Hi,

So I have been doing HR drifts every time I am on my home treadmill, because why not, and this exact thing happened to me awhile ago and I realized it had to do with my leg fatigue. You mentioned leg blasters. I’m not sure if your still doing them but that may be the cause of your high HR drift.

So I could do a HR drift one day and get 3% (good), but then if I did that same treadmill HR drift (with EXACT same speed, grade, and pack weight) the day after leg blasters, ME, or very arduous approach I would notice my HR drift was much higher (like 7-8%. I would just let my legs recover and do the same test 2 days later and it would be back to the same HR drift (3%) or lower.

By all means I think it’s still important to do the aerobic capacity work the day after or even the same day of the leg blasters if that’s needed to get the weekly volume. But if your looking for a number to anchor your AeT on I would make sure your legs are rested.

Beginner wisdom here so take it with a grain of salt.

Jake

Hmm. Well a few other things I’ve Learned.

Warming up good. I found that I need 20 minutes of WU to get my HR to the right level, and then doing the same WU for every test.

I would also try a treadmill to be sure your going the exact same pace. I’m not a good pacer.

Cheers.

This reminds me of something I read on here, where Cory Richards was sad all the other climbers were fitter and faster than him, but in the end they all turned around and he submitted Everest bc of this Aet training. Perhaps you do get slower if you’ve done lots of Zone 4 training.

My question is, outside of an 8,000m peak where these adaptations are certainly helpful–isn’t faster better?

@hikerobby: “Faster” at what? The duration of the event is always a factor. Being faster at shorter events doesn’t mean that that same person will be faster at longer. I’m not familiar with Cory’s experience, but that’s perhaps what happened. His training may have made him “faster” at longer durations.

@jdubus: Interesting… These look like good tests, so I would assume that overtraining or training at too-high an intensity is the culprit. Leg blasters, for example, will definitely reduce performance in the short-term. Also, I would avoid strength sessions for at least two days prior to a test. For an important event, I would avoid strength for at least ten days prior.

Sounds like you’re having a fun season! It’d be a good idea to keep up some amount of strength training in parallel with increasing low-intensity aerobic volume. One other idea comes to mind – you mentioned in your original post that your zone 1 workouts were spread over three or four days per week. You might consider bumping that up to six or seven days. If you’re aiming for five hours total, 6x 30-45 minutes and 1x 90-120 minutes might be a more effective stimulus than two 1-hour runs and a 3-hour ski tour…

Update: deload week, half the volume of last couple weeks. Feeling springy, stairs feel good, aches and pains are melting away. Been training pretty much exclusively in Z1/Z2, no planned excursions above Z2 but a few accidental, and never very far above. Max str a couple times a week, no ME.

Had to walk to keep today’s run in Z1 (<135bpm); eventually said screw it and jogged slow. Last mile in 12:06 at average HR around 145-150. HR drift test in similar conditions about a month ago yielded a 9:54 pace at 147 HR. What’s going on?

“Residual fatigue from max str”–okay, but I’d expect this to feel like a higher RPE at same HR (and have actually experienced this in previous training cycles) and this wasn’t that–it felt really easy, I just couldn’t keep my heart rate down

“You accidentally found your AnT, not your AeT”–doubt it. I’ve averaged 7:20ish for 4 mi with a negative split (didn’t take HR), 7:00ish/190bpm for a 5k, and 173 HR for ~35min uphill hike within the last year, no major breaks or obvious acute regressions. I suppose I could be in good enough shape that a half-hour-ish effort won’t capture AnT, but look at my actual performances, I’m not exactly Kipchoge here.

“Instrumentation”–maybe, I didn’t notice anything weird at the time of the AeT test but I did notice some anomalous readings from that chest strap ~2 weeks later, changed the battery, still got weird readings, switched makes/models, have noticed nothing weird subsequently.

“Overtraining”–I can’t prove this isn’t it, but I don’t think my volumes (~10hr/week) are way out of line with previous training cycles (especially considering non-training activity volume), I don’t feel run-down or flat or whatever, I still want to get out the door and train, everything feels pretty easy. HR is just misbehaving wildly relative to pace while running. (Hill hiking seems to be behaving about as I would expect, though it’s obviously harder to control for surface, incline, etc.).

“Undertraining”–surely not.

I’ll try a new AeT test fairly soon (not right away, I’m about to change location to a warmer climate and want to acclimate). What else can I do here? In general, what gives?