[Ryan Fitzpatrick]

Hello!

Having spent the last 6 months addressing ADS, I was extremely happy to see that a VT1/VT2 test this week showed a marked improvement in AeT vs the last test I did in May. It’s great to know the long extended efforts in Z1/Z2 paid off!

One question moving into nordic season. The threshold testing was done by running on a treadmill. I don’t have access to a nordic treadmill (nor would I have the skills to pull off a reliable test on rollerskis w/treadmill). Statistically, are the training zones determined by a running treadmill test still pretty accurate when it comes to nordic skiing? Are there any adjustments I should consider? I’m primarily a skate skier.

Thanks!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on September 13, 2019 at 1:52 pm #28422

Congrats on the improvements!

I’ll ask the nordic skiers to chime in, but I think it depends on how long you’ve been nordic skiing.

For example, my threshold tests uphill running and on skimo skis get the same results. I’ve put hundreds of hours into each activity, so my level of efficiency is probably similar. So I can do a threshold test incline running and be pretty sure that those heart rates would apply to skimo.

However, I only started classic skiing a couple of years ago, and it’s not something that I can do on auto-pilot. That being the case, I would never do a threshold test nordic skiing. Or, if I did, I would only use those heart rates for nordic skiing.

Similarly, on flat runs, my legs give out before my heart and lungs, so flat tests wouldn’t work for me either. Same with cycling.

Does that make sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on September 14, 2019 at 4:25 pm #28450

From Sam Naney, one of our coaches and a high-level nordic skier:

I think generally the zones will transfer well, unless he’s very inefficient as a runner. Skiing obviously brings the arms into play so his VO2max could’ve potentially been a bit higher were he tested with poles, but in terms of HR zones I don’t think there’ll be much negligible difference.

[Ryan Fitzpatrick]

Ryan Fitzpatrick on September 16, 2019 at 8:46 am #28495

Thanks, Scott! I appreciate the info.

That really is the crux of it. How to take economy and technique out of the equation to be able to make a fair comparison between sports that have different muscle engagements. I kind of figured this would be a “depends on xyx” type question, but it helps a lot to get some feedback from someone who’s worked with a large pool of athletes.

My running and skiing are at about the same level this season, so I’ll stick with the running zones and feel it out at the beginning of the nordic season.

Thanks again!

Ryan