles during exercise. think of it as your training foundation. running harder brings other (not the same) benefits, but it also brings extra stress to your body. you obviously can't do as much really hard training as you can easy training. because the amount of training (volume) is also important, you can get the most benefit from a lot of moderate effort and a little (<20%) hard effort training.

in general the idea is to "training stress" your body just enough so that you induce it to respond with some improvement, without over-stressing and breaking it. if running at intensity 2 brings about just as much of some particular improvements as intensity 2.5, and makes you less tired (so you can do more the next day) then you are better off doing only the optimal effort.

often times people have injuries that prevent them from doing really hard training. on occation these are coincidentally the result of too much hard training in the past...

also, when you say "as hard as I can", I suspect you really mean "as hard as I can and still read the map" or "as hard as I can keep up for an hour", which are not exactly the same.

Because I am not as young as I used to be. I need level 2 training as rest days in order to be able to put out level 4 and 5 efforts. I also take a lot of days off for the same reason (as well as work and time constraints). If I ran as hard as I could every time out, I would soon be so tired that I would be doing level 4 efforts but only managing level 2 type paces. As it is,
I am already living dangerously with to much racing and not enough easy training.

I treat the levels as how much effort I felt I was putting into it. Level 5 means an all out effort with nothing held back. I only put out that kind of effort at important races and not very often anymore. Most of my road racing and orienteering is at level 4. Meaning a hard effort but I know I am holding something back. A level 5 effort will leave me drained and often sick the next day. A level 4 effort will just leave me tired.
Level 3 means a good effort but not really racing. I am working on pace, endurance or both. Most of my workouts used to fall into this category and my longer runs still do. It can cover anything from 4 miles at 7min pace on a day I feel good, 15 miles at 8min pace or total disaster in the woods where I do 15 min/k and end up walking. It is based on how much effort I felt I was putting out.
Level 2 is a resting effort. I am running slower and shorter and if I feel tired I will slow down more. I need the level 2s to balance out the fast stuff. The more hard training and racing I do, the more rest time I need to recover.
Level 1 means I did not break a sweat. Level 1 stuff is little or no effort but still some sort of physical activity. If I was already tired or did it for a long time then it is more significant. Usually it is something to keep loose or something I was doing anyway.

The goal of my training is not to be able to run a lot more level 5 races, but to get the same results with a level 4 effort .

For me, a level 5 is a hard race pace effort for a typical O race lasting 60-75 minutes. Level 4 is typical interval workouts. Levels 2 & 3 are easier efforts for building aerobic base (something I really need to do a lot more of but lack the time to do right now). Level 1 is for training which is more technical rather than any real physical effort. Right now I am doing a lot of mapping for the Troll Cup in September. I consider this level 1 training...

One thing I've never worked out a satisfactory solution for is how to record strength and interval training, when there are periods of intense effort and periods of rest. One of my strength sessions usually includes about 30 sets of various exercises, which is anaerobic for very short periods but with a minute or so rest between each (so average hr is low, 120 or lower). I guess I should enter about 10 minutes of level 4/5 and 20 of level 3 for the actual weights, but that's too much effort so I just call it an hour of level 2 (since that's how much time it really takes). Similarly intervals are hard to record: is 6 * 3 minutes with 2 minutes rest between, 18 minutes or 28? Level 4/5 or level 3 (since average hr is low because of the resting? Maybe intervals need a different type of recording :) ?

On a slightly different subject, has anyone else found that they are able to maintain a much higher average heart rate in orienteering than on the track or road? I can keep up low 170s for much longer in the forest (40-50 minutes) than on the road (20 at the most). Is that because orienteering (with all the jumping and ups and downs) is just more demanding at a given speed? Or do I just try harder when orienteering? Any thoughts?

More generally, how do you relate training zones in different exercises (O, road, bike, swimming, cross-trainers at the gym) to each other? Is there a good rule of thumb beyond how hard it feels? Heart rate is definitely no good since it varies so much between activities.

Speaking of intensity of a training cession, I will add that it for the most part depends on the way I feel that day. However, because of the lack of time and busy schedule I try to implement different levels of intensity at a given traing cession, which take place twice a week because of the difficulty to find a suitable place in NYC for training. It typically begins with warm up and then gradually phases into level 5 for 3km with a temp of 3:45 per km. Then it switches into level 3 for another 3km and usually end with 3km to 4km of level 4 intensity. Despite my relatively similar training cessions, a slightly different approach is taken before a major event, which results in reduction of intensity levels and amounts of stress on the body in order to allow it to restore its resources.

However, for the purpose of constantly being in good shape, I would say that 20% of all traning cessions should include level 5, 40% of level 4, another 20% of level 3 and levels 2 and 1 get 10% respectively. In addition to running or cycling, which primerily help develop endurance, lifting weightes will help to develop much needed streingh in order to carry on the enormous stresses that body sustains during especialy demanding cources.