Get Started

Sweet!  If you’re here, that means you’re ready to start training.  Please follow the below steps.  Glad to have you on the team!  Please reach out if you have questions.  

• A smart watch with heart rate is highly recommended (but not mandatory).  A proper heart rate chest strap is also desirable.  I personally use, and love, the Garmin Fenix 7.  

• Find your Aerobic Threshold (AT 1).  The majority of your training will be based on this key  metric. Your AT 1 is the top of your zone 2 / top of your 'green’ effort.  Choose any one of the below methods to obtain your AT 1:

• 1) Conversational breathing.  The upper limit of pace while still being able to speak in full sentences /breathe through your nose for minutes at a time is a good representation of your AT 1.  This simple method allows for real-time monitoring/feedback to adjust to your body on each given day and between activities (heart rate is different for different activities).  At this pace you could chat on the phone; they would know you're exercising, but you could for sure talk in complete sentences.  It may sound non-scientific, but Exercise Physiology labs use the point at which test subjects’ breathing markedly increases for the first time in an incremental test as one way (among many) to identify AT1.   Simple is good.  If I could choose one metric to monitor my training effort it would be breath.  Hands down.   

• Pros: real time feedback.  Adjusts to your improvements through training. (one goal of endurance training is to increase your AT 1)  Heart rate can have variability (dehydrated, altitude, sick, too much coffee, menstruation, stress etc.) so it’s good to have this way to monitor AT1 if you suspect your HR is off.  Good way to monitor your pace if your watch is dead/under 5 layers of ski clothing etc.  Cons: Open to your interpretation. 

• 2) Heart rate.  It’s good to have a rough HR correlated to your AT 1.  This gives another metric to monitor your training in the moment, but also allows you to look back on recorded training sessions (Garmin, Strava, etc) as breath is typically not recorded and HR is. 

  2 easy ways to get your AT 1 HR:

  • 1) Warm up for 10 minutes.  Perform a 60 minute effort (walk, run, ski, bike) at a conversational pace (see above).  Your average HR for the 60 minute effort (post 10 min warmup) is your AT 1 HR (top of zone 2).  

  • 2) To *estimate* your AT 1 HR, take 60-70% of your max heart rate.  HR is activity dependent with weight bearing (running) having a higher HR than non-weight bearing (cycling, swimming), and 4 limb (xc skiing) being higher than 2 limb (running).  Do a max effort in the activity you’ll be training in the most, while wearing your HR monitor. A 1 to 2 minute sprint, after a warm up, will do it. Note the highest HR value during the sprint. If you don’t want to sprint, estimate your max HR: by taking 220 minus your age.  However, that’s doing an estimate based off an estimate = potential error.  My personal cycling max heart rate is 180, so 0.6 x 174 puts my estimated AT1 HR at 104 bpm.   This 60-70% method is a static population average that provides a rough starting point.  This method doesn't allow for mid-training plan re-assessments to evaluate your aerobic training (you can get the same answer even if you’ve improved your AT1 HR).  If you know you're a hummingbird, use 70%. If you're a low diesel like me, use 60%.

• Pros: easy & simple.  Cons: population average - not representative of everyone.   Doesn’t allow for re-assessments because you can increase your AT1 without increasing max HR 

For the mega keeners:

• 3) Heart Rate Drift test.  Credit to Uphill Athlete .  You’ll need a treadmill or stationary bike (or long, flat road, ski trail etc), and the ability to analyse your heart rate after the workout.   Intervals.icu makes the required post effort HR analysis a breeze!  The lap function on your watch can work as well.  Warm up for at least 10 minutes until your HR is at what you think your AT1 is (see #1). Set the bike/treadmill resistance and leave it alone. Ride/run for 60 minutes post warm up at the same effort that you ended your warm up at.  Do not try to maintain your HR, just maintain your effort (resistance/speed/incline/cadence) for 60 minutes post warm up.  Pull up your workout on Intervals.icu/Training Peaks/watches’ phone app and find the HR graph. (see video)  Highlight the first 10 minutes of the workout (not the warm up) and obtain your average HR for that 10 minutes.  Find the average HR for the last 10 minutes.  If there was a greater than 5% increase in HR from the 1st 10 min to the last 10, your starting HR was above AT1.  Less than 5% HR drift and your starting HR was at or below AT1.   You may have to do this test a couple times.

• 4) Get tested by an exercise physiology lab.  The gold standard.  They use a combination of blood lactate concentration, analyzing your expired gasses to calculate when you switch from primarily fat to carbs as a fuel source, concentrations of O2 and C0s in your breath, Rate of Perceived exertion, and breathing rate graph to find your thresholds.  You can pay for these tests, or many universities have grad students asking for volunteer test subjects. I’ve been a test subject on 6(and counting) studies totaling 30+ visits to the lab over a 25 year span. The info you get is pure gold.  Time consuming so it’s not practical for mid-season re-assessments..   

• Educate yourself with our easy to understand breakdowns of the latest training science so you can self coach and adjust your training as needed.  Continued Blog posts will help with this.

• Start training with our Training Plans.  

• Crush your goals!I