[WanderSin]

Hi everyone,

I’m training for technically easy mountaineering objectives in the Alps this August — mostly 2-day routes with 1200–1500m vert per day involving glacier travel, couloir snow climbs, and some easy rock scrambling.

Last year I followed the 12-week Evoke Endurance TrainingPeaks plan fully indoors (no hills near me), but since October 2024 I’ve shifted all aerobic work to outdoor running in the flat (for sanity sake, I dreaded each session of going to the gym for 3 hours in the stair machine). I’ve gradually built up from 2 to 5.5–6 hours per week across 4 runs, keeping all sessions below AeT (based on HR drift treadmill tests — most recent test 2–3 months ago put AeT at 171 bpm). I also do 2 strength sessions per week (following the Evoke plan) combined with indoor bouldering.

Two weeks ago I performed a 30-minute all-out time trial to estimate AnT.

Average HR over the last 20 minutes: 194 bpm
Corresponding pace: 5:04/km
Whole 30 minutes: 5:22/km avg pace
HR trend: climbed from 186 bpm at 15 minutes to 199–200 bpm at the end (34 minute mark)
For AeT-effort runs (all my runs at the moment) I typically hold 6:40–7:00/km, more recently trending toward 6:40/km. These runs range from 1h to 1h45m and 85-90% of the run time is spent in the AeT zone (155-170 bpm).

For reference I did a Gas exchange test 3 years ago and my maximum heart rate came at 206 bpm.

Despite this structure and progress, I’m still the slowest in my mountaineering group, even though my AeT–AnT gap seems solid.

My Questions:

1. Do my AeT/AnT test results look consistent and valid?
2. Based on these, would you consider me aerobically efficient?
3. Should I now add higher-intensity training?
4. If yes — should I be doing tempo or threshold sessions (or both)?
   I find the mix of terms (Z3, tempo, threshold, AnT) confusing — I’d really appreciate clarity on:

• What kind of session to do (steady vs. intervals)
• How often per week and how much of the weekly volume should I spend on those intensities (if I am not mistaken it was suggested in TFTNA around 5-10% of the weekly volume but I might be mistaken, last time I read the book was a while back).
• Should I guide the effort by pace or HR.

I’m planning to include muscular endurance workouts 4 weeks out from my trip, but would love guidance on how to structure intensity work before that.

Thanks so much — really appreciate the help!

[Leif Godberson]

It appears that you received a good comprehensive reply from Scott Semple over in Reddit on some of your questions, but I will leave a few additional thoughts here.

 

It is hard to say if your AeT tests look valid without seeing the actual test. If you have doubt on the validity of the test and you are confident you have executed the test correctly, then it would be worth performing the drift test multiple times to confirm you are getting consistent results. For the AnT test, it sounds like you performed the test right, but it is extremely important to be well rested up for this one and doing it in the spur of the moment may not lead to correct results.

 

Based on the results as you’ve presented them, you are not aerobically deficient.

 

Yes, you should think about adding some intensity training to your program. As your pace has room for improvement, I would suggest you focus on specifically improving your economy of movement in regards to running. Avoid things like stairmaster workouts and focus on getting the leg speed up, provided of course your goal is to increase your speed. If your focus is on mountaineering, the importance of running economy has little value.

 

The intensity training should mainly be focused on z3 work using your AnT as a hard stop for longer intervals. There would be value in also working in some very high intensity but short efforts such as hill sprints and short strides (~20sec).

 

Start with working in ~5% of your weekly volume as higher intensity work (>z2) and then if all is going well you could scale up a touch provided your volume isn’t dropping. Keep in mind that faster running also implies a higher risk of injury so use caution.

 

The only time it makes sense to train based off pace is if you are training on flat consistent surfaces, otherwise HR is likely your best option.

 

If you are still unclear on interpreting your threshold tests and how to plan your training going forward, you may want to consider a phone consult where we can take look at your tests directly and help make recommendations to inform your training.

 

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