[ChaseD92]

I know all of this has been beaten into the ground on these forums, but I wouldn’t mind a second set of eyes on the results from a recent gas exchange test.

I have been following the Denali training plan for about a month. My heart rate drift test at the beginning gave me an aerobic threshold value of 130 bpm, which I was skeptical of at the time. I have had a difficult time maintaining AeT and below for my workouts (I’m working on being more patient), and have trained more in the 140 – 160 bpm range. I have had hour long workouts that don’t make me feel totally gassed where I maintained 160+ bpm throughout, and recently had a 3 hour 4000′ elevation gain hike where I average 154 bpm (was definitely tired, but not unreasonably so). Training Peaks has recommended an AnT of 166 for me based on 5 weeks of consistent running and training.

For the recent gas exchange treadmill test: They had me warm up at about 2mph for 5 min prior to the test beginning. The speed and incline was then gradually increased (about 0.5% grade and 0.5 to 1 mph every min) to a max of 9.5 mph and 3% grade. Total test time was around 11 or 12 minutes. Here are the results:

AeT: 130 bpm (seems to confirm my drift test from a month ago)
AnT: 137 bpm – This is where I am confused. This seems very low, especially when compared to my max heart rate (192 bpm) and my AeT. Could this be correct? If so, I see that I don’t have ADS by the traditional definition, but am a little confused about where to train from here on out. 130 and below? Or 137 and above?

The zones they recommend are “Low: 84 – 130”, “Moderate: 130 – 137”, “High: 137 – 178”, “Peak: 178 – 192.” I recognize that these are generic zones that are just printed on a report, but they still seem odd. VO2 max was put at 40.2.

Thank you in advance for whoever else gets their eyes on these results!

Topic

[Rachel]

Rachel on May 8, 2020 at 3:53 pm #41375

You should do an AnT field test, that seems to be the gold standard for figuring out AnT. It’s a bit painful but not too long.

[Dada]

Dada on May 8, 2020 at 4:59 pm #41380

Bottomline:
– your test is useless for AnT
– you trained too hard which is why you don’t see an improvement in AeT

What I would do:
– do what Rachel said
– train below 130 bpm

Good luck!

[ChaseD92]

ChaseD92 on May 8, 2020 at 5:53 pm #41384

Awesome! Thank you both for the input. Sounds like I know what needs to be done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 10, 2020 at 8:49 am #41461

Chase:

I’ll chime in here but just want to confirm that Rachel and Dada have said; your history indicates that you are aerobically deficient (you’re metabolically more economical at 155 than 130). I never relay on gas exchange tests for AnT. The simple field test we offer will give you a better grasp since it is a performance test not a performance proxy test like the gas test.

Good luck,
Scott

[ChaseD92]

ChaseD92 on May 10, 2020 at 11:29 am #41483

Fantastic. Thank you for the confirmation Scott. I’ll double down on my diligence when it comes to keeping the heart rate low during training. Thanks for everything!