[Scott Johnston]

Josh:

Sorry for the delay in responding. It has been a busy month at Evoke. If you have the terrain for it or access to a stair master, I would recommend doing the ME work by carrying a heavy pack steeply uphill. This is more event-specific.  It sounds like you have done a good job on the aerobic base-building part of your program and couldn’t be too far off your strength and ME training, either.

You might find this article interesting.  https://evokeendurance.com/aerobic-training-for-the-military-athlete/  You will see why our methods are so successful for the military athlete.  Marksmanship is a fine motor skill.  Fine motor skills are the first things to degrade with central nervous system (CNS) fatigue.  Long-duration events like carrying a heavy pack for hours in rough terrain greatly impact the CNS (try threading a needle immediately after a long run).  Improving aerobic endurance is the surest way to improve marksmanship in a fatigued state.  So many of the backcountry hunting fitness programs I see are nothing but CrossFit for hunters and completely ignore the need for a big aerobic base.

I hope this helps.

Scott