[Brian Giangardella]

I did my test this week. I did a 15 minute warm up and a 30 min test 15 minute cool down. My average HR for the whole 60 mins was 168. My average for the 30 mins all out not really all out but a strong pace I could sustain for duration was 183. I’ve been training at a 135 Aerobic threshold.

I previously did the 24 week big mountain last year and used 150 as my aerobic threshold. I’ve been trying to focus on keeping my HR on the lower side since I have the tendency to over due it.

Not sure if I have my zone 2 set to low or my aerobics deficiency is that bad. I’ve always felt good training with a high heart rate.

FYI my lowest resting heart rate during sleep is usually 43-47. This is measured with a Oura ring I use to track my sleep.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks
Brian

Topic

[MarkPostle]

MarkPostle on December 13, 2021 at 11:50 am #60723

Brian, My guess is that you have a combination of things going on here. Firstly I would focus on the AeT and make sure you’re training smartly there which sounds like you are. The drift tests when performed correctly don’t really lie. If you for instance start a drift test at 140bpm and drift more than 5% then there’s a reason you can’t sustain that effort level without drift even though it feels quite “easy”. Stick with it and it will improve. For the AnT I will commonly use a 60 min effort (not counting warmup and cool down) as my metric in fairly well trained athletes. I like the 30 -45 min version of the test for folks that maybe arent quite as well trained as I find that gives a more accurate picture of what they’re capable of. If you’re not well trained for that kind of effort you may tend to blowup before 60 minutes more from a muscular endurance/neuro limitation than a metabolic one if that makes sense. You may want to repeat the test for AnT with the 60 min duration and see if that yields different results. The good news is you may well have a fairly efficient carb burning motor and ability to produce power, now we just need to chip away at the lower intensity efficiency. As for resting HR I haven’t ever found much correlation to it and the above discussion. I have seen athletes with a fairly low and fairly high resting HR and similar threshold numbers (and vice versa) Relative effort sadly isn’t a great gauge of most of these things which is why we need accurate zones and HR monitor. I can run at about 10 bpm above my AeT all the while swearing this must be a super useful low intensity effort but of course when I look at the data from that effort level I’m drifting like crazy.

[ericpb]

ericpb on December 14, 2021 at 5:55 pm #60813

Hey Mark,
I did my Anaerobic test and feel I still had some left in the tank when I finished? I adjusted all my zones. Should I do the test again, or train at this level for now?

[Edgar Carby]

Edgar Carby on December 15, 2021 at 8:40 am #60833

This is n=1 but I’ve found that my resting HR varies depending on the watch. I upgraded from a Garmin Instinct to a Fenix 6 over the summer and I added ~10 bpm to my RHR (~42-45 to ~52-55). So, who knows? Glad to hear there isn’t any correlation.

[bill]

bill on December 15, 2021 at 9:41 am #60836

Edgar, I am on my third “optical heart rate” watch and while I find that they work okay for casual HR tracking – as long as the band is tight and the arm isn’t in heavy use – they won’t do for heart rate based training. That’s a drag because it sure is nice to track my activity…

I just upgraded to a Fenix 6 from an Instinct (which was an upgrade from a Fenix 2) and I didn’t see much of a shift in my resting heart rate (first thing in the morning) but the Fenix 6 is definitely measuring a lower average heart rate during the day, often by five or ten BPM. Is it more accurate or less? Hard to tell without wearing a chest strap for twenty-four hours and comparing a couple of like days.

As much as I hate mucking about with a chest strap, especially while hiking and climbing, I now wear one for all of my tracking-necessary activities and I take the optical HR readings with a large grain of salt.

[Brian Giangardella]

Brian Giangardella on December 15, 2021 at 11:37 am #60841

Mark,

Thanks for the detailed response. The original test is set up as 15 min warm up 45 min work 10 min cool down. Should I repeat the test as follows? You suggested in your post do a 60 minute test what does that look like?

Thanks Brian

[MarkPostle]

MarkPostle on December 16, 2021 at 12:17 pm #60885

Brian- 15 min warmup/60 min full tilt/10 cool down ??

[Brian Giangardella]

Brian Giangardella on December 16, 2021 at 8:54 pm #60895

Crushing my spirit over here Mark! Sounds good, I’m on it.

[MarkPostle]

MarkPostle on December 19, 2021 at 5:43 pm #60971

Let me know how it goes!!