How to Conduct a Heart Rate Drift Test as Part of an Aerobic Self-assessment.

Heart Rate Drift Test
This test has become our go-to test for all our coached athletes. We like it so much that we include it as the first workout in every aerobically based training plan we offer. This article provides a full description of the test, so we won’t repeat the instructions here. We have found it to be well correlated (95+ percent) with Metabolic Efficiency Tests (the gold standard)

Our full discussion of all the self-assessment options is found in this article:
https://www.uphillathlete.com/aerobic...

Simple in concept, the Heart Rate Drift test uses the principle that when you hold an aerobic pace (below Aerobic Threshold, AeT), your heart rate will remain nearly constant for as long as an hour. If your heart rate rises more than 5 percent at that steady pace, your starting heart rate was higher than AeT. If the heart rate drift is less than 5 percent, your starting heart rate was below AeT.