[Dada]

Hi guys,

Last weekend, I did my first hike this season. I was not using any poles and I noticed that allergy saison started bc my legs were burning like doing 30kg ME training although being in Z1.

My question now: should I use poles for Z1/2 training or should I just use my legs, so I also have more ME effect?

Best regards
Dada

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on April 2, 2020 at 10:09 pm #40109

Hi Dada,

It sounds like there might be multiple factors to consider. If indeed you are experiencing some allergic/histamine responses in your training which is resulting in feeling more of a muscular burn, are you also seeing any changes in HR? Zones 1/2 should be consistently low-intensity; if they become too much in the M.E. realm then you’re changing the nature of the workout which will affect your training globally should it not be probably accounted for. If using poles for these workouts can help to mitigate that load and keep the effort low, then I’d say go for it. I’m a fan of using poles on steep and technical terrain anyway, so if you’re intending on using them for specific objectives then there’s a specificity benefit inherent in employing them now.

Hope that helps,
Sam.

[Dada]

Dada on April 3, 2020 at 2:48 am #40116

Hi Sam,

thank you very much for your reply.

My allergic response is kind of weird and haven’t found a doc who can explain my response. My HR lowers and even my AeT lowers. When allergy season is over, my AeT is around 160, that feels easy and no muscular burn. Atm, I guess it’s around 145 and feels very hard (muscular burn). Diaclaimer: Atm, I judge that using nose breathing. The weird thing, the day after a longer Z1/2 workout, this response is almost completely gone and I feel much, much better the next day, almost back to normal. Another weird thing that I don’t see any differences in airflow in allergy season vs. rest of the year (FEV1 test). It feels more an issue of the metabolism and muscular strength.

I will use the poles as for now, since it’s not much fun to torture myself.

Best regards
Dada