[deckersdan]

Hello!

I’ve been a fairly active trail runner for several years and am using one of the mountaineering training plans. I tested surprisingly low on two of the heart rate drift tests and closer to what I feel is correct on another test. I emailed the coach email address and was able to clear up my AeT as being 144 as the lower tests suggested.

Trying to keep myself at and below this is miserable though. I keep naturally speeding up, and this pace is way slower than my standard 2+ hour long runs that I’m usually not too tired after, let alone my half marathon, for instance, race pace.

Any tips for staying below this? It’s really hard to enjoy running at such a strange pace that almost feels like it’s “in between gears” so to speak. Thank you!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 27, 2020 at 10:34 am #42099

Keep the faith! If you’re disciplined about it, the pace at that intensity will increase. If you’re not, then it will continue to be slow and higher paces will be less efficient.

In the long term, it is really worth putting in this time to increase your aerobic capacity.

More reading: https://simplifaster.com/articles/how-trainable-is-vo2-max/

Spoiler: Delayed gratification is key.

Pull quote:

That is, the total volume of the athletes’ hearts, scaled not with the intensity of training, but with the average weekly volume! This makes good physiological sense, since we know that for the majority of people, stroke volume reaches its maximum limit at relatively low intensities of training (~40-60% VO2 max).3However, as the Berbalk data suggests, it takes a whole lot of beats to make these significant changes!

[Shashi]

Shashi on May 27, 2020 at 10:42 am #42100

Other runners with ADS who are used to running at a high pace have shared similar frustration. The recommendation from UA Coaches has been to stick to the plan and stay below AeT.

This discussion on the timeline to fix ADS might help –

Fixing Aerobic Deficiency general timeline? tips?

I hope this is helpful.

[Shashi]

Shashi on May 27, 2020 at 10:45 am #42101

Looks like Scott responded while I was typing.

[deckersdan]

deckersdan on May 27, 2020 at 1:15 pm #42119

Thank you both for your responses. I’ll be sure to stick with it. It seems like that will have to involve saying goodbye to hilly runs for now. As I gradually improve my AeT will there be any easily observable indications? I imagine it might just involve doing semi regular heartrate drift tests? Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 27, 2020 at 4:52 pm #42126

I wouldn’t say goodbye to hills. Just walk. (Everyone does.)

“MOuntain running” is a bit of an oxymoron. Walking the steeps is often more efficient, even when racing: https://trailrunnermag.com/training/kilians-thoughts-on-running-versus-hiking.html

[deckersdan]

deckersdan on May 28, 2020 at 3:12 pm #42169

Thank you! I did end up going for a z2 run yesterday and I did a pretty good job of keeping below AeT, though I did go above a few times. Today I did a recovery run which was frustrating because I found myself going as far as into z3 when walking insanely slow up hills, but I guess that’s a sign of pretty rough ADS. I thought I’d be immune since I’m 20 and a long time runner/climber, but this is a good reminder to keep my ego in check. I’ll stick with it. Thank you!

[nullkru]

nullkru on June 5, 2020 at 7:50 am #42423

Hi,
can you maybe share your AeT Test Run? Or did you do a lab test?

I retested my AeT 3-4x before i got it more or less correct. At first i thought i have a terrible ADS. In the end i found out my AeT and Ant are probably only 10beats apart. If you self interpreted your results you maybe overlooked something?

Have a nice day — mirko