[Highpointer46]

I’m trying to rehabilitate a teashed aerobic system after years of military and Crossfit style training. I’m 100% committed to data-driven training according to the principles laid out by Scott in TNFNA. But, I have a question about some training data and what to do with it.

I started training about 6 weeks ago and took a few drift tests early on to dial in my AeT. After 6 weeks I felt the urge to re-test and see where I am at. All tests I’ve taken share the following variables:

– Warm-up for 15 min
– Treadmill at 15% grade
– Morning before eating (but after coffee!)
– Vary speed between tests as needed but never during the test

My results are:

It took me three tests because I was really thrown off by an overall reduction in bpm between Round 1 (tests 1-3) and Round 2 (Tests 4-6). After Round 1 I settled on a AeT of 120bpm and used this for my training putting in ~9 hours/week at this HR. When I retested I stablizied myself at this HR but this time instead of 1.4 mph I was at 1.8mph – but I still failed the drift test. In fact, I only passed the drift test at the original 1.4mph pace but at a HR levels that were about 18bpm below the original test (and all three Round 2 tests are at much lower bpms for the corresponding Round 1 pace).

How should I interpret these results? My AeT appears to now have dropped to 101bpm which feels like moving in the wrong direction…it actually bumps me from a slow jog down to a walk. Should I follow the data and start putting in my hours at ~100bpm instead of 120bpm? Is this regression or progress?

Jim

[Scott Johnston]

Jim:

Thanks for writing in with your questions.  I see a very positive trend here but first I have a question:  I assume that it was 6 weeks between rounds 1 and 2 but how much time elapsed between the three tests 1,2 and 3?  And how much time between tests 4,5 and 6?  Since these tests are 1 typically hour long I am concerned that you did 3 consecutive hours of testing in each round.

The good news is that when we compare test 1 to test 4, test 2 to test 5 and test 3 to test 6 in every case you are doing the same amount of work at a considerably lower heart rate.  5bpm drop during the second half of the test when testing at 1.8mph, a 22bpm drop testing at 1.6mph during the second half and when testing at 1.4mph there was a 19bpm drop in the second half of the test.

Thinking about this for a metabolic stand point: This shows that your aerobic metabolism is significantly better at processing O2 now than 6 weeks ago.  Look at the starting heart rates.  It now only takes 108 vs 121bpm to move at 1.6mph  Similarly it now takes 101 vs 117bpm to move at 1.4 mph.  To me this indicates that training with 120 as your upper limit has resulted in text book improvement in your aerobic capacity.

I suggest redoing ONE test where you use a starting HR of 115-117 (the starting HR in test 3).  Adjust the speed during the warm up so that HR stabilizes there. Email me your results at Scott@evokeendurance.com

Scott

[Highpointer46]

Scott – Thanks and I’ll send you the test data as requested. To answer your question most tests were a few days apart (minimum of 24 hours). Never did any tests back to back.

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