[Seth Keena]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for writing in. I applaud you for asking!

I will go as far to say that in my experience working with overweight athletes, the positive results (injury avoidance, pace, sense of wellness, etc) gained from getting more aerobically fit and stronger can be realized from weight loss (done in a healthy manner!) for less actual time spent training. Carrying mass that does not aid in locomotion is going to have a consequence to the system. With running in particular, our mass is being dynamically accelerated and decelerated for thousands of repetitions and this makes ‘swing weight’ especially nontrivial. But there is obviously a lower limit to this ideal and adjusting weight need be done with care. Loosing weight and training are not easy things to do coincidentally. I suggest having your Resting Metabolic Rate measured, sweat examined, and know your calorie demands quite well before attempting a diet with deficit, esp while training, if you’re considering doing that. Don’t rush things.

Hope this helps,

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for writing in. I applaud you for asking!

I will go as far to say that in my experience working with overweight athletes, the positive results (injury avoidance, pace, sense of wellness, etc) gained from getting more aerobically fit and stronger can be realized from weight loss (done in a healthy manner!) for less actual time spent training. Carrying mass that does not aid in locomotion is going to have a consequence to the system. With running in particular, our mass is being dynamically accelerated and decelerated for thousands of repetitions and this makes ‘swing weight’ especially nontrivial. But there is obviously a lower limit to this ideal and adjusting weight need be done with care. Loosing weight and training are not easy things to do coincidentally. I suggest having your Resting Metabolic Rate measured, sweat examined, and know your calorie demands quite well before attempting a diet with deficit, esp while training, if you’re considering doing that. Don’t rush things.

Hope this helps,

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for writing in. If you’re not doing intentional ME workouts, the gym version, treadmill or outdoor ME-esque workouts, or ‘incidental ME’, like hiking uphill with a pack to go skiing or climbing , ski touring with heavy kit, and the like, then you maintain ME by doing the gym ME. Same exercises in the workout. Depending on what you’re training for, adding more sets or more weight are common progression variables.

Resistance training can happen in the same period as ME workouts. Often folks do one or two lifts like Bulgarian split squat or front squat in an overall  moderately hard workout.

 

Hope this helps,

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Henry,

Thanks for writing in.   There are many subtleties that can play a part in slowing pace over time at the same HR. Running calorie deficit or chronic fatigue in the legs and or globally can be some reasons. You might try to cut volume by 50% for a week or 10days , calorie balance for time period, and observe what happens to your AeT pace. If you see it come up, it was likely you were in need of a rest week. You may have been over training (beyond your capacity for too long) and the only way to know this is to resume the same volume as you were and watch what happens to AeT pace. If it slumps again, it’s likely this load is too much and you need to train fewer hours.

If you’re not already, adding a few strides and/or sprints to the week could help this situation. Enforce signaling for greater leg speed and power that translates to steady state aerobic pace. Basic strength in the training is almost always a good means to maintain power for stride length.

Above are some approaches to working through this, but there are more. Likely no one perfect answer either. Also, do another treadmill test at 135bpm; no use in prolonged speculation if you can do a workout and a free test all in one and walk away with the information you really need.

Hope this helps,

Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Bryan,

Thanks for writing in. Another Month of base training is what I’d suggest too. You can continue to increase the volume as the plan has increased volume (approx 10% per week), as well as integrate a rest week. Or, you can look back at your actual hours in zones, see the increase per week (assuming it has..) and, if there was no issue with these increases per week, apply the same proportionate increases to the next 4weeks.  Listen to your body though as increasing volume is dependent on tolerance and not just fallowing formula. Perhaps another AeT test before you start this additional Base month will ensure you’re on track.

Hope this helps and enjoy the Bugs!

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for writing in. Happy to hear you’re gleaning training tidbits from the ‘cast and progressing your training. To your questions:

1) Seems plausible 143bpm is AeT/top of Z2. Whenever you have the time and the legs feel relatively fresh do another test this time targeting 143bpm near the end of the warm-up period. Treadmill based AeT tests are free and having more data will be helpful for you at this point.

2) It is very unlikely so. What’s going on is you don’t fit the formula as neatly as others and have higher AnT and max HR values than the formula predicts. Those formula are based on a bell-curve like data set but heart physiology can differ enough between individuals that you may not fit the formula exactly. Max HR is relatively easy to determine (basically, start by running fairly hard then increase effort every ~2min until you are forced to stop) but you don’t need to do one necessarily. Keep your threshold data simple and use the results of the tests as you have done them.

Likely you’ve improved movement economy and metabolic tolerance for hard efforts by way of training! For better or worse, most beginner and intermediate athletes find their hard effort performance the quickest to improve with the practice of training. The development of aerobic capacity tends to be slower. Signaling response and the associated metabolic support for hard efforts seem to positively adapt to stimuli quickly for most (not all.) Small movement efficiencies reduce the cost of moving as well. This is why intensity training is so fun! Like all adaptations, diminishing returns will eventually come, and interestingly it’s often the humble aerobic system that need growing to move the upper end level once again.

Hope this helps.

Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi CTun120,

Thanks for writing in. Sucks about the sprain. Only 6weeks out from this, 2weeks of which were still under load, is relatively fresh. If you can stairmachine at this point then it seems an otherwise rapid recovery is inevitable, assuming no major set-backs happen. Stairmachine sounds like the most tolerated and most similar to rucking and running and what would be my suggestion for modality to aim for. That and using the elliptical for fast leg speed and running-like body position; doing so might help you transition to actual running. Otherwise, time will need to pass until the foot is ready for the rigors of running, and you should let the foot tell you when it’s ready.

