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Ask The Experts
How can I determine my Anaerobic Threshold?
John Brooks: Firstly massive congratulations to you and your colleagues on the new Training
Guide. Truly excellent and destined to become a classic training reference document and not just
for rowers either. I haven't read it all in detail yet but already I have a question on the test you
refer to in section 3.11 to determine Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) and the Anaerobic Threshold
(AT). The Maximum Heart Rate test seems pretty straightforward but I'm not clear whether in the
AT determination I should increase the workload every 15 seconds or every 90 seconds. Also,
how important is the stroke rate in these tests? Should I try to keep the stroke as constant as
possible as the pace increases or can I just use the rating that seems right at each workload?Terry O'Neill: Yeah, I'm pleased with the guide, it took a bit of time but I think it was worth it. As to
your question, the heart rate increases in direct proportion to an increase in work up to a point. At
this point, the heart rate still increases, but not linearly to the increase in work. This point of
deflection corresponds closely to the anaerobic threshold. It's important to keep the incremental
steps the same and we recommend 25 watts, which is close to 1 met.
You need to record the heart rate every 15 seconds but increase the pace (watts) every 90
seconds. One thing; if you only want to find your AT then you may want to increase the time
between each step up to 3-4 minutes. This is because at the step up, the heart rate will increase
but should come back down slightly and stabilise. Sometimes this stabilisation can take longer
than 90 seconds and so the experts use 3-4 minutes to be on the safe side.
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