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Reed on April 27, 2021 at 11:22 am · in reply to: Aerobic Threshold Determination #53435

Did you do a nice, slow, 20+ minute warmup prior to this test? It looks to me like your baseline lactate levels, once you started moving, stabilized around 1mmol/L. So you should be OK using 2.0mmol/L as a decent way to find your aerobic threshold. My takeaways from these numbers:

• Aerobic threshold ~140bpm
• Anaerobic threshold ~165bpm
• % difference ~18% (AnT / AeT)

So, you probably have a good deal of improvement you can make by focusing on training below aerobic threshold. No downside to being conservative, and training at 120-130bpm, but you should also be fine spending time in the 130-140bpm range too.

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Reed on April 22, 2021 at 9:23 am · in reply to: Plan Feedback/Help In-between Objectives #53308

If you have enough time between your events, you could certainly build fitness. That’s probably best measured in months, not days. Another approach to consider is using your intermediate events as training sessions. Rather than a 2-week taper and an all-out effort, you might go slower and easier – less need for tapering preparation, and faster recovery afterwards. A Saturday/Sunday trek of 10-15 miles/day with 4,000 feet of gain could be something that you can recover from within a few days, if you’re building on a good foundation and you stay well within your capacity (very low intensity).

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Reed on April 16, 2021 at 11:06 am · in reply to: Chamonix Mountain Fit suggested TSS #53180

Not only is it individual, but it’s also an approximation and oversimplification. TrainingPeaks’ CTL is intended to bring together multisport training (triathlon in particular) into a single metric. Intuitively, if you go for a 40-minute Z1 run, it’s going to have a different impact than a 40-minute strength workout. Tracking both under a single number is useful, but not the full picture.

By the way, a 40-minute Zone 1 run should be more like 25-30 TSS. The definitions of the metrics are based on a 1-hour anaerobic effort equaling ~100 TSS (on a bike). Zone 2 is more like 60 TSS per hour, Zone 1 is maybe a bit less. But as you said, as long as the numbers are acting as a useful guide to help you plan your workouts and achieve your goals, you’re using them well.

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Reed on April 16, 2021 at 10:26 am · in reply to: High Intensity following ADS training #53177

Training aerobic systems vs. training strength or power are pretty different. It could be that now that you’ve established an aerobic training base, you’d see some benefit from identifying some other low-hanging fruit such as core strength and stability, or power and neuromuscular connection. 8-second hill sprints with lengthy (2-4 minute) recoveries should start to recruit more muscle mass. That’s a very different stimulus than an 8-minute interval.

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Reed on April 16, 2021 at 10:21 am · in reply to: Chamonix Mountain Fit suggested TSS #53176

I’d suggest looking at it as a function of how “fit” you are in terms of Chronic Training Load, and how long it takes you to recover from the workouts. If you’re maintaining 50 CTL in TrainingPeaks, as an example, then that’d suggest that you’re able to absorb about 50 TSS and recover within 24 hours. A hard strength workout that takes two days to recover might then be ~70 or 90 TSS.

If you’re more like me, in maintenance mode and at more like 30 CTL, then that strength workout that takes two days to recover might be more like 40-50 TSS.

I wrote some related notes here: https://uphillathlete.com/forums/topic/strength-workout-ctl-include-rest-time/#post-50944

Great detailed write-up from Scott J. from a few years ago here: https://uphillathlete.com/forums/topic/ctltrainingpeaks-and-tfna/

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Reed on March 16, 2021 at 12:53 pm · in reply to: Heart Rate Drift – Laps instead of Slope #52088

Hi Leon – it looks like you’re able to sustain a 9min/mile pace at ~155bpm basically forever. That’s great! You’re clearly fit and those runs were well within your aerobic capacity, well below your aerobic threshold.

The cardiac drift that you’re seeing once you go beyond middle distances like 26.2 miles (hah!) is more indicative of fatigue than of your aerobic capacity. There are lots of things that affect your heart rate. Heat, hydration, fatigue, etc.

What are you training for? How much are you training (time, distance), and how much of that is this type of extensive endurance vs. strength training vs. higher-intensity work?

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Reed on March 9, 2021 at 1:09 pm · in reply to: Aerobic Base #51800

It is great to prioritize some amount of strength development in parallel with aerobic development. That could be anything from bodyweight exercises to deadlifts to hill sprints. Find the low-hanging fruit, the weak link in the chain. Consistency and a >90% focus on below aerobic threshold training are good things to focus on.

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Reed on March 8, 2021 at 7:54 pm · in reply to: AeT, Lactate, and Fe02 #51749

It started out high for some reason or another – perhaps recent carbohydrate intake, as Scott mentioned. As you started to move, your muscles started to pick up the pyruvate / lactate for use as fuel. The more important thing, though, is that it sounds like you didn’t have a sufficiently long or gradual warmup to give a very clear picture of your aerobic and anaerobic thresholds.

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Reed on March 8, 2021 at 7:48 pm · in reply to: Chamonix Mountain Fit, how does it fit in? #51748

Hah! Maybe I should ask for a commission. 😛 I hope it goes well for you – it’s a good tool in the toolkit.

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Reed on March 4, 2021 at 10:36 am · in reply to: Maffetone “Ear-Based” HR Monitor #51560

Chest strap heart rate monitors are more like >99.5% correlated with measurements via an ECG: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28709155/

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Reed on March 3, 2021 at 11:54 am · in reply to: Plan Feedback/Help In-between Objectives #51478

Focus on recovery. You’re not going to build any fitness during your week 16, as an example. Prepare with a recovery / taper week in order to be ready, if it’s going to be a difficult couple of days, and then give yourself plenty of time the following week to recovery. Reduce load by 50% and walk / jog / swim. Similarly for your October back-to-back-to-back weekends.

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Reed on March 1, 2021 at 11:02 pm · in reply to: AeT, Lactate, and Fe02 #51434

Can you describe some details about the warmup and the testing protocol? The interpretation of the gas exchange test may be fine by itself, but the high starting lactate readings give me pause. If the warmup was insufficient and / or the ramp rate was too high, the ability for the aerobic system to contribute sufficiently might have been limited.

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Reed on February 24, 2021 at 10:17 am · in reply to: Specific Strength Frequency for Running #51192

Muscular endurance workouts are hard. It’s hard to recover from them as quickly as, say, a core strength or general strength workout. And, similar to other high-intensity work, are good to tackle in a time-bound block. Putting that together, once you have the capacity to add some muscular endurance work, you might target a 6-10 week block and space the workouts out to once every 5-10 days depending on how long it takes to recover.

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Reed on February 24, 2021 at 10:10 am · in reply to: Chamonix Mountain Fit, how does it fit in? #51191

I think it’s a great program. You can do it instead of or in addition to your strength / core routine. I view it as preventative maintenance… I’ve spent $75 on one physical therapy session only to have the therapist watch me do an hour of these same types of exercises, and didn’t think it was a good use of funds. On the other end of the spectrum, you can find all sorts of lists of exercises and videos on YouTube etc. if you want to do it yourself. The Chamonix Mountain Fit strikes a nice balance for me. And it’s hard – I’m repeating “level 1” a couple more times. 🙂

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Reed on February 18, 2021 at 6:52 am · in reply to: Strength Workout CTL – Include rest time? #50972

Recovery takes different forms and different amounts of time… I know I can go out for a 40-minute run day in and day out. I did two long workouts on a rowing erg over the weekend, and overdid something. I trained Monday and Tuesday, and then took yesterday off entirely. I’m still not entirely recovered today, but feeling good enough that I’ll head out for a run later on. If you listen, your body will tell you a lot.