Zone 2 Calculator

Zone 2 is the easy, steady effort behind most endurance training. Find your zone 2 heart rate from your age or max heart rate, or use a threshold result to calculate Joe Friel’s sport-specific range.

Your details

Based on
years
bpm
Replaces the estimate.

Use an existing threshold result for the sport you picked. A hard time trial calls for exercise screening if you have symptoms or a known heart, metabolic or kidney condition.

Your results

Enter your age or a measured max heart rate, or switch to threshold heart rate.

How to use it

  1. Choose a watch-style zone based on max heart rate or Friel’s coaching zone based on a threshold result.
  2. For max heart rate, enter your age, or your measured max. For threshold, enter your lactate threshold heart rate and your sport.
  3. Read your zone 2 range, then check it against how it feels. You should still be able to talk.

How it's calculated

From max heart rate. Zone 2 in the five-zone model Polar and Garmin use by default is 60–70% of max heart rate:

zone 2 = 0.60 × max to 0.70 × max

With a max of 185 that’s 111 to 129 bpm (the top is one beat below where zone 3 starts). If you don’t enter a measured max, the calculator estimates it with Tanaka’s formula, 208 − 0.7 × age, or the formula you pick.

From lactate threshold heart rate. Joe Friel sets zone 2 as a share of your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR), measured with a 30-minute solo time trial:

Sport Zone 2
Running 85–89% of LTHR
Cycling 81–89% of LTHR

Example: 85–89% of a running LTHR of 170 gives 144.5–151.3 bpm. The whole beats within that range are 145–151 bpm.

Which to use. Use the max-based setting for the watch-style model, or enter an existing threshold result if you follow Friel’s zones. The models can give different targets. For an easy session, check whether you can talk comfortably.

Limits. Some exercise physiology models use the first lactate or ventilatory threshold to mark the upper end of easy exercise. Both calculator options estimate training zones from heart rate. Heat, dehydration and fatigue raise heart rate at the same effort, so on those days go by feel.

Sources

  1. Polar. Heart rate zones (zone 2, light, 60–70% of maximum heart rate).
  2. Garmin. About heart rate zones (zone 2, 60–70%, conversation possible).
  3. Friel, J. Joe Friel's quick guide to setting zones (run zone 2, 85–89% of LTHR; bike zone 2, 81–89% of LTHR). TrainingPeaks.
  4. Tanaka, H., Monahan, K. D., & Seals, D. R. (2001). Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 37(1), 153–156.
  5. American College of Sports Medicine. Exercise preparticipation screening guidelines.

Questions

What is zone 2 training?

Steady exercise at an easy, conversational effort, held for a long time. It builds your aerobic base, and most endurance programs put the bulk of training here.

Why do different sources give different zone 2 numbers?

Zone 2 isn't one fixed number. Watches use 60–70% of max heart rate, coaches often use a percentage of threshold heart rate, and labs use your first lactate threshold. They overlap but don't match exactly.

How do I find my lactate threshold heart rate?

Joe Friel's field test is a 30-minute solo time trial at the hardest steady effort you can hold. Your average heart rate over the last 20 minutes is your threshold heart rate. Threshold results are sport-specific. Check the ACSM screening guidance before attempting a hard time trial.

My zone 2 feels too slow. Is that normal?

Yes, especially at first. Many people have to run slower, or walk on hills, to stay in zone 2. It usually gets faster at the same heart rate as your fitness improves.

Updated November 9, 2026.