Hello! I’m a 32 year old lowlander (Kansas City native) with about a year of consistent structured training under my belt. I have a history of intermittent endurance training prior to this year (1 year on, 6 months off, 9 months on … that kind of thing) and have completed a number of trail marathon and 50K races in the last 3 years.
After reading through my Running Bible (aka Training for the Uphill Athlete) I’ve gotten serious about tracking my AeT and LT heart rates to dial in Z2 and interval / high intensity distribution, and evaluate overall aerobic fitness. For the last year I’ve done about 95% of my workouts in Z2, and I typically log 40ish miles per week.
After completing 3 AeT tests I’ve determined my AeT is 151 BPM (with a 4.4% cardiac drift). My average pace at that HR is about 8:30/mile, for context. Today I ran a 30-minute DIY LT test and averaged about 180 BPM (average pace during the test was about 6:45/mile). The highest HR I’ve tracked in any run over the last year is 188 BPM. All these readings come from a Polar H10 HR strap.
My LT HR seems to be really high, and this makes it difficult to imagine I’ll be able to bring my AeT up to within 10% of my LT.
I’m looking for advice about how to interpret this data and adjust my training schedule. Does it still make sense to follow the 10% rule if my AeT and LT are almost 20% different?
I’m excited to hear your thoughts!
