[Karen]

Thank you, Seth, for such a helpful response.

It is good to understand that not everyone fits the Bell curve. I’ll re-do the AeT drift test when I can. I get what you’re saying about how important that particular piece of data is so I can make the most of my training.

What fascinates me is that my top end can improve without having done any interval training lately. I have done nothing but 7 hours of Zone 2 walking/hiking or cycling each week for the past 7 weeks. That seems amazing to me.

Incidentally, I thought I’d struggle with the discipline of Zone 2 training but it has turned out to be easy and enjoyable, especially when there’s no recovery time needed. It does also help that I am starting to notice some small, positive changes that will help with my specific hiking goals.

thanks, Karen.