[Kyle.g]

I am preparing for a climb in a year, so I wanted to find my aerobic threshold. I am working on some achilles/shin pain with a physical therapist so I cannot run currently. Instead I decided to do a blood lactate test this morning, and need help setting my zones.

The administrator of the test determined my AeT was 160bpm, and recommended working out between 152-158bpm to prevent from spilling into Z3. I thought Evoke had a 10% rule or something previously, but I couldn’t find it. I also have a rough idea of my max HR (190 bpm). These are my estimates below, but I would love some feedback

• Zone 1: 0 bpm to 144 bpm
• Zone 2: 145 bpm to 160 bpm.
• Zone 3: 161 bpm to 177 bpm
• Zone 4: 178 bmp to 190 bpm

Do these zones look correct? Any adjustments? I also included the graph from my lactate test if that helps.

[Scott Johnston]

Kyle:

What kind of warm-up did you have before they started taking lactate samples?  I do not see how we could call AeT 160 since your lactate never stabilized and lower heart rates. It rapidly rose from the get-go.  Normally one will call the AeT the point either where LA goes above 2mMol/L or where its initial rise of 1mMol/L occurs.

I strongly suggest you do the HR Drift test as described here: https://evokeendurance.com/our-latest-thinking-on-aerobic-assessment-for-the-mountain-athlete/

Do that test hiking on a treadmill set at 15% and use 135 as the starting HR.

From the chart you have sent 160HR indicates a LA of 3mMol/l.  That is well above any definition of AeT.  Based on this test I would call AeT 135ish because that is where LA started climbing.

The above comments on this test are null and void if you didn’t have at least a 10min gradual warm-up.

Scott

[Kyle.g]

I was on a stationary bike, and did a 70 watt warm up for 5 minutes. This warm up saw my lactate spike from 1.2 to 2.1. The person administering the test was confused by this, as they typically see a few data points in the 1’s for a few samples. The person administering also mentioned 4.0 was the limit for AeT sounds like they were wrong.

I was pretty nervous for this test as needles are not my favorite, and I believe that may have effected my lactate (just a guess).

I can attempt the HR drift test on an inclined treadmill, I have been avoiding running due to the achilles/shin pain. I will start at 135 HR and see if I drift, if not I will try another day at 140, then 145, etc. With some rest between. I did a stair stepper test a year ago and was at 150 per an Evoke trainer, so I hope I didn’t slide back.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Kyle.g.

[Kyle.g]

Scott,

I have conducted a few HR drift tests and it appears my Aerobic Threshold is 140 bpm. Which means I have been training in Zone 3 a lot the last year, so I am trying to reverse that. This week I did 4.5 hours of Z2 work (132-138  bpm Average). Can I double check my zones with you?

Zone 1: 0 bpm to 125 bpm

Zone 2: 126 bpm to 140 bpm

Zone 3: 141 bpm to 160 bpm

Zone 4: 161 bpm to 190 bpm

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