[brianbauer]

I am not very good at doing specific effort tests, but I have tons of anecdotal data from workouts and racing.
I am 51, and spend most of the year training for Ultra trail races. 80% of my ultra volume is at my endurance, aerobic pace.
in the late summer, I start to incorporate higher intensity work to prepare for skimo race season.
for the past 7 weeks I have been doing what I call my “indoor skimo workout”. I do this workout 2x per week( with 2 full days in between)
1. 10 min warmup
2. 20 mins at 10% incline
3. ME strength: 3×15 single leg box steps, 3×15 single leg lunges.(180 total reps)

I repeat #2 and #3 3 times without stopping. total of 1hr uphill running and 540 total reps of ME strength. takes about 1:45 to finish the workout with short cool down jog.

my question about AeT and AnT is this:
– the max HR I have ever reliably recorded is 175. I only see 175 when I am working extremely hard, and there needs to be a weather factor like extremely hot/humid. or extremely cold.

when I do my indoor skimo workout, by the 2nd run interval, I reach a HR of about 158-160…and I hold that HR for 2 sets of 20 min runs. if my HR goes higher than that, I begin to feel the slow buildup of lactic acid, but if I stay at 160, its comfortably hard but no lactic acid.

if I take out the extreme weather factor, and consider my age, my max HR is prob around 170. my LT run intervals are done at a HR of 160 with no lactic acid build-up. what doesn’t make sense to me is that seems to suggest that my LT threshold is 90% of my max HR. am I thinking about this wrong. or can that be right?

I will add that it takes me a long time to raise my HR to these levels. I seem to need extra time to get to these levels, and if I try to go too hard too soon, I’m panting like a dog and blowing up quickly. if I ease into it over 30-40 mins, I can hold 90% for a long time.
my last trail race of the season was a 6hr timed hill race up/down a ski resort. the climb up took about 1 hr. I was holding a HR of about 155 per 1 hour climb, and I did that 4 times. my PE during the climbs was about 80%( or the max effort I knew I could do 4 times). I did this before introducing the intervals described above.

for skimo, I am trying to raise my LT, but I’m not sure I am thinking about this right. any guidance would be appreciated.

Topic

[jane s]

jane s on December 13, 2021 at 1:48 pm #60737

Im interested i this as I have the same reaction. I’m 62 and can held my Max HR of 185 for 10 mins in my last race, no lactic acid.
I’m wondering if it an age thing, or wether its physiology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on December 13, 2021 at 6:12 pm #60756

Brian:

Thanks for writing in with your questions. You details help me get a better picture of what’s going on. It is very likely that you AnT is 90% of your maxHR. No surprise there. It just means you’re very fit. Your anecdotal observations of lactate accumulation are probably giving you a good read on AnT.

I like you skimo intensity workout. Consider going to 15% and adding 1x 3min hard on the treadmill at the end of the workout when you are pre-fatigued.

I hope this helps.
Scott

[brianbauer]

brianbauer on December 14, 2021 at 7:42 am #60781

thanks Scott. I appreciate the validation of my workout structure. I will try the 1 x3 min add-on. my treadmill only goes to 12%, but I can also increase the speed a touch to get the desired effort.

I will add that I cannot imagine doing these intense workouts with a clear goal. my goal is to be as prepared as possible for skimo racing. when doing these workouts I visualize myself ascending in a skimo race and crushing it – thats the carrot. the stick is: I tell myself that if I don’t push hard now, I will regret it during races, and regret that you could have prepared more is the worst.

[brianbauer]

brianbauer on December 14, 2021 at 2:19 pm #60803

Scott,
ok, so I just finished my “indoor skimo workout” and I added the 1 x 3 kicker at the end. I maxed out my incline at 12% and increased the mph by a few clicks. here is what happened:
– because I alternate 20min running intervals and 12 min ME strength, that meant that I hit the 1 x 3 min kicker after doing my last set of ME
– my HR during ME is between 135 140. so today I started the 1×3 with a HR of 135
– within 30 seconds in the 1×3 my HR got to 155 but never got higher. I know from experience for me to break 160 and get closer to max HR takes much longer than 3 mins…basically my HR did not have time to synch up with my PE.
– my PE during the ME was close to a 9, and maybe I could have held on for 4 mins, but prob not longer.

my question is this: if I am correct in assuming that the point of the 1×3 is to get close to max HR, I think I could more likely achieve that if I did the 1×3 immediately following my last 20 min run interval…that would put my HR at the start of the 1×3 somewhere between 155-160, and it should climb from there..making the 1×3 closer to a max HR effort. how does that sound? doing it this would make the 1×3 much harder, but I think that is the point?

[brianbauer]

brianbauer on December 17, 2021 at 7:01 pm #60927

I added the 1×3 at the end of the last 20 min interval today. because I was not sure what kind of bump I could sustain for 3 mins, I did a ramp of 1×2, and 1×1, increasing incline and speed on each ramp. what I learned is that I should be able to go at the 1×1 pace for the full 3 mins…will do that next time.