Howdy all – I’m 39 male, and up til about 4 years ago I was pretty active and fit in the mountains, always on skis or in boots, not much of a runner. Was able to do long days (15+ hours) and could hold a normal conversation pretty well on approaches with heavy pack.
Four years ago, I started having problems with my knees and backed off (ski)mountaineering almost entirely, but kept hiking a good bit and really got into mountain biking which I supplemented with higher intensity training and strength work.
Anyways, finally got in with a good PT, have started running, and am getting back into shape again with about six months of consistent aerobic work. When I’m hiking outside, I notice I often need to start mouth breathing around 140-145 bpm, so I’ve assumed my AeT is near there, but can’t get my treadmill drift tests to agree with that range.
Test 1: HR @ 135 for first and second half, i.e. drift = 0
Test 2: HR @ 140 for first half, 139 for second i.e. negative drift
Test 3: HR @ 146 for first and second half, i.e. drift = 0
Test 4: HR @ 151 for first half, 150 for second, i.e. negative drift
I was pretty fatigued after the last two despite not getting any drift.
Today, I ran on the treadmill at 2% incline and followed the drift test protocol and ended up with an HR of 157.5 for the first half, and 165 for the second, so right about at 5% drift. I was able to nose breathe almost the entire time.
Anyways, I understand that AeT will vary some among activity types, but according to these results am I correct in interpretting my AeT (at least for flat running) to be closer to 157-ish? That just seems really high given the four years of higher intensity activities, minimal aerobic training, and a tendency to need to mouth breathe around 140-145 when outside.
Thanks in advance for any help/thoughts!
