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Scott Johnston
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Sophia Laukli’s win on the final stage of the Tour d’Ski up that 450m steep climb on the Alpine ski run is a really impressive accomplishment. I don’t know her or her training. However, I see that she is connected with and trained by a top Norwegian coaching program. I suspect that her summer running program is just part of her overall base-building approach, which can then be tuned to the higher intensity required in Nordic ski racing. Sophia also has a light body and small size that really helps her on courses with a lot of climbing. Nordic skiers have historically done well in off-season running, even when not specifically trained for running races. In other words, in the summer, they are just racing off their base. Several years ago, US Ski Nordic Ski Team member David Norris broke Kilian Jornets’ record at the Mountain Marathon in Alaska. Kilian needs no introduction. David is not so well known. He was a very good US skier but not world-class by any means, and he did this as part of his summer training program.
Accumulating a high volume of aerobic base training on your feet will always be helpful in any sport.
Scott
Great question. I suspect that during the down-hiking 30-40sec each lap, your HR does not drop more than 5-10 beats, which will still keep you in Z2 even though the down portions are loading the muscles eccentrically and the up bits are loading concentrically. So there will be some difference in training effect when compared to, say, spending 2 hours going up only on a Stairmaster. I’d add in one Stairmaster session a week. All that downhill that the stadium gives you is going to be very useful for going downhill in the mountains.
Keep up this training, and you will be a beast in the mountains.
Scott
The reason we suggest wearing stiff mountain boots for some of your training is because of the rigidity and lack of ankle flexion as compared to running shoes or light hiking boots. The weight is a much smaller factor. Hiking in stiff boots is far less economical than in shoes that bend like your foot does. You do not need to wear $800 Everest boots in your training. Just something stiff like a summer mountaineering boot.
Scott
Thanks for your question. The ME workouts are designated as such. The long weighted hikes are not intended as ME workouts. I’m not sure what the UA site site says about ME. There is a good chance they have changed what I originally wrote. For a complete discussion of ME, I suggest you read this article https://evokeendurance.com/muscular-endurance-all-you-need-to-know/
The ME workouts use a very heavy weight. Heavy enough that the local fatigue in your legs is the limitation to how fast you can hike very steeply uphill, not your breathing or heart rate. The long weighted hikes with 10 and then 15% of your body weight are aerobic capacity building training, not ME workouts.
We do not use long hikes with heavy packs and have never recommended that sort of training. We do not use that for any of our mountaineers or our military athletes (who have to carry considerably more weight than mountaineers. Over the past 20-some years of coaching this stuff, we have found that the combination of the very heavy ME sessions (done as per the instructions) and long, moderately weighted hikes produce the best results with the least chance for injury and overtraining.
I hope this helps.
Scott
Great question;
You can add in climbing sessions to this plan. If the climbing session is mainly to get volume at your on site grade or lower then doing this in the PM after an Am aerobic run or hike is fine. However, if you plan to do hard bouldering or working a project or red point attempt then the climbing should come when you are most rested. Like in the AM with the easy aerobic workout in the PM. Or, doing the hard climbing after a rest day.
I hope this helps and good luck with your training.
Scott
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
Yes, I think that is a reasonable interpretation. Frequency and duration both matter of course but if you are limited by time constraints then frequency is more important.
Scott
Jim:
Thanks for writing in with your questions. I see a very positive trend here but first I have a question: I assume that it was 6 weeks between rounds 1 and 2 but how much time elapsed between the three tests 1,2 and 3? And how much time between tests 4,5 and 6? Since these tests are 1 typically hour long I am concerned that you did 3 consecutive hours of testing in each round.
The good news is that when we compare test 1 to test 4, test 2 to test 5 and test 3 to test 6 in every case you are doing the same amount of work at a considerably lower heart rate. 5bpm drop during the second half of the test when testing at 1.8mph, a 22bpm drop testing at 1.6mph during the second half and when testing at 1.4mph there was a 19bpm drop in the second half of the test.
