Arthur;
Thanks for contacting us concerning you preparation for Rainier. The following are some observations and recommendations.
If I am reading your comments correctly you did 100 hours in 10 months. Or about 10 hours per month or roughly 2.5 hours/week of training on average. And you topped out at a round 4 hours/week of aerobic training. If this is correct I can say with some certainty that that volume of aerobic training will not be enough to move the aerobic needle much if at all unless you are terribly unfit. With the large number of people we have now coached over the past few years, we see that under about 6-8 hours/week of aerobic base training very small changes in aerobic capacity as measured by the AeT occur. Once over 10 hours we see significant improvements in a 6-12 week time frame.
My comment is not meant to discourage you. But if you’ve got ADS you have your work cut out for you and need a bunch more aerobic base training before worrying about adding ME workouts. Our use of ME is predicated upon the climber having a good aerobic base to support this hard work. Have you read this? https://uphillathlete.com/when-to-add-intensity-training/
A high basic aerobic capacity will be what allows you to succeed on your two day climb while carrying a heavy pack. It will allow you to recover well at Muir Camp so that you have enough in the tank for the summit day. This aerobic capacity quality is so important that we prioritize it over all the other training. Your event, Rainier, is going to involve more work packed into 2 days than you now are doing spread out over 2 weeks. This idea is called the “density” of training: How much work done in how much time. What base training of this sort is intended to do is improve your work capacity (make you more fatigue resistant) so that you can handle more density in your training so that the training density begins to simulate the density of work required in your event.
If you are limited to a maximum total of 4 hours/week of training that density is so far from your goal event’s requirements that I fear you will not be well prepared for Rainier. The deck will be stacked against you in that you are starting this climb at 5000ft and going to 10,000ft the first while coming from sea level.
I suggest that you try to get one multi-hour aerobic training session each week if at all possible. Try to build the weekly aerobic volume to 8 hours while doing the max strength workouts. Then add the ME weighted climbs 2x/week beginning in mid April.
Your back to back climbs on MT Washington will be a good test to tell you if the training you have been doing has been adequate.
Good luck,
Scott
