Cardiac Drift

Avoided in most cases, beneficial in others.

Your question is not specific enough.

If you re-phrase it perhaps we can answer it.

Love is fleeting.

Does that help?

heart breaker wrote:

And in what circumstances is it good or bad?

It's bad if you are working harder but getting slower. That's dehydration.

It's good if you can finish a race or hard training session faster when the oxygen demand is greatest and you aren't in danger of dehydrating.

heart breaker wrote:

Is cardiac drift to be avoided, sought after, or ignored?

And in what circumstances is it good or bad? (Long run, tempo/threshold, intervals, etc)

I’m unable to imagine why you think drift might be good. HR is either irrelevant or bad, especially bad if you obsess about it.

A drift is a slow lactate clog. You are going faster than can be sustained but the lactate clearance bill is accumulating too slowly for it to be noticeable until it holy sh1ts on you.

heart breaker wrote:

Is cardiac drift to be avoided, sought after, or ignored?

And in what circumstances is it good or bad? (Long run, tempo/threshold, intervals, etc)

Exercise physiology PhDs only please.

(Jk, hmu armchair scientists)

Exercise Physiologists? They do the bulk of their studies on individuals above average put not necessarily great athletes. Eg. They keep data on specific performances in Advanced Physical Conditioning college P.E. courses. Ask 200m/400m/800m T&F athletes. Ask 50m/100m/200m freestyle swimmers. Ask speed skaters in shorter speed skating events about drift.

I'd say cardiac drift is associated with dehydration more than anything.

heart breaker wrote:

Is cardiac drift to be avoided, sought after, or ignored?

And in what circumstances is it good or bad? (Long run, tempo/threshold, intervals, etc)

Exercise physiology PhDs only please.

(Jk, hmu armchair scientists)

Cardiac drift is a natural thing that is not avoidable when the circumstances are present. Unless you for example never run in hot weather or never push yourself in pace or distance, it can be mostly ignored. If you on the contrary do these things, just cope with it.

Since we do specific training like thresholds, intervals for a purpose (racing), then cardiac drift is part of the equation that is needed in the training since it will happen in the racing. For instance, heat (core temperature rise) drives cardiac drift. Specific training for racing in the heat will need the naturally occuring cardiac drift in the training as well.

Perceived effort is generally a more useful tool for most. However, keeping an eye on heart rate can be a useful tool to get an idea of how hard you're working. Sometimes it can help you know to ease off on the gas before you reach the danger zone too early in a workout or race.