[todd.struble]

todd.struble on May 9, 2019 at 11:09 am · in reply to: How Slow is TOO Slow? #21794

Scott, what do you mean by 50%-70% of AeT? Does it matter if you are well-trained or not? For example, AeT at 140, 50%-70% of that is 70-98, which is basically standing around the house (for me anyway). I imagine a well-trained athlete might have their AeT closer to 160 or 170+ and maybe if their resting heart rate is in the 40’s that a brisk walk is getting closer to that 50% mark.

But are you suggesting that if floresrm has tagged their AeT at 140, they’re getting a benefit if they’re walking at pace that keeps their hr at 70-98 if the duration is long enough? or am I misunderstanding the 50% piece?

I’m sort of curious because I have gone on walks with friends and promised “you can’t go too slow for me” only to find that… walking really slow barely gets the HR to 100 and also wondered about the training effect.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on May 2, 2019 at 2:52 pm · in reply to: Exercise Induced Gross Hematuria (blood in urine) #21354

To close the loop on this, I had my follow up after taking a CT scan of my urinary tract. Everything appears normal. Doc cleared me for exercise, confirming that “runner’s hematuria” is something that happens to endurance athletes, particularly runners, during or immediately following exercise. Doc suggested that if you took a urine sample from everyone who crossed the finish line at a marathon, it’s likely the majority would show micro hematuria (non-visible red blood cells in the urine).

No long term concerns, and doc actually encouraged me to a full return to vigorous exercise, saying that if it’s something besides runner’s hematuria (and presumably more serious), coaxing a repeat of symptoms would be helpful in catching it.

For what it’s worth (probably not much), upon further internet sleuthing, there’s a hypothesis that it’s caused by voiding and then running before your bladder has had a chance to refill and thus the walls bump and cause a tear. I’m not sure that comports with my experience or all the other numerous times I have paused to pee on a tree before immediately resuming running. But I have started drinking a bit of water and waiting a few minutes before taking off now.

From my perspective, in case someone else is reading this and panicking about it: From speaking with the urologist, definitely get it checked out, but if you don’t have any other symptoms or risk factors, you can probably keep training as normal while waiting for results.
I scaled way back and just did Z1 <1hr for a few days before feeling more confident that the symptom wasn’t recurring, but now I don’t think it was necessary.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on April 24, 2019 at 4:22 pm · in reply to: Improving AeT query. #20957

My understanding is that both pace at your starting AeT HR should go up and your heartrate at AeT should go up (and be even faster still). As an example, for me, I started out at 145 bpm and my pace was around 12 minute miles. After a few months of consistent training, both things improved, 1) my pace at 145 bpm dropped to around 10:00 minute miles; and 2) I re-tested at 10 bpm faster at 155 and I was just under 9 minute miles.

It’s been a few months since that second test, and I think my AeT heartrate is has maybe gone up a tad in that efforts at 155 feel slightly easier than they did, but I’m certainly not cruising at 10 bpm faster and nose-breathing still. But I am fairly confident if I did another test at 155 my pace would be even faster than ~9 minute miles. In other words, my pace at a given heartrate has continued to get better, but the AeT heartrate “improvement” is more marginal. Or, at least dropping 30 seconds off my mile time at a given heartrate seems more material than maybe adding 2-3 bpm to my “AeT heartrate” given that some days feel easier than others. Hopefully that makes sense. I’m not sure how common my experience is though – I’m sure the coaches will have a better answer of how to measure improvement.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on April 18, 2019 at 12:43 pm · in reply to: Which terrain to build AeT? And some other questions. #20622

I just wanted to contribute to reassure you that you aren’t going too slow. It also took me three times to get a good AeT test because the first two times, I went too fast. I was in that range (maybe a bit faster at blazing ~12 minute miles!) when I started. You will see gains though and it won’t be that slow! I think it took me about 6 weeks to drop a minute or two off my mile time at the same HR. After a 4 month block of consistent aerobic base training, I tested at 10 beats faster, and dropped more than 3 minutes off my original aet mile pace. Edit: I also forgot to mention – while you will see gains, 6 months in I find my training is still slow for the easy days – my last 1 hour AeT workout was still at a 14:00 mile pace including going slowly uphill and a bit faster downhill.

My thoughts on your other questions:

1) I have the same question about testing AnT. I’ve gone my entire base period without testing and coming from the same background of doing a lot of higher intensity weekend-warrior exercise. Besides the AnT tests mentioned here, for what it’s worth, Training Peaks defines “Threshold” aka “AnT” as your heartrate for a 10k effort running. If you have any 10k races, you might be able to use your HR from that effort (assuming a consistent effort, i.e. not going really slow and then sprinting the last mile or vice versa)

2) If it’s showing up on your Training Peaks workouts and looks like it’s recording correctly (no flat lines, tracking your heartrate up and down with your level of exertion) I think you’re all set. I have the same TICKR HR monitor and my Garmin watch records the data from it (and uploads it to TP).

