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Josh Gray
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Seth,
Thank you for such a thorough and detailed reply! I’m gonna do my best to keep it from flaring up again with your recommendations and see where I’m at leading up. Thank again!
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Building up to that first ME session I had been doing a lot of unweighted training on a 30-40% outdoors and a few times with a 25# pack. I just guessed on that 40# being adequate & just pushed my speed to what seemed a hair below my speed on previous steep hill sessions. I’m sure you’re getting a great ME effect cuz that’s a ton of weight! but depending how fast you plan on moving in whatever goals your working towards you might want to adjust things. I ended up sticking with 60# and just increasing my speed to get more vertical in. I was training for backcountry mountain hunting and wanted to be able to motor uphill if I needed to with a 40# pack. It def did the trick and I ended up packing out three 85-100 lb loads even though I only worked up to 60#</p>
I’m also curious about this… Considering adding some Stairmaster sessions finished with 30-40 minutes running outside on flats to increase my aerobic volume without the added impact of running downhill (still getting my long run in the mountains)
Thank you Scott,
I will scale back things with the ME and see how things go. Regarding the hill sprints, I’m curious if it’s possible I’m still neurologically wired to exert that maximum force/speed from my background hence it feeling so intense. I also feel maybe I’m exploding too much in the dynamic portions of the ME session
I’m no coach or expert. But speaking from recent experience, I think you may have started with too much weight. This past summer I did my #0 ME session on a stairmaster starting with 40# and completed 1800 steps in 30 minutes. My HR was right below my AeT but still had that solid leg burn. I came into that first ME workout after accumulating a lot of vert in my max strength period. By session #6 I was up to 60 lbs for 75 minutes at that same pace & HR.
Regarding DOMS with uphill ME I didn’t have much compared to the gym based ME which wipes me out for 2-3 days.
Most often the sled push or pull is used in place of steep hill sprints, particularly is there is limited access to a very steep hill with good footing. Typical prescribed workout is 8×10 second all out sprint with a full 2-3 minute full recovery
Eddie,
Thanks for the kind words. I hunted some as a youth-probably the not so good kind you’ve experienced- eventually moved on and spent my adult life as a climber/mountain runner and have only just recently returned to hunting. I’ve come full circle now and have a different ethos and respect for the wild places I go and the living things in them. Which really has shaped the style of hunting I gravitate towards and has been an incredibly rewarding and humbling pursuit for me now.
Thank you for the advice, I can get in the weeds pretty easy and miss the big picture. I’ll scrutinize it with Scott’s words going forward 😊
I’m very interested in the coaches views on this question as well. I will say one thing from personal experience. I had some good success during one of my blocks this past year incorporated tire sled sprints on a mellow hill not far from my house immediately followed by a shortened max strength session (3 work sets for two upper/lower couplets)
From someone who’s actually in my final 4 week block of ME I can attest to less is more when it comes to heavy pack training For the first 4 weeks of the block I was doing 1 ME Pack session either on a stairmaster or a 40% hill with 18-23 kg and on the weekends doing a long trail run on day one and a steep hike with just 10-12 kg for day 2. This final block I’m still performing one ME session on steep hill with 27-28kg and on the weekend back to back steep hikes of 800-1200 meters with a 14kg pack (my goal pack weight for my event) and I don’t really get tired at all on these B2B sessions. 1x ME a week with a heavy pack has been an incredible stimulus that has really blown me away with the performance I’ve gained in such a short time. I’m moving uphill with a 14kg pack as fast as I was unloaded 3 months ago at a lower perceived effort and feel like 18-20kg wouldn’t really wreck me like it would a couple months ago
I’m following the 24 week mountaineering plan and am in the final weeks where there is only one short max maintenance workout a week. In my max strength period I worked up to a 170# step-up for 5×5 and 150# lunges for 4×4 twice a week. For the past 5 weeks I’ve been doing 3 sets of 5 reps for step-ups and lunges at those same weights and they actually feel easier each week. I was skeptical about maintaining my strength with only one workout that lasts just 50 minutes including my warmup but have been happily surprised.
A good example for me personally following Evoke’s mountaineering plan is I did an 8 week block of max strength ( with gym strength & sled sprints with mostly unloaded runs and steep hikes) which increased my pool of available muscle fibers then moved into a ME block where I’m carrying a heavy pack up steep terrain utilizing those muscle fibers in a sport specific way while just doing a small of amount of strength. The uphill fitness gains I’ve made in just a short time have been profound using these specialized blocks.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>One other thing I’ve heard Scott mention is that the ME effect you gain will last about as long as the block you trained it before tapering off. So after an 8 weeks block of ME you should still see the benefits for another 8 weeks in a Z3 block with no gym ME training</p>I think you nailed it. Basically it’s a form of block periodization where you alternate between the two modes and will improve with each new block.
Max, a good cheap option for hill sprints is using an old car tire. You can almost always grab one for free stacked behind car dealerships (they just trash them) drill a hole and put an eye bolt through it and attach a rope. On flats to 10% grade you’ll need to add weight inside it to get the right resistance if you’re just using one tire. I use it on a 10% dirt road near my house and it’s perfect with a 25-30 pound sandbag inside the tire.
I know you asked Scott to clarify on the zone 3, but I believe the goal of swapping out the ME for Z3 is because the Z3 is much more sport specific and allows you to take the gains that you’ve made from the gym ME converted them into real uphill running performance.