As time goes on perhaps treadmill jogging and short bouts of running can blend with stairmachine duration to sum total a workout’s duration. Again, you can’t force the comfort, but can slowly bring impact back into your volume.

All the best,

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Risto,

Thanks for writing in.

I typically take 50% of the machine vertical gain and apply that number to the same formula you mention (10TSS / 1000ft gained). I find the machine vert affect about 50% of that as the outdoor vert. Other coaches might have different opinions and there is probably not a perfect answer for this!

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Karen,

Thank for writing in. The reason you can’t find anything in the instructions or forum about choosing a pace is because you shouldn’t 🙂 A target HR is often the beginning point for the test. During your warm-up, get your HR to a MAF estimate HR (180-age) or the average HR you see for your ~60+ minute hikes form the past 5weeks. Alternatively, you can can target the upper limit of your nasal breathing capacity. Either way, like the test instructions say, slowly build up over ~10min until you are at one of these targets. At this point pace remains constant, along with inline, for the remainder of the test and HR is the observed variable.

Same is true for outdoor test; pace is an outcome of the test and should not be forced. You begin by targeting a HR. Outdoor test observes the relationship between pace and HR (Pa:HR) to determine AeT.

Best,

Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for writing in.

That plan is pretty good for something like the Walker. You could replace the ‘additional ice climbing’ exercises with a basic fingerboard repeaters (7sec work/ 3sec rest) workout you can find anywhere on the internet and have something a bit more specific to the Walker. Before you go, I’d suggest doing a few very big climbing days with a lot of fast climbing and transitions, gear testing, etc. Perhaps this can also be in the Alps.

Be safe and let  us know how it goes!

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for writing in.

In my experience, rolling terrain has a specific effect but one need not train on it constantly. Changing of cadence, speed , and impact from rolling terrain has metabolic and signaling consequences as well as mental demands. Pacing becomes more involved to manage and the varying fatigue sensations are different than an ‘up then down’ run. If rolling terrain need be limited in use, I suggest using it for some of your intensity workouts and during the final few weeks before an ultra.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi, Thanks for writing in.

Yes, I suggest you repeat the 4week in terms of workout type and frequency, but adjust the duration of each.  Generally speaking, re-start with your highest duration values and increase the individual workout duration in the same proportion the plan does. So, if you see aerobic base run increase by ~10% week to week, do the same. Replace the AeT and AnT tests with aerobic base of the same duration as the test.  If you begin to feel strain or poor recovery, replace volume with low-impact modality (cycling, elliptical, etc) or reduce the duration.

Come week 6 you might find the base volume easy. This is fine, but don’t change the prescribed volume very much on account of the ME and Sprint workout impact. See how those impact the week’s affect before adjusting up base volume.

The water flailing does not sound like recovery 😉 I suggest you use the shallow end of the pool, hold onto the side of the pool and gently kick legs. This eliminates the swimming technique part but gets the aqueous recovery action.

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi, Thanks for writing in.

This sounds like a circuit for alpine climbing or some similar sport.

Assessing optimal approach: You might be negatively effecting recovery for pull-ups, but to what degree it hard to say. The intended training stimulus should be considered. For example, you have roughly three phases for pull-ups; muscular endurance, hypertrophy, and maximal strength, ordered by increasing weight and rest time, respectively.  (All. these have other names.) If you intend to do a lot of these ‘combo’ workouts I suggest you ‘test’ pull-up performance without combining into a Z2 workout so you have some idea of performance without the load of Z2 during rest period. You can then decide if, and this could be phase dependent, the performance change is worth it for you.

I do suspect that the closer you are to your 1rep max pull-up weight or to the limits of your pull-up capacity, your performance will suffer greater.

If you’re accounting for the propulsion muscles’ duration in Zone-2 then you account for the time those muscles are producing Z2 cardiac demand level. Using lactate, you’d probably see about the same; elevated levels while doing Z2 stuff and not very much elevated doing DLs and pull-ups. Probably easies to wear a HRM and use the % of time you’re in Z2.

-Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Orion,

Thanks for writing in. Unfortunately there is not a spreadsheet or PDF of that plan. We understand that there are some folks who better train with those formats and  we apologize they are not available.

Thanks,

Seth

[Seth Keena]

Hi Zero,

Thanks for writing in.

How are you tracking progress in the various facets (types of strength, aerobic threshold, power at thresholds, etc) ? Is this tracking showing your overall progress? These trackings need to be comprehensive and relevant to what you’re doing and where you plan to go with y0ur training in order to serve planning ahead and determining effectiveness and rested states.

Given the grinding efforts often found with blue-collar work, I almost always see short and high-intensity workout stimulus to bring greatest efficacy to athletes such as you. Trick is to do these workouts when you are freshest and keep them focused and short. Examples are, a couple heavy lower lifts coupled with a couple upper exercises for just 3-4 sets of 3-5reps, very high recruitment. These workouts are best done after a rest day.

If you get tired you should rest enough so you feel some energy and ‘spring’ come back to your muscles. If you’re finding 3weeks of training makes you so tired you take a few days off, overall intensity sounds generally correct as most conventional coaching and plans fit a 3week build before a 1week light-load/recovery week (7days!) before returning to another 3week build. A fine and important point to this is the 1week of light-load needs to be long enough you actually recovery significantly. With you working, it’s likely you’re not doing anything but easy walks, stretching and extremely small amount of strength during the light-week.

-Seth

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