Thank you, Scott. Sadly, the treadmill test is going to have to wait until the world is a little less COVID-y.
I did manage to do a drift test running a flat course for an hour. The results are here:
http://tpks.ws/LW7VV644X3GBBTI4FEYTRMETSU
As you can see, I’m managing to run, keeping my heart rate right around 130, for an hour, although there is some pretty obvious decoupling, where I’m needing to keep my pace slower and slower in order to maintain the same heart rate. The 8.62% pa/hr number seems to support this as well, suggesting that 130 is too high a heart rate for me to aim for as an AeT. FWIW, this is with comfortable, easy nose-breathing the whole time.
The problem: In order to keep my heartrate near 130, I am running really, really slowly. Like, elderly people passing at a vigorous walk, children pointing and laughing slowly. (OK, I’m exaggerating a little about the children.) The only way I could aim for and maintain a heartrate any lower, like 125, say, would be by walking. But walking, I find it’s kind of a struggle to get my heartrate that high, assuming flat terrain. Walking as fast as I can, which gets a little spazzy and uncomfortable, I can get it to maybe 120, but dropping below that frequently.
I see two solutions, and I’m wondering which is better. 1: Keep going with the program running, using 130 as an AeT, even though it is probably a little too high, and hope that with time my AeT rises. 2: Walk instead, but possibly not really challenging my aerobic metabolism enough to improve it.
I suppose the actual best solution is to use a treadmill at fixed speed with an incline, so that I can walk, but still maintain a high enough heartrate. Except I don’t own a treadmill, and it’ll be a while before I venture to a gym again.
Any advice you might have would be appreciated!
