Thoughts on AeT Training

Rich's response to an article post here on TrainingPeaks.
If you like, you can participate in a more detailed discussion in the EN Forum

I think it's a complicated way to explain a phenomenon many of us have seen for years and then propose to use that as a training metric or tool. I call it your HR getting more "sticky" as you become more fit. When you come back from a long layoff everyone has seen how your heart rate, PE and watts/pace can be out of whack. In other words, you're riding your bike and you feel Ok, but yourlook at your HRM and its shows a Zone 3 effort. So it feels Zone 2 but HR says Zone 3 or 4. There is a disconnect or "decoupling," as Joe refers to it. As you become more fit this disconnect decreases and Joe's position is that we can use this as a training metric. More specifically, the movement of this decoupling below x% indicates that we now have permission to move on to other training.

I see this as a rehashing of the "you gotta wait to get faster" style of training. It also ignores (unless I'm misinterpreting the article) the science that says the Number One indicator of fitness, at all ability levels, phases of training, whatever, is watts/pace/speed at lactate/functional threshold. I can most easily explain this by using two athletes.

Waiting Walt
Walt throws a leg over his bike or laces up his shoes, does his training at AeT as Joe describes for the prescribed time periods. To frame Walt in our language, his FT at the start of this is 220w and his 10k pace is 8:00. In the beginning he experiences this decoupling. He tracks his data, the gap between the line decreases and at some point the data says he has put in enough time to enter the Build phase, to train more intensely, most likely.

Get Faster Today Tom
Tom's game is much simpler. His FT is also 220w and 10k pace is 8:00. He is completely focused on watts/pace/speed at FT or LTHR. He experiences the decoupling that Walt experiences...but he likely notices it less because he's focused on the objective data of pace and watts. On the bike, he might set himself of goal of x'/wk at Functional Threshold, increasing the watts he dials in on those sessions as he sees his FT increasing through the data in CycingPeaks. He does similarly on the run, focusing on T-pace per Jack Daniels, but is much more cautious than on the bike. He knows that running intensity is more risky than cycling intensity. He still does it, he's just careful.

At the end of 8-10wks our two heroes meet for some field testing and then have a beer afterwards to discuss their training and where to go from here. Walt's data shows that his heart rate is coupled and he can now move on. His FT is 225w, maybe 230w, and 10k pace is 7:45-50. Tom, on the other hand, has lifted his FT to 235-240w and his 10k pace is closer to 7:30. His heart rate has also coupled, though he has to ask Walt to manage the graphs for him, cuz he hasn't tracking it.

I walk in, sit down, pour myself a Newcastle and give our heroes my observations (folks, I think the cold medicine I'm in on is beginning to kick in ).

• With regards to HR's coupling or whatever, our two heroes are both in the same place: sticky heart rates, PE and HR are aligned, etc. Walt was tracking this diligently, holding himself back and sitting at the prescribed intensity. Tom is there too but it "just happened," he didn't pay attention to it.
• However, as Walt and Tom enter the next phase of their training Tom has a 10-15w and 15-20" head start on Walt. That's a lot of catchup, folks. In my experience, even if Walt gets on board the Tom train, Tom will continue to increase this delta even more because he "gets it." He has learned that work works, he's not afraid to work, and he has a significantly different perspective than Tom on what work truly is. Walt's experience, when riding with Tom (mostly likely on his wheel) will be WTF!!!
• More commonly, especially if Walt and Tom are training for Ironman, they now realize (or their little spreadsheets tell them) that they now need to start putting in the volume to get ready for the race.
  • Walt: is now trying to build "fast" at the same time he is trying to build "far." He cannot manage the two simultaneously and spends his lunches sleeping under his desk (I've been there). This is where the Friel Base 1, 2, 3, Build 1, 2 model falls apart, at the IM distance. I learned this first hand as early as 2001.
  • Tom: he has built "fast." He has more flexibility to separate his fast training from his far training. If he wants, he can consolidate his fast, focus on his far, and introduce bits of fast training into or around his far as he assesses his fitness and recovery from day to day. Hell, he has a significant head start on his buddy Walt!!

Folks, I have seen this exact situation played out hundreds of times, year after year between my athletes and their training partners.

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