Drift Test

Creator

Topic
October 3, 2022 at 5:13 pm #71258

Saadia Sharjeel
Participant

My drift test was going fine when the heart rate suddenly disappeared from my watch towards the end and reappeared with an erratic reading. I don’t know why this happened, but my HRM unclipped and loosened twice during the jog. Pa Hr was 3.47% for the first 40 mins before the HR disappeared.

Will I have to do the test again?
Creator

Topic

Posted In: PRIVATE Mountaineering Training Group

Participant

Richard Coburn on October 3, 2022 at 7:34 pm #71259

How long was your test before the malfunction?

Inactive

Anonymous on October 3, 2022 at 10:59 pm #71262

Sounds like you were on the right track but yes I would do the test again to capture 60 min of data.

Participant

Saadia Sharjeel on October 4, 2022 at 3:35 am #71267

I had set the watch to give an HR alert every 10 minutes. It didn’t on the 5th alert. That is when I checked. Whatever happened, happened after 40 minutes. I have decided to redo it.

Participant

Saadia Sharjeel on October 4, 2022 at 3:35 am #71268

I have decided to redo it.

Participant

Andrew Terhune on October 4, 2022 at 8:11 am #71273

So I did the test and would like to confirm my result. I was on a stair stepper at my gym and using the analyzer I don’t see the Pa:HR percentage anywhere, just an IF. I read that is because there was no GPS data because I was inside, right? So if I take first and second half and get (155-150)/150 * 100 or 3.33% does that seem right? Thanks!

Participant

Raja on October 4, 2022 at 10:07 am #71277

@Andrew – that sounds like the right way to do it to me. If I recall, we only get Pa:HR if there’s GPS data as you noted.

@Saadia – I have the same issue with my HR monitor and watch. Very frustrating sometimes as it’s unpredictable. Doesn’t happen often enough to warrant new gear, but just enough to frustrate me once a month or so. Was hoping it wouldn’t happen during the test.

Question for the group – assuming my % drift is good, is the top of my Zone 2 going to be:
(a) the number I was aiming for during the test? or
(b) the average HR of the first half of the test?

Participant

TLoftus on October 4, 2022 at 5:04 pm #71287

Indoors, top of zone 2, your threshold, would be starting HR after thorough warmup if the % of drift is good. Outdoors, it’s the HR held after the warmup with the Pa:Hr feature of TP determining the %–if its good the HR was correct and is the AeT.

Participant

Thomas Epting on October 4, 2022 at 6:08 pm #71289

I failed my drift test. 53-year-old, so formula suggests 127, which felt too easy. After 20 min warm-up, I started test at 137, thinking I would drift to ~143. HR fell on average to 134 first half and 135 second half.

Any guidance on a better target starting point? (For context, my Garmin Epix set my zone 2 top at 136 out of the box.)

Inactive

Anonymous on October 4, 2022 at 7:45 pm #71294

Raja, If test is good your top of Z2 will be the target number not the average for first half. I usually average something like the first 5 min of the test hour to get a decent starting number.

Inactive

Anonymous on October 4, 2022 at 7:48 pm #71295

Thomas, I would just redo the test with a higher starting HR. The 180- age is a VERY rough estimate. Its obvious that is quite low for you. I would repeat the test with starting HR of 143-145 and see how that feels and what the drift % is.

Participant

Thomas Epting on October 5, 2022 at 10:09 am #71307

Thanks Mark. Awesome to be in my mid-30s again ; )

Moderator

pedro on October 5, 2022 at 11:47 am #71308

Before doing a test or a training , it is always important to check the conditions of the heart rate strap , sensor .

Problems with the strap :

Loosing of points of contact of with a loosen heart rate strap or a bad attachment of the sensor to it can cause bad readings and a failed test or training .

Problems with the sensor :

most common is that the sensor runs out of battery or is too low , when that happens the sensor tends to give bad readings such as :
– starts blocked in higher or lower heart rate and then start reading normal after a while
– the readings go high or low without a change of pace/ rhythm
– the sensor starts giving readings that don’t correspond to the perceived exertion (rep)

really important

Always check your gear on the day before or with enough time for you to be able to solve the problem and still do your activity
Adapt and do it by feel, when in a training even if your gear does not work .

Cheers,

Pedro

Participant

TIM CAVANAGH on October 6, 2022 at 3:33 pm #71363

I have my drift test in my phone in Garmin Connect. Am I supposed to download or evaluate myself? If I need to download somewhere, how do I do that? Thanks

Participant

Tobias on October 6, 2022 at 5:11 pm #71370

You should connect your Garmin account with TrainingPeaks, then the activities get uploaded there, and the test can be evaluated fast and easy in TrainingPeaks.

There is a video how to evaluate here for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emT6Re_d9dM

Inactive

Anonymous on October 6, 2022 at 10:19 pm #71373

Tobias is on it here. Look at the data in TrainingPeaks and use either the first vs second half averages if steady state machine based or the pa:hr ratio if its outdoors and you have good GPS data. Some great examples in the video