Long story ahead...just to warn in advance
So we know that HR targets are based only on maxHR and that's easy to check as it's enough to change the maxHR value and you will see the updated targets once the DSWs reset(after midnight or the day after).
For the pace I knew that it was related to the VO2max and I confirmed it more than a few times as my pace was increasing/decreasing based on the changes in the VO2max.
Some time ago I read that a user had a big change in the different paces after doing a lactate threshold test. I thought it was weird but didn't have any other confirmation about it so I just kept it as a weird case to monitor.
Moving a bit from elevation 0 to 2300m and vice versa made me a bit weird so at the beginning of this year I had some issues following my high aerobic suggestions while I was able to overdo the easy ones...all this led to increased VO2max, even faster paces that I had difficulties to follow and rare measurements of my LT because instead of doing the whole interval I was trying to be closer to the target but stopping few times. My bad, I know...the idea was always to go slower but try to do the full interval without stopping but it was what it was.
Now, I have no idea why this happened(weather? something regarding my body?) but, a few weeks ago, I had a meltdown with my HR skyrocketing and my VO2max going down many points(from 55 to 48/50). I was not surprised as the higher value was too high, at least at 2300m of elevation.
As I was expecting, my paces decreased from 5:15/km for "Base" runs to 5:35/km.
After a week of rest, I took this opportunity to follow the targets even more strictly and to avoid certain errors with high aerobic activities.
With one of the first "Threshold" suggestions I got a downgrade in my LT pace(from 4:25/km to 4:29/km)...nothing serious but it got measured let's say.
After 2/3 weeks of "Base" and "Recovery" runs due to the training load, that I need to increase gradually, and due to HRV being low, today, I had my "Threshold" suggestion again.
Pace was 4:25/km with the idea to go at 4:30-4:35/km after so many easy runs. Didn't go bad, could have been better but whatever...got another LT downgrade from 4:29/km to 4:33/km.
My VO2max also jumped from 48/49 to 50 and I was like "Damn...hopefully nothing becomes faster for the next suggestions".
I went to check my next suggestions and I saw that my "Threshold" pace changed from 4/25/km to 4:30/km...was a bit surprised, after the increase in VO2max, but was happy about it because it was going toward a more sustainable effort.
Checked a "Base" run and the pace changed from 5:35/km(stable during the last weeks as you can see from the above table) to 5:45/km
VO2max remained the same, as yesterday, with a target of 4:10/km.
Recovery changed a bit from 6:45/km to 6:50/km.
Has anyone had similar experiences, recently? Any idea if it could be related to the new LT or if it the pace changes are lagging a lot more compared to the value of VO2max? Any other idea?
My LT got an upgrade in December/January when I was back at 0m elevation and I definitely was able to follow the suggestions(high aerobic ones) or stay pretty close to them.
When I went again at 2300m of altitude I was using the target as a reference but the idea has been always to go at around 15 seconds slower and even that was not easy. But no issues in following the Base ones or Anaerobic.
At one point, my Threshold target was 4:10/km without any LT measured so I guess it was following the VO2max fake increase, so what is happening now?
Am I just making the algorithm crazy with the elevation/weather changes? I'm not going from 0 to 2300 every month but there's always something with weather changing suddenly so I'm not sure if the actual increased humidity and decrease in temperatures is affecting me too or what.
I'm not asking for a specific answer of course...just curious to see what other people thinks or if they had similar experiences.
I'm also curious to see what will happen once the rainy season ends and I go back to sunny and dry weather or how everything will update in the next weeks, as I'm paying more attention to it.
Edit.
The table is showing the 7 days schedule of DSW, on the left, and the real workouts that were suggested on the specific day.
The issue with the VO2max being too high was also helped by the fact that my HR was like blocked, at 2300m, with similar efforts having more than a few bpms less compared to 0m elevation. This changed after the recent "meltdown".
Using HRM pro plus of course.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/14870204315 Base run of 64 minutes at an average pace of 5:05/km(I pushed a bit but was feeling good)
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/16175448495 Base run of 40 minutes that became Tempo at an average pace of 5:23/km