[craig.deery1970]

Hi all,

I bought the training for the uphill athlete book recently and went for a VO2 max test today, however the results are confusing me.

I think the AeT seems to be in the wrong place, I thought it should be at the top of the moderate zone?

Also it gives an AT(which I thought was the same as the LT) at the beginning of the High zone, I thought this should be at the end of the high zone.

The figures in the Cardio strength zone seem to back up both figures (asuming AT+LT).

Could anyone give me a clear indication of what my AET, AT and LT are from this data so I can work out my HR Zones.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Craig

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[craig.deery1970]

craig.deery1970 on February 24, 2020 at 3:30 pm #38712

Sorry that should read ‘assuming AT=LT’

[Reed]

Reed on February 24, 2020 at 7:06 pm #38722

Hi Craig,

Do you have any details on the test protocol that you could share, or even the detailed data from the test itself? You might want to go back to the lab and ask for clarification – typically anaerobic threshold and lactate threshold are used pretty interchangeably. The only distinction I’ve heard of is using LT to specifically refer to 4mmol/L blood lactate, but depending on the protocol that might not be useful information.

It seems unlikely to me that your AeT is 144, AnT is 158, and your max heart rate is 183. The top-end heart rate range above AnT seems too large.

The most conservative reading of this information would be that your anaerobic threshold is 144bpm, and your aerobic threshold is 177bpm. That would mean that your AnT is 23% higher than your AeT, and that you should spend several months accruing hours of training below 144bpm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on February 25, 2020 at 1:01 pm #38745

Craig:

As Reed said. The test protocol matter a lot when it comes to finding AeT. Most maxV02 tests will not capture AeT because the ramp rate is to fast and the stages too short. Have you read this.

It explains why/how all gas exchange test are NOT created equal.

If you want an easy verification of your AeT from the gas test just perform our HR drift test as explained in this article.

Scott

[craig.deery1970]

craig.deery1970 on February 25, 2020 at 3:47 pm #38758

Hi Reed & Scott,

Thanks a mil for your comments and links, much appreciated. I’ll look into them.

I was thinking the same that these test results show 144 and 177 as the two thresholds.

I did the same test 2 years ago and they were 126 and 172 so I resume this shows some sort of improvement, however I will be loading up on base building for the coming months as advised.

I’ve attached some more info from the test (if you can read it!), feel free to comment if it makes sense to you 🙂

Thanks again.

Craig

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[Reed]

Reed on February 26, 2020 at 12:10 pm #38788

Scanning the detailed numbers, a few things come to mind:

• The test was about 20 minutes long. If you were not fully warmed up beforehand with at least 20 minutes at easy aerobic pace, then the test won’t give you much helpful info about your aerobic threshold.
• The heart rate fluctuations make this seem like it was not a steadily increasing workload. From minute 9:00 to minute 12:00, heart rate went from 149 to 130 to 154. Most of the protocols I’ve seen have been steady increases or step function increases in speed or incline, at 3-5 minute intervals between increases.
• The data show the fraction of oxygen expired, but not the fraction of carbon dioxide expired. I don’t know if there’s a way to back in to your respiratory exchange ratio without the second one.

Sounds to me like you have a pretty good V02 max number, but you might consider a different lab test or a simpler field test to try and get a handle on your aerobic threshold.

[craig.deery1970]

craig.deery1970 on February 27, 2020 at 3:44 pm #38928

Hi Reed,

Thanks for the advice.

With regards to some of the points you make, the test did involve a gradual increase in speed and incline on a treadmill however we had to change the HRM due to the fluctuations in heart rate, so that would probably account for the early discrepancies in HR figures you noticed.

Also I only did a very quick warm up as we were pressed for time so the more I think about it the less I should pay attention to the results.

I think I’ll look into the HR drift test Scott suggested and see what that comes back with.

Many thanks to you for your help (and you too Scott 🙂 ), much appreciated.

Regards

Craig