HR vs. Breathing to judge AeT? | Uphill Athlete

HR vs. Breathing to judge AeT?

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #35636
    kylie.brea
    Participant

    Hi, question on judging where my AeT is because I’m getting mixed results! According to the MAF method from the book my AeT should be around 150. I can run on relatively flat terrain and can judge pretty well when I’m reaching my AeT just on how I feel and how my breathing feels. But when I am hiking uphill I’ve noticed that I won’t be able to breathe through my nose (so should be around my AeT) but I check my HR and it’s 90-100! I’ve noticed the same thing when I’m skiing uphill, low HR but can’t breathe. What is happening here, and should I be trying to push through and make my heart rate go up to get myself to Zone 2? Or is it better to slow down or stop because I can’t breathe through my nose?
    Just to give some background, my past training experience is mostly weekend warrioring and inconsistent training for races here and there so I’m sure I have ADS. I live at 4500 feet and do most of my training between 5000-10000 feet. Last summer was my first trail race with elevation gain. My goal for training this year is to be able to consistently run uphill and I have a couple races planned for June/July that are between 7-16 miles and 2000-3800 feet of elevation gain.

  • Participant
    nullkru on #35640

    Just for clarification, you don’t use a wrist heart rate monitor to check?

    In my case I can’t breathe trough my nose, when I’m going close to the top of my Z2. I think genetics plays a big role here.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #35676

    Good question, @nullkru!

    Participant
    kylie.brea on #35691

    It is my wrist HR monitor that I’m checking. Would it really be that far off because it seems to work when I’m on flatish terrain? I’m pretty good with troubleshooting it, give it some time to catch up because I know there can be a lag, make sure it’s in a good spot, not too loose.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #35749

    Would it really be that far off?

    Yes, and lag is not the issue. Heart rate lag is normal.

    Wrist-based monitors are near-useless for proper training. They’re “accurate enough” for long steady-state sessions–meaning that the average HR over a long workout will probably be close to the real average–but second-to-second, their precision sucks.

    For the general public that is tracking exercise, wrist monitors are probably fine. But for athletes that are training, always use a chest strap. If you do, I suspect you’ll find much different results.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #35750

    And for short-duration changes in intensity, they are neither accurate nor precise enough.

    Participant
    nullkru on #36038

    Just my 5 cents. This week my HR chest strap died somehow. I own a brand new Garmin Fenix 6x. I did some runs with only the wrist HR on the same terrain i always train. The readings from WHR in 2020 are as bad as they where when i got my first watch with WHR.
    Just buy a chest strap :)!

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