[lugospod]

Hi,

I purchased the 24 month mountaineering plan. In the plan I have an activity: Zone 2 Aerobic Workout with Pickups

Description: Run and/or hike on flat terrain trying to stay below Aerobic threshold. Once you have warmed up (~20 minutes), do 4×10 second “pickups”. For these you will pick up the pace to what feels like a fun, fast pace ( not an all out sprint) for 10 seconds with 3 minutes easy recovery in between each one. It’s okay if your heart rate gets above AeT during the pickups, but slow it down in between each one and allow it to stabilize below AeT before starting the next one.

Questions:

1. First sentence says stay below AeT, and later you say it is ok to go above AeT?
2. Is the “for 10 seconds” a typo, and you meant minutes?
3. If it is a typo (you meant minutes), if we are able to, can we do the whole 40 minutes (with >AeT heart rate) without pauses if we are able to? Or we have the “slow” periods?
4. How high are we allowed to go above AeT?

If there is another way to ask questions about the purchased training plane, please advise.Thank you,

Luka

[leonardthedog]

My amateur understanding is the following:
1. Stay below AeT other than the pickups, don’t worry if you go above AeT during the pickups
2. Not a typo, it’s just 10 seconds. The point of these pickups is to give your cardio system some experience running fast and then recovering while still moving. Also probably helps stimulate tendons and connective tissue to strengthen (similar to how a relatively low volume of plyometrics will stimulate this)
3. Not applicable since it’s not a typo
4. Doesn’t matter how high it goes, since it’s only for 10 seconds before you slow down and let it drop below AeT

I’ve found myself wondering about specifics on the training plan sometimes as well, but I find that if I return to the fundamentals of why a given type of workout is in the plan, I can generally figure out how to best carry it out. In this case, the workout is meant to be a base building workout, but includes the pickup intervals in order to prep for the Z3 workouts later in the plan and also train your ability to actively recover from short harder efforts while still moving. Hope this is all helpful and not more confusing!

[lugospod]

Hi Leonard,

To me, in a 70 minutes activity having 40 seconds faster tempo makes little sense. Plus, activity is 1:15h long. If you subtract 20 minutes for warmup, this leaves you 55 minutes. If subtract 4×10 MINUTES, you get 15 minutes left, which covers 3 minutes slow parts (pauses) plus cool down.

Does anyone from Evoke have any input on this?

[lugospod]

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• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by lugospod.

[leonardthedog]

Check out page 168 of Training for the Uphill Athlete, there’s a section on why they recommend incorporating 8-10 second pickups.

[lugospod]

Unfortunately I don’t have that book. I have training for the new alpinism, but I don’t see that in there.

 

[leonardthedog]

Ah okay – well I don’t wanna just copy/paste from the book into here since I’m sure Scott would prefer folks to buy it, but they talk a bit about the theory behind pickups and short intervals in the “book club” about Chapter 5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOG5cPN_vkQ&ab_channel=Evokeendurance

[lugospod]

Tnx Leonard. Went through that video, but haven’t caught any mention of pickups… 🙁 did I miss it maybe?

[eddie]

Hi Luka,

Pickups are also described here – https://evokeendurance.com/why-even-ultra-runners-need-speed-work/#Strides_or_Pick_Ups

Pickups/strides/accelerations are a runner’s thing, which I’m not, but as a climber (who runs), they’re like throwing in some campusing. The intention is to express a bit of power/strength via faster movement patterns during blocks of aerobic base building. It’s generally used to prime and prepare you for harder workouts to come.

[lugospod]

Hi Eddie,

Thank you for the reference link. In 24 month training plan, there are 4 exercises in these 6 months that mention the short “pickups”.
So if I understood correctly, I can just do that on the steep parts of the hilly-workout, and instead of slowing down to maintain the heart beat below AeT I just keep pushing for 10 seconds, and then continue with 3 minutes under AeT – and repeat 4 times.

Tnx,

Luka

[Scott Johnston]

Luka:

The term “pick ups” is the same thing as runners call “strides”.  You pick up the pace a bit to a fun fast effort, not a full sprint, just running faster during an otherwise easier run like Zone 2.  It has nothing to do with heart rate.  It to bet your legs stronger and used to making more power and longer strides.

I hope that helps.

Scott

 

[lugospod]

Thank you Scott. As this is part of the “Hill activity”, unfortunately, i have to conduct such activities by fast walking (not there yet to be able to run in zone 2 uphill), do the pick-ups matter if I am not running during that activity?

 

Tnx,

L.

[SMKS]

All of the pickups I see in the 24-week mountaineering course are specifically on FLATS.

[lugospod]

SMKS: oh you are absolutely correct, misread that part 🙂 tnx!

[Max Krause]

Hi Luka, I’m just a lurker on this forum but there’s a good explanation on pickups here: https://evokeendurance.com/why-even-ultra-runners-need-speed-work/

These are a type of speedwork more for strength rather than endurance adaptations so yes 10 seconds is correct. The heartrate is allowed to go up for that and maybe the minute after given the delayed response of heart rate. But otherwise all at/below AeT.

[Author]

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