[Scott Johnston]

Silpa;

My responses below.

2.After my 24 week plan I only do ME work last 6-8 wks before my planned trips on Stairmaster. Can I do them on a regular basis once every 10 days? Yes. I have never done Hill sprints, I am a little lost on the concept on   how to, Will read the book again. I don’t have access to any hill or tall building stairs, best I have is 4 flights of regular stairs (would that work?)  These sprints are no more than 15 seconds long so 4 flights is more than enough.  I detail in some depth how to do these in both books. Don’t try these sprints while injured.

3. I meant to say 3% Drift on my initial message.  I did feel borderline hard at my AeT . I try to get about 4-5 hrs of Zone 2 in a week and my recovery has been good. Looks like I will do better with below 145. From my understanding, training gets more polarized as you get fitter but, Since I am unable to do Zone 4-5 at this time while recovering from injury, Should I continue to train in Zone 2 or keep it below 145 ? Maybe 1-2 Z2 hikes or bikes/week and the rest in Z1.  since training at 155 is too much stress on the body. I work really hard on building my aerobic base and hate to lose it to an injury. I strength train with low weight high reps once a week (exercises from the book) and do Cham fit once a week.

One big question I have is, If I continue just Zone 1 and low Zone 2 and ME training (without any zone 3/4) would I always be slower in the mountains? True speed is directly related to strength/power.  The ability to maintain sub-max speed is much more related to endurance.  As a mountaineer, pure speed is not as much of a limiter………  But, if you can’t move fast for a short distance, you will never move fast for a long distance.  First, you need to increase your max speed with things like max strength training (not high rep low weight, that’s endurance training. Ref  Training for the New Alpinism).  Next…..  you need to develop the endurance to maintain I high percentage of the max speed for a long time.  That’s what ME and aerobic base training do.  You can improve sub-max speed with hit intensity interval training, but without a base of at least some pure speed work, you will always be limited in speed. 

I hope this helps,

Scott