[Michael L]

Hello everybody,
I started this in an email with John and Scott and am now adding to the forum in the event others can benefit from their response:

I use your protocols for my Nordic and Backcountry ski conditioning (as well as overall health maintenance). I tend to use a rower instead of running in the off months to accumulate volume for my Zone 1-2 training, understanding of course that foot-borne exercise is better. But I get to roller ski in the fall, doing weekly 2-hour sessions on them because I have access to a long loop closed to me in summer.  That being said, should I test on the rower for summer training, or test on a treadmill, but still train on the rower? If testing on a rower, will this methodology work?

–Warm up
–Maintain a steady HR for one hour, while also watching closely to keep my stroke per minute (cadence) the same throughout.
–Look back on my rowing data, which monitors my pace in two-minute averages, so 30 samples for one hour.
–Average out the first 30-mins, the second 30-mins, divide the two average paces (SPM-controlled) and see if stays within 3-5%

This seems much harder to control than just the gradient and pace on a treadmill, but since the rower will be used for longer Z1-Z2 work, I thought worth exploring with you.

Thank you kindly for your time, and good luck with the new venture!

Hi Michael
As someone who owns a concept 2 rower (and skier) I appreciate this question. The short answer is yes you absolutely should test to see what your aerobic threshold is on the rower as it will likely be different than on a treadmill.

It is not uncommon for some of our athletes to have an AeT for 1) running and 2) skinning on skis or 1) running and 2) nordic skiing.

If you are just using the rower to keep up some volume (zone 1 and easy zone 2) you could almost use the nose breathing or easy conversational pace method to estimate. That said if you wanted to conduct a test you could try your method or just make sure you park it at an aerobic pace for you (X:XX/500m) for 1 hour and make sure the pace or stroke rate doesnt change much. The HR should be within 3-5% over the hour.

Hope this helps. Thank you
John + Scott

John and Scott,
Thanks for kind reply. I will test simply to get a sense where I stand with ADS.
I was not quite sure what was meant by “It is not uncommon for some of our athletes to have an AeT for 1) running and 2) skinning on skis or 1) running and 2) nordic skiing.” I am not sure I can control the variables enough to test AeT uphill skiing and AeT XC skiing , if that was what was meant.

My very best,
Michael

 

[Scott Johnston]

Michael:

I think the point John was making is that you are likely to have a different AeT for different training modalities and my need to test each.   This is vry hard to do skinning or XC skiing (without a roller ski treadmill).  I have found that uphill ski striding with poles on a treadmill gives very close results to classic skiing and skimo.  Heavy backcountry gear……not so much.

Scott

 

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