[Betsy Reznicek]

I bought the “Training for the Uphill Athlete” book a few years ago and jumped right in. While I am not necessarily a mountain climber, I do lots of backpacking and use the resources and training for those purposes and tailor the training a bit for my trips.

Using the guidelines for training for AeT, I started slow and steady. It started at about HR top of Z2 at 119 three years ago and I thought it was increasing slowly over the last few years to 125. Even when not training for a trip, I keep my walks and hikes just below my AeT. Or so I thought.

I am about to start re-training for a backpacking trip through Olympic National Park that will have 11,000 feet of elevation gain over 5 days – so I am going to use the guidelines as best as I can but when I re-did my drift test (15% incline at 1.3mph) – it shows a drift of about 4% (first 30 minutes avg 125 and second 30 minutes was 130). But then I rewatched the video and the top of Z2 should be that starting HR of the test… which would be 117-ish.

I have two problems:

1. I did that entire drift test easy-ish. I breathed through my nose the entire time, worked up a nice sweat, but felt like I could have a conversation. In general, I never feel as if I am exerting myself until I get to about HR130. Then I typically slow down to keep it under HR125 (which again, I was incorrectly thinking my top of Z2 was at). So is my top of Z2 really just HR117? (which leads me to problem #2) Should I try doing 4-weeks just under 117, retest, and trust the process — even when my body feels like 125 is more of a natural limit?
2. How in the world do I keep my heartrate under 117 while hiking, especially if I am supposed to be training with any elevation? The second I start walking uphill, my heartrate increases. (I could easily train for HOURS on flat hikes at this level but it would be work to keep it slow.) I certainly can’t get in the 1,000 of elevation training while keeping the HR this low. Any suggestions there?
3. Could my body weight be playing a role here? I am a bigger gal (short and round) and I am wondering if that might play a role in effecting my HR on uphills vs flats. If that is effecting the HR there, any suggestions on training differently so I can climb these mountains and it not suck in September. 🙂 

Thanks in advance! I have tried to do all the research for these last few years, but keep coming back to these questions!

– Betsy

**I recently heard an Outside podcast on the VO2 max for bigger people that made me curious about question #3. https://www.outsideonline.com/podcast/endurance-size-disadvantage/

 

[Seth Keena]

Hi Betsy,

Thanks for writing in.

I can offer some imperfect advice and experience, but there is no one solution here.

It is entirely possible that your AeT per the drift test is 117bpm. Your legs clearly have the muscular endurance to handle a lot of volume above this threshold. It’s common to have the legs ‘above’ the cardio like this. I have seen many folks ‘feel’ AeT to be 10-15beats, sometimes more, above their metabolic AeT, proven from both MET and Lactate tests. OK, your metabolic AeT is relatively low. Here’s some ides for the way forward.

Count backwards from this OLY hike.

For all but the final 3weeks: Aim to do nearly 100% of your volume at 117, and do a  lot of volume. Supplement low-/no-impact machines to avoid injury. There will be some slow uphill walking here. Do not add weight to uphill unless it’s for strength workouts. Consider doing some workouts fasted https://evokeendurance.com/fasted-training-a-nuanced-view/ During this period, train specific strength (hiking ME) and let this count as your AnT volume as well.

For the final 3weeks: Do about 50% of your volume at 117bpm (or, if you retest and find a higher AeT, whatever your AeT is) and the remainder of the volume by feel. Keep the ME volume going.

After your trip, go back to the goal of lifting AeT (ie 100% volume at AeT, retesting every ~4weeks, maximal strength workouts, ~5% volume in Z3)  This is the ‘at a certain point’ method; at a certain point the training needs to pivot from addressing aerobic deficiency and point towards the reality of the event.

Again, this is one way to approach this situation. I think you will have good odds of success going this way.

Best of luck and stick with it!

-Seth

[Betsy Reznicek]

Thanks, Seth. I kind of anticipated this being the answer. Glad I asked!

I even went out to train yesterday and turned around on a hilly trail just to lower the HR under 117. Most of my training is done fasted, so I’ll keep that up. And I hear you about the strength and ME workouts. All that makes sense.

I will give this a try and let you all know how it goes!

Let’s go climb some mountains! 🙂

 

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