Should I maintain Zone 2 on downhills
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Hello all,
Recently I purchased the 24 week mountaineering program.
My question is about zone 2 workouts on hilly terrain.
The first workout on hilly terrain says to do 1 hour. If I hike up a hill for e.g. 30-40 mins, maintaing Zone 2, on the downhill I will be below zone 2 unless I really bomb my way down.
Which is correct to do? Not worry about my HR being lower on downhills, or should I try and find hilly terrain that allows me to keep my HR in Zone 2 the entire training time?
Thanks in advance,
Zac
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Sorry cannot work out how to edit my original post.</p>
Wanted to clarify a bit on my question.The first Zone 2 workouts in the week are called “Zone 2 Aerobic – Hilly Terrain”. They don’t mention a vertical gain goal or anything about whether or not to maintain Zone 2 on downhills.
The last aerobic workout in the week are called “Long Aerobic Workout – Hilly Terrain.” The notes give a vertical gain goal, and says not to worry about HR on downhill.
So, I know not to worry about HR in the second “Hilly Terrain” workout, but I’m not clear on the first?
Thanks,
Zac
Zac:
Sorry for your confusion. This is a topic we have covered in our books, podcasts, and articles, so we sometimes forget that not everyone has seen, heard, or read this info. Do not worry about HR dropping out of Z2 on the downhills. We will make notes of this in the plan so as to not miss anyone.
Scott
Thanks Scott, hugely appreciated.
I’d read Training for the New Alpinism a couple of years ago, but had trouble finding an answer looking back through.
Some of the confusion was that the long aerobic sessions specified not to worry about it but the shorter sessions didn’t, and the suggestion to jog any flat sessions to maintain zone 2. Would be fantastic to add it to the program – and just a note, currently the first of the longer sessions doesn’t specify not to worry about it, but from the second week onwards it does say. So it would be good to also copy that across.
Trying to think about it logically, it seems there is a balance between the benefits/recovery needs between the two suggested approaches; i.e longer duration in zone 2, with concentrics only (e.g. stairmaster) v.s. shorter duration zone 2 with concentric and eccentric (uphill then back down).
Kind regards,
Zac
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