According to this months Men’s Journal, mountaineer Tomaz Humar has an anarobic threshold of 190 BPM, can drop his core temp to 73 degrees with no ill effect and was born with an extra spleen (which helps produce blood cells). Someone buy that man a bike.
Is an AeT of 190 really possible?
Seems impossible, but maybe he is a Sherpa?
A buddy of mine says he can run all day at 185 bpm. I tend to believe him since he ran a 79 min 1/2 marathon at the end of his 1/2 iron. Wish I had that kind of headroom.
Isn’t anaerobic threshold generally regarded as “where you go anaerobic” somewhere around LT?
I though AeT was 15-25 beats below this area? Where gordo says to do your endurance training.
LT, AeT are the same thing…the point at which you go anaerobic. This value is as individualized as height but it can be improved upon with training. A LT of 185 is very, very high and what an advantage it would be to work at that intensity and not go anaerobic. LT as a % of max heart rate is where it’s at. Most of the charts for training estimate it at 65-75% and occasionally more, but the actual values are from 60% to 90% for people of seemingly similar demographics and training volumes that I have seen tested.
Check out Gordo’s info on AeT. AeT is aerobic threshold not anaerobic threshold. It is nowhere near LT. AeT is 25-40 BPM below LT.
I think the drop in body temp is what impresses me the most. Took some woman the better part of a year living with the windows open and taking daily ice baths in the frozen north to get her body temp low enough to attempt the Bearing Straight crossing. As far as I know she is the only one to actually make it too. Crazy.
you should read some stuff on humar - i’ve attached a link to an article about him. the guy is absolutely unreal, no question about it.
he has incredible body control, for sure, but is also a phenomally talented climber - he’s got lots of technical skill, too. he’s also smart enough to turn around when things don’t ‘feel’ right, which is rare. if he hadn’t broken his legs (freak accident on a building site), i think he’d have some some outlandish stuff by now. after dhaulagiri he was unstoppable.
anyway, read on and be amazed:
http://outside.away.com/outside/sports/200206/200206_humar_1.html
-mike
190 is VERY high, and it would be nice to no the specifics on it.
Don’t get too hung up on heart rates. If you look at the Tour de France riders their HR’s very from 140 -180 when they do the climbs. There all at LT (if they went any higher on the long climbs, they would eventually drop off the pace) and some do. HR and LT is very individualistic, something like 4 cylinders vs 6 vs big V8’s. Example , a rider at an LT of 140 may produce more wattage than one who’s LT is say 170. It all combs down to the pump (heart muscle), plumbing (blood vessels), pressure (stroke volume) and efficiency (extent of blood vessels, blood viscosity, oxygen carrying capacity, blood vessel wall friction, oxygen transfer, elasticity of vessels, etc). An LT of 190 is very suspicious.
i just read about a guy who’s training to try to swim (briefly) in the antarctic. he’s already done some very cold-water stuff, and dr. tim noakes (my hero) is working with him, so it must be legit.
i wish i could find the article, but it wouldn’t be too hard to google. the doctors were sort-of baffled by the guy: apparently he can RAISE his core temp voluntarily BEFORE getting into cold water. he says it’s just a mental ‘psych-up’ process. really neat stuff.
-mike
That’s kinda like Bradley McGee. 195/212 = 92% of MHR. Pretty sure they are talking about the “functional” anaerobic threshold, not scientific LT.
Physiology
WEIGHT 70 kg
HEIGHT 182.5 cm
VO2MAX 89/mmol/min/kg
THRESHOLD 390-410 Watts at 195-205bpm
Av. WATTS for 4000mt Ind. Pursuit 530+
MAX REVS 225rpm (as a trackie!)
MAX HEART RATE 212bpm
RESTING HR 36-42bpm
225 rpm?!
I’m suprised that the average wattage output is so “low” given his size.
-SD
Mike (I’m Iron Mike, btw), I read that whole thing. (not worth it).
And I have one question. Where did he get this?
“a picture of the Virgin Mary”
AeT & LT are not the same. AeT is basically your marathon pace (at the fastest; according to Gordo, AeT is slower still). LT is like your 10K pace. They are NOT the same. For some athletes, like the elite marathoners, the numbers are very close, and they are also very close to your MHR, but they aren’t the same. Some of the elite Kenyans have LT’s up over 95% of MHR… That’s crazy.
I had mine tested last year and came out at 189. Believe me I am NOT superhuman.
If you dig a bit deeper into what that means, 190 on its own isn’t that indicative of greatness. If you look at it as a percentage of max, then it start to mean something.
If the guy has an AT of 190 and a max of 195, then that is totally amazing. If he’s like me and has a max heart rate like a hummingbird (212 at 40 years of age), then it loses a lot of significance.
Last time I had mine done it was 181 and I can be confused for being sub-human when you see me run.
Mike (I’m Iron Mike, btw), I read that whole thing. (not worth it).
And I have one question. Where did he get this?
“a picture of the Virgin Mary”
i’m not sure i understand anything you wrote here.
-mike
AeT has zero to do with anaerobic, let alone anaerobic threshold.
Don’t confuse AT with AeT. There is enough confusion about what AT is anyway.
AeT has zero to do with anaerobic, let alone anaerobic threshold.
Don’t confuse AT with AeT. There is enough confusion about what AT is anyway.
Could you clarify? I know my resting and max HR, everything else has been guesswork.