Thinking about this for a metabolic stand point: This shows that your aerobic metabolism is significantly better at processing O2 now than 6 weeks ago. Look at the starting heart rates. It now only takes 108 vs 121bpm to move at 1.6mph Similarly it now takes 101 vs 117bpm to move at 1.4 mph. To me this indicates that training with 120 as your upper limit has resulted in text book improvement in your aerobic capacity.
I suggest redoing ONE test where you use a starting HR of 115-117 (the starting HR in test 3). Adjust the speed during the warm up so that HR stabilizes there. Email me your results at Scott@evokeendurance.com
Scott
While it would be nice to get in a couple of 90 minute sessions through the week, if that is not possible then daily 45 minute sessions as Brian said is probably going to be best. Frequent stimulus to the aerobic metabolism gives the best results. If at all possible to sneak in one longer session on the weekend that’ll pay big dividends.
Scott
Nick:
I’m glad that info helped. The only reason I can figure that most labs don’t allow enough gradual warm up time is that they are trying to maximize the $/hour they get from the tests. I would hope they understand well enough that the aerobic metabolism takes many minutes to come to full capacity and if you rush it with too fast a ramp rate or too short of a warm up you will miss the lower threshold.
I also prefer field tests to lab tests. Especially if you have a lactate meter.
Keep up the good work! This stuff is not rocket science and just understanding a few basics will get a long way.
Scott
Yes, this approach seems perfectly reasonable. The training must fit your schedule first and foremost because being able to do the work consistently is the only way you will see results. Something to keep in mind about this plan or any “stock” training plan is that it is a one size fits all approach. Which means it probably won’t fit anyone perfectly. That is the reason we provide so much educational material in the books and on the site. With that knowledge we want to empower you to make adjustments to the plan as needed. Those adjustments can be due to scheduling challenges or fatigue. So, pay attention to how the training is affecting you. Are you seeing a slow and steady trend of progress (despite some days being not so great)? If so then you are doing about the best you can without a coach.
From the sounds of it you are think about this in the right way. Keep up the good work.
Scott
Josh:
Yes, I would recommend adding in sustained Z3 on longer runs. Dip your toe into this cautiously as you need to see how that added stress combines with what you are already doing. Start with 20min during one of your normal 1 hour runs. Increasing Z3 volume in these shorter runs will be safer. It may well be that after a few weeks of that you will feel confident to bump up Z3 volume in a couple of runs and even during a longer run. This will be some very specific training if your goal is trail running.
I hope this helps.
Scott
AeT can vary depending on grade. The only way to know is to test. I’m not sure why this happens. My theory is that it is combo of femur length and leg strength. Those with long femurs tend to see a bigger difference as the hill steepens. They will often be fast up until some critical steepness and then boom, they see a non-linear increase in HR as the grade goes up. We often test both and I would say we see something like 50% of runners have a pronounced non linear increase in HR to grade at some point. This happens at lower grades with those with long femurs.
Scott
Nick:
Welcome back to training. Let’s see if we can keep you from getting injured. Add back hill sprints and strides 1x/week each. Include the gym ME program 1x/week for at last 10 weeks and longer if you have time. Read the ME section of TftUA or the ME article on our site for more info. That will increase the strength of your connective tissue as well as making your legs more fatigue resistant. Both will help you with injury proofing. would then integrate. After the ME I would move to long sustained Z3 uphills. This can be done on a treadmill (better on an incline trainer) or stair machine. A marathon with 8k of vert will include a bunch of hiking. Doing extensive Z4 on pavement unless you have a strong running background is asking for trouble. You can do a much higher volume of Z3 work with less global fatigue and injury prevention. And, it is more event specific for you. If you do som e Z$ it should be uphill as well. But I would do 10:1 Z3:Z4 volume for these races.
Scott
There is no formula for zone adjustments when moving altitudes. However there will be a significant difference in AeT at these three elevations. The approach we use in cases like this is to test at the different altitudes. If that is too much hassle, based on my observations I would reduce AeT HR 5-10bpm from your 8000′ testing altitude when at 10k and raise it by 15-20 when training at 4k.
Scott
