Last night, I finally did a test I’ve been telling myself I’d do for a while.
A 30-minute, lactate threshold heart rate test.
Expectedly, it sucked.
You might also be asking, “Why?”
Well…
You might know that I have a somewhat complicated relationship with data.
Sometimes, I really appreciate it.
For one, it allows me to provide people with more specific training recommendations – even from the other side of the world.
I mean, if I didn’t have access to at least some level of data, then I can’t really do my job.
It’s one of the nice things about modern technology.
I can coach people fairly effectively in other countries just by looking at various combinations of numbers and videos.
It can also be very motivating to see tangible changes over time.
Most training adaptations move at a glacial pace – or at least it can feel that way when you’re in the middle of it.
So it can help to have some numbers that show progress.
More than once, I’ve had someone message me with how frustrated they are with their pace only to look at the data and send them a text…
“Hey, I realize you feel slow because you got dropped on the hill run this weekend, but you’re 2min/mi faster than you were a year ago at a lower heart rate. You’re making incredible progress. Your running group has been running for a decade and these things just take time.”
Which usually puts it into perspective.
So I’m not a “data hater.”
But I’m also pretty firmly on record saying, “The last thing most people need is more data.”
Which I think is often true.
You probably don’t need to stress about a small bump in your heart rate.
Something like that could have been caused by a couple ounces more or less of coffee before your run.
You also probably don’t need to worry that your pace changed by 1 second on those short strides.
That’s probably not even accurate – GPS is good, but it’s not that good.
Or maybe you stumbled slightly at the start of one of them.
Or you did them on grass instead of the road.
Or the moon was in retrograde and the wind was blowing the wrong direction.
Details like that just don’t matter.
Even if you were going to compete in the Olympics, obsessing over your strides pace would be a waste of time.
It’s not the point of strides.
And if it did matter for something that short, we should probably be using a third-party timing system – either a laser or a person with a stop watch – and a measured track.
Not your GPS watch on the street outside your house where you had to hop off the sidewalk to avoid your neighbor’s dog.
So yes, data is fine.
I actually find it really helpful.
I also see far too many people get far to granular when it comes to the numbers and forget that other things matter.
Like…
How does it feel?
Which is incredibly important – at least if you’re even remotely in touch with your body.
In fact, in some instances, it can be a better guide than certain types of data.
Which is why I did a 30-min heart rate test last night.
For the past year or so, I’ve been running mostly on vibes.
I’d track HR on-and-off, but I didn’t use it to dictate my training.
On one hand, I just needed a break from tracking things.
I tracked far too much shit for too long.
Oh, did a type-A personality get obsessively distracted over numbers that didn’t actually help him?
Shocker.
It cost a lot of money, caused a lot of stress, and didn’t really help me improve in any way – as an athlete or as a person.
So now, I try to keep track of as little as necessary – partially to avoid falling down that path again.
But over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself questioning certain things.
Maybe it’s just my social media, but I’m currently getting a lot of posts pushed to my feed about zone training.
Whether it be “zone 2” or “threshold” or whatever…
Zones all day.
Zones every day.
And yes, I realize that’s a self-propelling system.
It’s also creeped in and started to have me questioning my methods.
So I bought a new heart rate monitor and started collecting some numbers.
Sure enough, things seemed… weird.
Runs that felt “easy” to me – and trust me, I try very hard to check myself on that assessment – had my heart rate in the mid-160s.
If most estimates are to be believed, my “easy” zone should be well below 150.
Now, I didn’t immediately panic and change what I’d been doing.
Instead, I just kept going.
I kept training the way I’d been training, continuing to collect HR data.
Yet the weirdness continued.
Runs that I would have expected to be fairly moderate threshold efforts were showing up as well into zone 5.
Hm.
If I’m having a slightly strained conversation, that really shouldn’t be zone 5…
And on we went for the past few weeks, just collecting data and seeing a pattern.
Then yesterday, I decided to finally put it to a test.
I did a “30-min lactate threshold heart rate test” – which, short of actually racing a 10k or getting stabbed with a lot of needles, is about as good as you’re going to get for a lactate threshold assessment.
You warm up for about 10 minutes – or as long as you need to get moving – then run as hard as you can for 30 minutes.
At the end, you should feel pretty wrecked.
You also need to do it alone.
And it can’t be on a treadmill.
It also should probably be on somewhat flat terrain.
Then once you’re done, you look at the final 20 minutes of that 30-minute block and your average HR and average pace should be a decent indicator of your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) and pace.
It’s tough – it should almost certainly count as one of your workouts for the week.
It can also be incredibly helpful to set accurate targets if they’re something that helps you train better.
Now, what did I learn?
I learned my LTHR is around 185.
According to most estimates, that’s supposed to be my max heart rate – which clearly isn’t the case because I had it pretty well pinned there for over 20 minutes.
Now, if I’d actually been training on the numbers provided to me by my watch for the past few months…
Do you know how much progress I’d have made?
Damn-near zero.
I would have spent almost all my time in zone 1 and I would never have truly pushed myself to get better.
Instead, I’ve been running on vibes and making shitloads of progress.
In fact, contrary to what my watch has been telling me, I probably should have been pushing even harder on some of my workouts – specifically the shitty hill repeats I already hate.
Now the point of this email is NOT “Fuck data, send it bro…”
The point is, “If you’re going to use data, make sure it’s good data.”
Don’t just run on zones randomly calculated by your watch.
Sure…
They might be helpful.
You might fall in the average bell curve that your watch uses and it might provide you great advice.
Or it might also hold you back from making real progress.
Or it might push you too hard and end up missing all of your Z2 benefits.
You might – like me – be a bit of a statistical outlier, leading all of your watch zones to be a load of unhelpful bullshit.
IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:
It doesn’t matter what your zones actually are.
These numbers are largely dictated by genetics and have almost no correlation to performance.
I’ve known incredible athletes with higher and lower HR numbers.
It doesn’t help me in any way that my LTHR is higher.
It just helps me to KNOW that it’s higher.
The only way to know is to test it for yourself.
So…
If you’re going to use data, make sure it’s good.
Or else you could be holding yourself back.
I know this was a long one.
I hope it was helpful.