[George]

George on May 27, 2021 at 1:48 pm · in reply to: My experience with the BIg Vert plan #54399

@Scott Semple: I have the same experience since starting the training plan some 12 weeks ago. I lost speed on the flats, it just feels like leg turnover has taken a hit. I incorporated 6-8 15-20s strides once a week but that doesn’t seem to take care of the issue. It would be nice if you or one of the other coaches can elaborate on that phenomenon.

[George]

George on April 22, 2021 at 1:21 pm · in reply to: Slow runs are making me sluggish #53316

*** UPDATE ***

After rethinking my situation and listening to one Uphill Athlete podcast, I took a look at my training. It did seem like I was spending too much time above my aerobic threshold (AeT) during what should supposedly be easy runs. Thus, I adjusted my pace and stayed as much as possible below my AeT while also trying to stay in zone 2. Also, on weekend long runs (30km with 1200-1300m D+), I kept my hiking speed low enough so I could stay within zones 1 and 2 and skipped on running small hills as even they raised my heart rate after 2-3 hours.
I can now say that I feel less fatigue from one run to the next and I had a very strong long run this past Sunday where I covered 30km with 1300m D+ for little less than 4 hours while maintaining aerobic heart rate throughout. Also, I finally noticed a drop in my resting heart rate which I will take as a good sign.
I will definitely stick to zones 1 & 2 for a few weeks throwing in some strides once or twice a week. I hope to see the AeT needle move a little to the right. Subjectively, it’s still where it was the last time I did an AeT test some 6-7 weeks ago as I notice my breath become more labored right around the same mark (144bpm).
Needless to say, my Garmin Fenix watch has started decreasing my fitness score due to lack of high aerobic training but I try not to be phased by that.

[George]

George on April 13, 2021 at 12:01 am · in reply to: Slow runs are making me sluggish #53076

Hi Dada,

I tested my AeT with the treadmill drift test so it should be pretty accurate. As I said, I haven’t retested myself but I don’t feel like 144bpm is any easier on my breathing than it used to be when I started running mostly in Z2. I hope it doesn’t take me 1.5 years as this would mean I have to abandon hope of improving my performance within the current season.

Hi Rachel,

I don’t do strides often to be honest. When I used to have a professional coach, he included 8 x 30-second strides once a week in my training plan. I’ll include them in one of the easy runs during the week from now on.

[George]

George on April 12, 2021 at 4:45 am · in reply to: Slow runs are making me sluggish #53024

Good to know. Did you actually get rid of ADS by running primarily in zone 2? If so, what was your initial gap between the aerobic and lactate thresholds? Also, how much time did it take you to close the gap to within 10%?
I need to re-test my AeT but purely on subjective feel my breathing becomes noticeably more labored around the same mark (144bpm) as one month ago when I tested for the first time. I thought it takes 3-4 weeks to see an improvement on that?