Reply To: AeT and AnT Tests gave the same heart rate?

Nolan:

Thanks for writing in with these questions and welcome to Evoke Endurance.  I understand your confusion and hope to clear things up a bit.

It is common but not universally true that the AeT HR will differ between uphill and flat running or hiking. We normally suggest testing both, hence the treadmill to see if you need to adjust for hilly terrain outside.

Next thing:  You have heard me say that local muscular fatigue is what slows us in longer harder efforts.  That is true for beginners and pros.  It is what determined the AnT not the heat’s ability to deliver O2 since this is a submit effort.  What I mean by that is that a max effort can only be sustained for a few of minutes. That’s when the cardiac output becomes the limiter.

Similarly the gradient will affect the AnT test because you will be recruiting more muscle mass, and more forceful muscle fibers that are not as well aerobically conditioned.  On a steep grade like 27% this effect is very likely to rear its ugly head.  I recommend doing this test  on a grade that is close to the what you normally train on, go out a bit easier and pick up the pace later if you feel you can manage that.  And get a really good warm up.

Steep uphill training is fantastic for building muscular endurance which will directly improve your uphill AnT.

I doubt very much that your AeT and AnT are stacked right on top of one another like you are inferring from these tests.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Scott