[andrewmorris]

Hey coaches,

 

Question on ME workouts for trail runners and ultra runners. I have read the muscular endurance article and my preferred modality for muscular endurance workouts is weighted stair climber machine workouts. My question is: how should runners progress their muscular endurance workouts? Is the goal to increase the weight carried for 1 hour, for example, or to increase the pace/step rate for a given weight? (or both?)

 

I have progressed these workouts from 40 minutes with no weight up to 60 minutes with 15% of bodyweight. I typically do them at around 50-60 steps per minute, which achieves about 200 floors/stories in about an hour (whatever that means). So should my goal to be to dramatically increase the weight carried? (say, to 40% of bw?) or should I try to increase the pace and duration of these workouts at 15-20% of bodyweight? For example, I could try to get up to 20% of bodyweight and then increase the step rate to, say, 70 spm and extend the duration to 80 minutes.

 

The reason I ask is that I am not sure that a very slow walk uphill with 40% of bw is very specific to the sport of trail running. In my mind, carrying 20% of bodyweight at a much higher turnover rate would be more specific to trail running and would carryover better to Z3 interval workouts.

 

However, poking around on the forum, this discussion has come up for mountaineering and tactical athletes and it sounds like it depends a little bit on an athletes background and whether they favor slow twitch or fast twitch fibers. For example, a powerlifter might need a higher % of bw to achieve that low-level burn in their legs. It also sounds like there are no hard-and-fast rules and that an athlete could probably take a number of different approaches and achieve good results, it just comes down to personal preference and what works for a given athlete.

 

Does that answer make sense or would you give a different perspective? Thanks!

[Scott Johnston]

Hey Andrew:

Thanks for writing in with your great question.  Below is the easy implement into the training of several world class mountain runners.

• The slow/heavy stair machine/incline trainer carries come quite early in the building phase. This is because as you note they are the least specific because of the slow turnover.  However, they are a good base for what we then layer on top.  The progression is to climb more steps in the hour 15%BW is enough runners.  We often use 1kg ankle weights in this phase which lasts about 6 weeks during which the other focuses are on increasing running volume and strength work.
• Then we move outside to hills that are 15-20%.  Start with 3×10 run up with 3min recovery between.  At the top, drop the weight, water works best and run down fast.  Can be progressed to 3x20min as you adapt.  Ankle weights can be added.
• This is done in conjunction with special steep 25% incline trainer run/hike workouts that include poles or ski erg mounted in front of the treadmill.

I hope this helps,

Scott

[LevityThroughElevation]

This is a great conversation. Thanks to both OP and Scott. I have to admit, I feel a little less confident in my interpretation of the ME “All You Need to Know” article now. Specifics: I live in fairly flat terrain and have used my gym’s stepper as well. This seemed to be the better option compared to the 8 flights of stairs my office building affords. After warming up, I get on the stepper for 25 minutes and get about 110 floors in. Body weight appears to be plenty here as my legs generally feel a low burn the entire time and pretty cooked by the end. I know you said to ignore heart rate, but as relevant to my questions below, I’m usually at 160 bpm where my AnT is 170 bpm and AeT is 155.

Two questions: (1) Am I’m moving too fast? I thought I would start adding some small amount of weight to this in my next three stretch, but I’m worried I accidentally made this a Z3 work out.

(2) I don’t have access to hills in the 15-20% range. If the treadmill at my gym doesn’t go that high, any alternatives?

Thanks in advance!

[Scott Johnston]

@LevityThroughElevation

The stair machine is a very effective and specific tool for increasing ME for going up hill.  With the numbers you supplied you are already in zone 3 on these workouts.  I think you will find them more effective if done with weight.  Try 10% BW at first.  I predict you will see a lower HR at the onset of that “burn”.

Scott

 

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