Hi Pia,
I’ll try and break a few of these things down for you ( :
Yes Zone one will be slow, and we do need to log that time, maybe hiking is a good option for these days since you are a trail runner. Or I call it hogging – a combo of hiking and jogging.
Yes, your HR will elevate when temperatures rise. It is much more difficult for the body to cool itself adequately than warm up. And HR is HR so if it’s warm/hot honor the HR, slow down, find shade, train early if you can. And hydrate with electrolytes.
Elevation gain and staying aerobic, this is difficult. Everyone’s HR will go up with an incline, the muscular load/work moving the body uphill is significantly more. What I have found with many women who have high AeT, and yet there seems to be a limit to output is that you need a increase in strength to increase your movement economy or efficiency. Chapters 6 – 8 in the new book discuss strength cycles specifically and you will be doing this in the program so it will help. Since I’m not familiar with your training history keep in mind that seeing a significant increase in performance can take multiple cycles of training and a few years to really make gains.
The running without eating or a long time after a meal HR elevation would indicate that this may be a stressor for your body. HR is always a measure of work the body is doing. The adrenals may be going into fight or flight. There are many possibilities and not all athletes should do fasted training so maybe try fueling runs a bit or not letting as much time pass between eating and running.
Ah yes, as far as running faster in zone one, you likely have begun to build a nice aerobic base however the physiologic shifts required to increase pace in zone one take a while. Refer back to gaining strength, you’d also need some speed work (all movement economy) and likely a full season or two to see significant increase in pace in the lower zone.
I am assuming then that you were diagnosed with some level of anemia? and are now taking ferritin to help correct that situation? If this is the case that is going to effect HR and many other aspects of energy and training. I would expect some change in energy immediately but performance changes will take much longer as your body needs time to create more new healthy red blood cells which are your oxygen transport system.
I hope this helps and if you are feeling like you really need to dial in nutrition to help with blood sugar levels, iron intake, and performance. I’d set up a private consultation with Rebecca. She will really be able to help.
