Dimitri
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The following chart represents the measured test’s HR, clustered by my personal HR zones (colors). It illustrates the “clogging” effect:
Red: Zone 4
Orange: Zone 3 (in which I was supposed to stay during the majority of the test)
Yellow: Zone 2
Green: Zone 1
The first 7 minutes of my test were performed within Zone 4 (i.e., way too high). During this time-lapse, I was producing much more lactate than my body could clean or vacuum. Consequently, I “clogged” (i.e., accumulated too much lactate in my muscles). As I couldn’t sustain such a pace (precisely because the lactate level was too high for my body to work properly), my body reacted by forcing itself to slow down (in order to be able to clean the lactate excess through the lactate shuttle, which is precisely situated at the top of my zone 2). Consequently, I only stayed 2 to 3 minutes in Zone 3; as such pace was not sufficient to clean the excess of lactate precisely because I accumulated too much of it during my initial Zone 4 effort. The rest of the test shows a slow decline into Zone 2 until steady-stating at the middle of my Zone 2 (approximatively at 155 HR for me). If I had started the test at the bottom of Zone 3, the lactate production would have been low enough for my body to clear it by using this metabolic byproduct to propel my muscle fibers. But this is not what happened, as I started too hard. As a final consequence, I could not even reach the performance that I was supposed to reach by only using my aerobic metabolism (i.e., staying in Zone 2 — which corresponds, for me, to gain circa 1260 meters of elevation per hour). I was thus supposed to gain more than 1260 meters per hour at my AnT. But this is not what happened. The funny thing was that, during the effort, I was not able to explain what was actually happening: I was not feeling out of breath (I was mainly in the middle part of my Zone 2), and I did not feel that it was too hard in terms of muscular endurance (no burn in my legs or whatsoever). It was like a bad dream in which you are unable to run at your desired speed 😛
Pragmatic lessons:
1. Pace yourself (i.e., stay at the low part of your supposed Zone 3 to start the test, and then increase a bit the effort if you feel you can do it),
2. Select a path that is similar to the training environment you’re used to.
I agree with you; the steepness of the slope is part of the explanation. But even more relevant is the fact that I “clogged” myself. This is what my coach told me, and it makes perfect sense. Here is a very interesting article written by Scott Semple that explains the phenomenon:
In summary, I went too hard at the very beginning of the test (too hard, meaning even higher than my AnT), and therefore, I was producing more lactate than my body could eliminate. When this happens, the body forces you to slow down in order to use the lactate shuttle to eliminate the lactate excess. The rest of the phenomenon is explained in the article: “To speed the clearing process, extremely slow speeds are required. So, in a race context, if you start too fast, your average speed for the event will be much slower. If you start without the burst, you avoid the initial flood of lactate and the slow reabsorption period.” This is exactly what happened. My system was overflowed by metabolic byproducts (mainly lactate). Consequently, I was forced to slow down at a much lighter pace than my AeT.
It is funny to witness how this phenomenon destroys performance. During my last AeT test, I was able to climb 1260 meters of elevation gain in one hour. During this failed AnT test, I “only” climbed 1080 meters of elevation gain in one hour. And, of course, when you run at AnT, you’re supposed to perform better than when you run at AeT.
