[Assaf Farran]

Here’s an update on my experience over the past couple of weeks:

I think I’ve made good progress with figuring out the right configuration for these workouts.

The key for me was to change my focus from my legs (are they burning yet?) to the goal of trying to cover the maximum vert with a heavy weight at a pace I can sustain for at least 40 mins.

What threw me off initially was the expectation that my legs should be ‘limiting my speed’  quite literally and quickly, but it turned out that even when carrying almost 50% of my BW, I ran of of breath long before I ran out of legs. This was also because looking for the burn, I was going way too fast for what I’d be able to sustain. I was redlining.

Once the focus became ‘max vert with really heavy pack’ I started to play around with weight/speed combinations and ended up with a 35% BW backpack + 1 KG ankle weights (quite surprising how much of a difference the ankle weights make!) and then picking a speed I could sustain for the first 10 mins and once these minutes were up … just keep going until I really couldn’t anymore and then reduce the speed but keep going. (videos of climbers with huge bags hauling sleds up Denali seems to be a perfect entertainment for these workouts. I dislike the gym but at least the stair master has a screen with youtube ;-))

Occasionally,  I’ve had to stop once to recover my breath about 25 or 30 minutes in, but only very briefly – under a minute.

I’ve yet to go over 40 minutes and may need some more tuning of the speed to keep energy for lasting longer. I guess it takes time to learn how to ‘go as hard as you can for x’ when there are many variables.

I can see (slow) progress in these sessions, but I feel like a lot of progress has happened in the long (3 or 4 hour) weighted and non-weighted hikes as a result of these higher intensity ME sessions.

Scott:

First of all, thank you for the guidance.

Secondly regarding the stair master, I know this is an old discussion with many voices but I do believe that physics say there is no material difference between climbing static or moving stairs. As long as your frame of reference is static, the stairs on the machine do not fall away from you anymore than the earth is rotating away from you. Its the same effect as running inside a moving train. Same mechanical effort regardless of which direction you run

That said, everything changes once you put your hands on the bars or hold on to anything that is not moving with the stairs. In this case, you do start to see differences in the force required. Same would apply to a treadmill etc.

 

Just:

I also found it quite surprising to note the impact taking on weight has on my sustainable pace. Comparing my weighted and non-weighted hikes (same hill, same duration) I can see that for the same target HR (AeT), taking on 15% BW means I have to slow down by about 20-25% (depends on duration – min 2hrs).

The fact there is an impact seems totally reasonable but what surprised me was just how much slower I have to go – as well as the difference between weight on the back and weight on the feet. I’m using 1 kg ankle weights in training (As a proxy for heavy boot + crampon) and it makes quite a notable difference. A lot more than an extra 2kg in the backpack.

Finally, having done almost all of my work fasted (my schedule favors early morning sessions) I found that the ME workouts (as well as the longer weighted hikes) really do need you to be fueled up properly if you want to make the most out of it. Otherwise I both run out juice early (in a very literal sense) and take a lot longer to recover. The first time I did this fasted I had to bail on all the rest of the proper work for the rest of that week and just do recovery sessions.

 

I’ll add some more notes here when/if  I have any new insights or relevant experiences.