Working on aerobic fitness in between mountaineering goals
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Hi there and happy new year!
I am currently “in between mountaineering goals” and not training for anything specific. However, aerobic fitness is definitely one of my weaknesses, so I would like to use the time to focus on improving my aerobic base and fix my ADS. What is the best approach to do this? For my last endeavor I used the 16-week-plan – can I use the aerobic training modules from the transition phase (and extend it as needed)? Should I make any modifications with regard to volume/ intensity?
By necessity, I do most of my aerobic base training on the treadmill/ stairmaster. I am seeing progress in terms of the pace I can sustain while remaining in Zone 1/2, but it is very slow (both pace and progress..). However, when I’m outside in the mountains I really can’t go slow enough to make it up and down the mountain in a reasonable time and still remain in Zone 2, so my heart rate is usually in Zone 3 or even 4 for a considerable amount of the time. Is that a problem, i.e. does it counteract my AeT training efforts? Should I modify my training in any way?
Hope my questions make sense, any guidance would be highly appreciated!
Thanks and have a great Monday!
Thanks for writing in with your questions. Let me see if I can help.
You are wise to continue aerobic base building in between mountaineering goals. There is no such thing as having too much aerobic capacity.
You can use the 16 week aerobic progression from your 16 week plan as guidance. Keep in mind though that these plans are the minimum training load we recommend. You may need more, or less. I suggest instead of following the plan blindly you assess your time and energy capacity for these aerobic sessions. Remember that the biggest stimulus to aerobic capacity developoment is volume. More is always going to better up to the point where you are not recovering between sessions.
You must also keep in mind that the improvement in aeriobic pace takes place very slowly. Since you say that are very slow it seems like that you are relatively new to this kind of training and may have aerobic deficiencey. This is something that will take many months of consistent high aerobic training volume to affect. We typically see significant improvements in pace after 6 months of 6-8 hours/week of Z1-2 training. Patience is key here.
Another contributing factor to your speed being slow when you are on a mountain is strength and movement economy. While treadmills and stair machines can build fitness, walking on rough terrain especially with a heavy pack requires strength and skills that must be developed with strength and muscular endurance training coupled with moving in alpine terrain.
All this is to say; don’t give up hope. Since I started writing about these methods, thousands of people have hd good success with them. You will too. I just takes time.
Scott
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