Hi Scott,
Thanks so much for the reply and help. I took some time to digest and I have a better understanding now. The article you linked on Capacity vs. Utilization training was very helpful, and I think that concept was missing from my comprehension.
I think what I was confused by was the idea that you have to keep most of your training time below AeT, say 90% in a week (just to have a specific number to work with). That becomes almost impossible to maintain with a single long day of ice/mixed climbing on the weekend. If I spend 4 hours leading where my HR is above the AeT, then I would have to spend 40 hours of sub-AeT work to maintain that ratio. So is my description of calculating that ratio correct?
I went climbing again this past weekend and noticed my HR was sub-AeT ~70% of the time, probably cause I wasn’t scared witless half the time. This seems far more conducive to maintaining that Aerobic Base building. Casual adventure days are fun too!