3) There’s another thread where Scott answers that question. For your convenience, here’s what he wrote:

1) Each week has 3 main aerobic workouts called “Run/Hike”, “Aerobic Threshold Run/Hike” and “Hike on hilly terrain” – Should I be aiming for any difference in intensity between these workouts? Is it ok to push into Z2 in one of them?
These are all meant to be in the basic aerobic metabolic realm, so Z1-2 range. The intensity can be in the Z1 range for he longer workouts and get up into Z2 on the shorter ones or on the uphills on hillier workouts. If you have a high basic aerobic capacity (AeT) then you will need to do most of this base training in Z1 (Z2 will be too hard for a high % of the base training). If your AeT is low then pushing into Z2 more will be helpful and speed the aerobic development.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on March 21, 2019 at 11:12 am · in reply to: San Francisco Bay Area Hills with 20-50% grade #18856

I was visiting family in Santa Clara recently and scoured the area for places as well. Black Mountain was the greatest elevation gain that I found but had some lower grade sections. Training Peaks says the grade from the bottom to the top is 9%. There’s a flat section in there though so most of the trail is 10% grade.

For those in the South Bay, the Kennedy Road trail into the Sierra Azul Preserve in Los Gatos had the best access to elevation/grade ratio for me. I hiked repeats on the steepest section of the trail that I could find, which Training Peaks says was 800 ft in 1.3 miles at a grade of 11.6%. (I also got to see some snow the closest to my childhood home I’d ever seen! Saw snow down to I think around 1500′)

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on March 11, 2019 at 11:46 am · in reply to: Treadmill Skinning #17980

Do you have access to paved hills? Luke Nelson posted about using roller skis in this thread:

https://uphillathlete.com/forums/topic/how-to-train-when-sport-specific-training-is-not-possible/

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on February 21, 2019 at 3:04 pm · in reply to: Plantar Fasciitis – workouts & recovery tips? #16910

I had mine initially from a backpacking trip with a too-heavy pack and poor arch support in my hiking boots and then playing too much soccer. I let mine get pretty bad before addressing it, because it’d feel OK after warming up and then I’d pay for it later and it got worse and worse.

Here’s what resolved it for me: 1) A complete break from any soccer or running/high intensity leg work for about six weeks; 2) I bought aftermarket insoles with arch-support for all of my shoes; 3) I bought a splint that kept my foot/ankle at a 90 degree angle to wear at night to keep the calf stretched out; and 4) regular calf stretching.

I think the thing that helped me the most (besides the rest) was getting the night splint. I felt like that put my calf to stay flexible and arch in a position to heal at night when sleeping, and then the insoles prevented it from getting worse during the day. But that’s my n=1 sample size.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on February 15, 2019 at 7:44 pm · in reply to: Recovery time after long fasted workouts #16754

I wanted to provide an update on my experience building into the fasted longer workouts. I continued doing my shorts 1 and 2 hour workouts fasted as my base period training has increased in volume. The “blended” workout idea really helped me. I started just eating at 2:15 no matter how I felt, then tried to increase by 15 minutes or so each week. Also eating earlier if I started feeling fatigued. I’ve done my last two long 3 hr+ workouts completely fasted. A few things I noticed:

First, I think paying attention to when I should eat in the blended workout caused me to notice when I was bonking more. I’m sure I was bonking in my earlier workouts, I just wasn’t tuned into paying attention to the signs. Focusing on how I was feeling after 2 hours, I noticed pace slowing or just feeling a bit different and I’d eat.

Second, I also slowed down on my longer workouts, or at least I’m not going any faster as my AeT and fitness improves. I’m doing them at the same (very slow) pace I was using when starting structured training.

Overall, looking at when I posted this thread, it’s taken me about 14 weeks to be able to take off on my long workouts without worrying about bringing a granola bar. Looking at Tips for Fasted Training that’s about right at 9+ weeks as my last few long workouts have gone well and I’ve recovered in time to feel good for the next week of training. Just needed to be patient and build into it slower.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on November 10, 2018 at 10:22 am · in reply to: Recs for smallish fitness watch with decent wrist HR monitor? #14382

I can’t help directly (I use a chest strap), but check out dcrainmaker.com, the dude has reviewed every device for like the last 10+ years in considerable detail. But in general the sense I got from his site follows Scott’s advice: the HR strap is the more reliable, accurate way of capturing HR data. I’m not 100% sure but I think all of the Garmin optical hr monitors are basically the same. Here’s the relevant part from the device you returned:

Before we move on to the test results, note that optical HR sensor accuracy is rather varied from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. Position and how the band is worn are *the most important* pieces. A unit with an optical HR sensor should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts). You can wear it a tiny bit looser the rest of the day.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on October 28, 2018 at 7:11 pm · in reply to: Recovery time after long fasted workouts #14165

Thanks for these additional thoughts. hafjell, I was doing the duration asked for by the training plan, but skipped a few weeks of the fasted training progression, based on feeling fine during the fasted sessions and recovering fine on the shorter 1 hour fasted AeT workouts.

I think I ran into trouble by not feeling “bonked” during the long 2+ hr workouts. The past few long workouts I took food with me per the progression advice and then just never felt the need to eat it, but then felt tired for 2 days including a full rest day.

I appreciate the insight that the fasted training will impact our recovery time if we aren’t well adapted and we need to take that process slow. Scott Semple, thanks for the blended workout idea. Today I just decided to do my long workout with a light breakfast before. I’ll try that next week and eat after an hour and see how well I recover.

[todd.struble]

todd.struble on October 24, 2018 at 11:56 pm · in reply to: Recovery time after long fasted workouts #14119

Sounds like I’m going too hard on the fasted workouts even though I’m not “bonking” or otherwise feeling depleted during the workout. I’m gathering that I shouldn’t go so hard that I’m not recovered after a rest day. Thanks for the advice!