Heart Rate Drift Test Questions

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February 16, 2021 at 9:27 am #50898

daniel.p.armstrong
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Hi, I have been following a training regime to correct ADS for about the last year. In Novemeber when I carried out a drift test I had an odd result – the drift for the first 15-20 minutes of the workout was very high – 4ish% but for the rest of the workout there was almost no drift. As overall drift was 5%ish I called it a day and decided that heart rate was my AeT.

I recently carried out another test and although I had to call it short for a rest break i noticed the same thing – the first 2K went about at the same pace, then pace dropped and stayed steady till i finished the test.

This seems a bit odd, looking at a few of Stephen Seilers videos on cardiac drift it always starts later on in the workout, rather than happening immediately then plateuing

My question is, is this a matter of improper warmup? I have done my warmups by just running to the track at easy heart rate – 145ish, setting up track mode on my Coros and then starting the test right away. Would I be better running to the track, setting up track mode, then gradually building to target heart rate over 10-15 minutes before begining the test?

I have attached the two trainingpeaks files.

Good Wishes and Thanks!

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Posted In: General Training Discussion

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Dada on February 16, 2021 at 11:30 am #50908

Following

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daniel.p.armstrong on February 16, 2021 at 12:53 pm #50914

Or I suppose another option is acute muscular fatigue as that might incude immediate drift as muscles fatigue and economy drops/oxygen demand increases then stabalise at a steady aerobic effort. I do have fairly weak legs barely getting through the stage 1 strength assessment in TftUA

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Shashi on February 16, 2021 at 2:45 pm #50919

Daniel,

Can you make your workout public and share the Training Peaks link?

How long was your warm-up run to the track? Did your heart rate stabilize at the target heart rate before you started the test?

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daniel.p.armstrong on February 16, 2021 at 3:18 pm #50921

I’m not sure how to share a workout link on the mobile app. I will try again in the morning on my PC.

Can you not access the workout files I attached to the original post?

I did a 15 minute warm up at easy pace to the track. Did not do a warm up to stabilise heart rate at the higher pace before starting the test.

So wondering if the initial drift observed is just my heart rate stabilising

Participant

Shashi on February 16, 2021 at 3:28 pm #50922

Daniel,

Sharing the Training Peaks workout link is just easier for everyone to review, instead of trying to download and open the folders/zipped file you have shared.

You need to stabilize the heart rate for 2-3 minutes before you start the test. I am sure you have read the drift test article. If not, here is the link.

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Rachel on February 16, 2021 at 4:36 pm #50926

A public link would be great — in order to view the data I had to upload to my personal TP where it thinks I did the workout. 🙂

Anyway, I did upload the first file into TP to take a look. I would warm up until your HR stabilizes like Shashi mentions. In the first file that was around 2-3 minutes into the recording where it settles into the 160s.

The way I do it when I test myself is after I’m warmed up (at least 20 minutes for me in the winter time) I then start running like it’s the test. But if my HR isn’t stabilized yet I might run like that for 5 minutes then hit the lap button and really start the test. Usually that works well for me. I can kind of tweak the pace and that sort of thing.

The other thing is the test really should be 1 hour after the warmup. Maybe your second file was longer but the first one was only 38 minutes.

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Anonymous on March 18, 2021 at 8:52 am #52161

Also, could you be running too fast? This got my attention:

I had to call it short for a rest break…

For most people an AeT test is relatively easy, and you won’t need a break. If you are close to AnT for the test, then there won’t be as much drift.