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How to increase "low aerobic" load?

C.sco

My "load focus" is always horrendously low in the "low aerobic" category. But I don't understand how I can possibly increase it.

For example, my January load focus says:

Anaerobic: 149 (right in the middle of the optimal range)
High Aerobic: 692 (waaaay over the optimal range)
Low Aerobic: 15 (waaaaaaaaaaay below the optimal range)

This month, I have done everything from running several 5k's, to mountaineering, to casual hikes with my son.

This last weekend, I did an 11 mile hike, with an average HR of 100. How many Low Aerobic load points did I get for that? 3.

How the heck am I supposed to get my Low Aerobic points up to > 100 when it only gives me 3 points for a 10 mile hike? Am I supposed to do 270 more miles of hiking?

I did a 2 mile light jog yesterday, and got like 100 High Aerboic load points, and 0 Low Aerobic points. So if walking gets me almost no points, and jogging only gets my High Aerobic points, the result is I'm perpetually "severely" low on Low Aerobic points.

  • 0 in reply to 5727933

    For the past few years I've been trying to make sense of this and the only reliable thing I came up with was that the training load focus is based on the combination of aerobic and anaerobic training effect. If the aerobic TE gets a score over 3.5 (or lower, but with a anaerobic score of 1.0-2.0) you always end up with a high aerobic result. Your aerobic TE probably climbed to a number over 2.5 because of the duration of your run, not because of its intensity.

    If you want a low aerobic load focus, keep your aerobic TE under 3.0 and the anaerobic TE at exactly 0.0.

    https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/running-science/physiological-measurements/training-effect-samples/

    Don't forget the text at the bottom: "your experience may differ depending on your personal training habits".

    In short: Training load focus is not based on heart rate, but on aerobic TE and anaerobic TE (which are in turn partially based on heart rate).

  • 0 in reply to 4730146

    Thank you - this does make sense.

    I just worry that my watch now thinks I am training in a high Aerobic state all the time and it's preventing the suggestions from any tempo/threshold stuff. 

    Pretty useless for a half marathon plan. 

  • 0 in reply to 4730146

    This makes a lot of sense. I suppose that a long enough effort even in Z2 could lead to a high-aerobic run, which is essentially what you're saying - the cumulative impact of a longer easier run is more taxing on the body. And being at the higher end of Z2 for too long could mean you're pushing harder than at the lower end, and you'd know this is your aerobic TE pushes 3.0 and over more quickly. 

    I've added my aerobic and anaerobic TE's to my main run data screen so I can monitor them as I run. If I'm going for a recovery run, I stop at aerobic 2.4 and constantly monitor to keep myself in Z2, even the lower end of Z2. And as I stated earlier, I think it's important to maintain a <70% MHR even if your Z2 range goes over it (as it does for me with my zones set to LHTR). It's more complicated and I wish this weren't the case, but it works for me. 

    For high aerobic, if I want to go Tempo, I really watch my HR & try to keep the aerobic TE 3.0-3.5 and try not to go into Z4 at all. 

  • 0 in reply to 5727933

    If I were to guess, I think doing 10 miles might be the culprit. if you were to do a 45 minute run, whatever the distance, staying at low Z2, you should get a recovery run, and for 60 mins you would probably get a tempo run. Put another way, if you had the same stats, 96% Z2 for say 45 minutes, whatever the distance, I'd be really surprised if you got a V02 max. 

    Doing sprints for instance, I can do a painfully slow 15 min WU and 15 min CD, walk all intervals and only push myself hard for 6 minutes total, but still, it registers as anaerobic because of the high HR I hit even so infrequently. My explanation for this is the whole body has to work harder after even a few moments of stronger effort (although in such a case I find that my load is balanced between anaerobic & aerobic, even if the whole run is coloured purple and classified as anaerobic). 

    So I would say that monitoring your HR and aerobic TE throughout the run, and decreasing your distance, should get you low aerobic base runs. 

  • 0 in reply to 2606452

    How do you monitor Aerobic TE during a run?

  • 0 in reply to 2606452

    Got a 47 min base run today so I shall compare.

    What bothers me is after that 10M run it updates my daily workouts to remove the planned Threshold run it had in as it thinks I have ran plenty of that. 

    So I end up just doing base and long runs. 

  • 0 in reply to 5689391

    On my 6X Pro, I press the red button in the same way as if I'm starting a run. But instead of starting the run, hold the menu button, and select Run settings > Data screens. Select up or down to choose the screen you want to edit (or you could add a new one in). 

    Once you have the screen you want to edit, press the red button again (the 'pen' for edit I guess) and then select the field you want to change. Go to "heart rate fields" and cycle through until you find the Anaerobic and Aerobic TEs, and there's a combined one and even one with a gauge. 

    Here's a pic of mine with the combined AE/AN on the bottom: 

    pic of watch face

  • 0 in reply to 5727933

    Did 44 mins with 96% level 2. Says vo2 max benefit high aerobic. Makes 0 sense right ?

    I must stress it seems to be doing this last few weeks. Was fine when I first got it 

  • 0 in reply to 5727933

    What was your aerobic & anaerobic TE? and your pace & distance?

    if I do 45 min at Z2 it's usually 8-ish min/km and generally <5K. 

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