[leonardthedog]

Thanks Josh!

Your DOMS experience is similar to mine. Previous training cycles I used the gym based ME and got smoked like you described. This is my first time doing ME on a stairmaster.

As far as the weight, I’m further along in the plan now and just did ME #3 with 65lb  (35% of my BW) and did 2900 steps in 70 min (1900 ft of gain).

I was pretty close to my AeT the whole time but didn’t go over. I do think if I did lower weight and went faster I’d probably bump over the AeT, but that may mean I still have some room to grow in terms of aerobic capacity. I had COVID in December, which resulted in a break from training and a bit of residual fatigue for a week or so – probably lost some aerobic fitness during that time.

Sounds like you think it may be worth it to lower the weight even if that bumps me above the AeT?

Probably also worth noting that my AeT was determined on a flat run heart rate drift test, so it could be a bit different on a vertical gain training day.