[xcduck]

Hei all,

if you want to skip the introduction and my situation presentation, go to ´Questions´. Also, I am not a native English speaker.

I  started some eight weeks ago with training after having read the book Training for the Uphill Athlete. A bit about my fitness situation: I am a 31 y.o. man, not overweight,  185cm tall(I guess its 6,something feet imperial), with no history of serious injuries or major health issues. I spent my childhood relatively sedentary and was a bit overweight, even if I went 4-5 times each summer hiking with the family, until I started playing rugby at the age of 15 and stopped after 2-3 years. After that, I transitioned briefly to swimming, but stopped after some months. I did not train for any sport or gym after that. The main and almost exclusive moments I was doing sport were when hiking mountains with friends, maybe 4-5 days in total scattered around the summer, and the occasional bike ride. I always had a somehow sedentary occupation, between studies and jobs, until I started working in a production facility three years ago. After starting this job, I can notice I am stronger and overall fitter, although it is just a side effect of a physical job with many different movements and low recovery time, and I would say it is more a muscular growth than anything else. Most work shifts I walk 10k steps and have an average HR of 90-110 bpm, with some weight lifting (many repetitions of 20 to 35 kg).

This said, a work buddy some time ago suggested me to read the book and to listen to the podcasts, in order to educate myself on this training philosophy. I followed his suggestion, and now I find myself empowered and actually believing as possible for me to get finally fit for the uphill sports I would like to do, as mainly mountaineering (multi-day hiking and climbing) and eventually skitouring/ski mountaineering.  I am not directly interested on trail running or running in general, but I don’t exclude the possibility of doing it in the future.

My main aim is to get as fit as possible to tackle small and big objectives safely and being able to fit in a group of other fit mountaineers. I am not interested in competing right now, rather in having a system of training that permits me to get fitter and fitter for the hills, in a gradual and incremental way. I am aware this training philosophy does not include the technical aspects of the specific sports it does nevertheless prepare physically for. For these specific technical aspects of mountaineering and skiing, I will of course go get lessons from professionals.

Question: I started some eight weeks ago with the training, basing the schedule on the transitional weeks on the book. After four weeks, I purchased the 24 weeks mountaineering plan and started from the beginning, even if I have done already four weeks of transitional training. This because I wanted to start from the beginning, at least for the first time I use the program. My main concern now is to define my AeT. The weeks before the Program I considered my AeT to be in between 135 and 140 bpm: this was an extra conservative approach, taking the MAF formula 180-31-5= 144bpm and subtracting some more bpm because of my sedentary years (my own judgment about aerobi deficency syndrome). I also wanted to take the time to know the trails on the hill I decided to use as my main trainer for the next months. When I started the 24weeks program I did the HRdrift test aiming for an AeT of 135, the test gave a result of 136/133=1,022 so 2,2%. I decided to repeat the test the week after, meanwhile I increased the AeT on the training to 140. The second time I aimed for 145bpm, giving a result of 153/150=1,02, but actually the data set shows my bpms went up to 148 almost immediately after starting the recording, so I would consider 148 to be the starting point of this test. I then set 148 as top of my zone2, but when started training with this number as AeT, I have found it difficult to maintain it while training. I either go too slow and get something like 145, or too fast and exceed to the lower 150s, with very little pace fiddling. It seems difficult to keep 148 as target bpm while  doing zone2 training. So I did a third HR drift test today aiming for 148. I got 165/155=1,064 so 6,5%. The three tests have been conducted as per the indications, maybe the warming up has been a bit rocky given the fact I never have visited a gym before and therefore had to deal with a new machine I never set foot on. I was able to nose breath on all the three tests, the first two tests felt like I would have been able to keep going more. I had to stop the third attempt at 50 minutes because It was too much and it was clear that the result would have been out, also, the gym is definitely warmer than the usual environment I train in. How should I navigate this situation? Is 148 bpm a safe bet on the top of my zone2 right now, even if I am not able to keep it while training? Or is this a sign it is actually not my AeT?

Greetings to everyone!

Fred

[Scott Johnston]

Fred:

Sorry for the late reply.  First let me say that your English is great.  I’ve met native English speakers who cold not put there sentences together so well.  Now on to your question.

Clearly the last test started at too high of of a speed so disregard it.  While it is possible that your aerobic capacity increased in one week, I doubt your AeT would increase very much.  Regardless of the test results if training with 148 as an AeT leaves you quite tired with heavy legs this is too high of a speed/heart rate.  Given your life history I think your choice of  140 as the top of your Zone 2 or AeT is a better place for you to train for the next 6 weeks.  There will be a day sometime after 4 weeks of careful training in the 130-14o range when you notice that you are going faster.  Maybe you will be on a trail you go to frequently and that day you will notice that you are (I’m just making up the number) 2min faster than normal to some land mark.  This is happening because your aerobic capacity has increased and this would be a good time to do another drift test maybe using 145 as the starting HR.  This process takes patience but you will see gains over the months in both pace and HR at AeT.  Don’t try to force the improvement. Let it happen.  If you need to walk on some hills to stay below 140 that is what you must do.  The biggest improvement in aerobic capacity will come from consistency and a high volume of this training.  If your legs are too tired for training too hard you will not be able to achieve either a high volume of consistency.

I hope this helps

Scott

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