ME strength tapering prior to a race
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I started to transition from skimo race season to running season mid/end of March. During Skimo season, I was more or less BC skiing a lot. About 1 strength session a week (more like max strength), and some skimo intensity.
It took me several weeks to get my legs and tendons ready for real running training…and there was still lots of snow so I had to ski.
I have now completed 9 consecutive weeks of progressive ME strength circuit workouts in the gym, more or less following the Evoke ME strength program. I have been able to get in 2 x uphill zone 3 interval sessions and 1 x uphill sprint power session, in addition to many Zone 1 long slow miles.
I have a big mountain running race in about 6 weeks. On my calendar that equates to 3 training weeks, 1 recovery week, 1 taper week, and race week. The race is approximately 20 miles and 9500 vert ft of gain/loss.
My instincts tell me that I should now stop the gym workouts, and start substituting with either uphill intensity z3 intervals or more hill sprints. In the past Zone 2 tempo workouts really wore me down, so this year I have been trying more polarized training with almost exclusively zone 1 running and zone 3-4 workouts once weekly. My body feels much better than last year for whatever it’s worth. This particular race is rather unique as it is predominantly hard power hiking up very long, steep, and marginally technical ridges, and then very steep, rocky, technical downhill running. There is not much “race pace” moderate trail running.
Any advice? Thanks!
Great questions, and very cool that you have paid attention to what training seems to work well and which seems too difficult to recover from. I would recommend dropping the gym ME progression and substituting uphill power hiking intervals. They will have their own strong ME training stimulus but in a more sport-specific way and have a stronger cardiac training effect.
We normally find Z2-3 tempo training works very well with fit athletes such as yourself for increasing specific endurance. However, it needs to be controlled in terms of the volume and intensity. And it would also need to be accompanied by only Z1 training and some short speed. 1-2 Z2 to low Z3 tempo workouts in a week have proven very effective with our fittest athletes. Not suggesting you change your training at this point in your cycle. You’ve got something that is working well. I’m tossing that out there for your consideration in the future. Something to try.
Scott
Thanks Scott! Everyone who has followed your work has tremendous respect for you and your experience and wisdom. I will to continue to experiment. I think that is what we are all doing to a certain extent. Until this race, I am going to stick with 1 uphill z3 w/o, 1 z4 uphill sprint w/o, 1 z1 long run, and the rest 45-90 min z1 recovery days. I have found that 4-6 x 20-30 sec wind sprints (maybe 80-85%effort) at the end of my Recovery/Z1 days feel good and keep the muscles sharp. If I’m too tired, then I just don’t do them. Best of luck with this new venture!!
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