I think there’s some confusion around how much ME to use and when to use it.

1. We usually only prescribe ME work for mountaineering in the late-Base-early-Specific period. For a May expedition, that wouldn’t be until late March;
2. Whether the weight is 55# or 63#, neither would be a Zone 2 workout. ME work can’t be judged by heart rate. What appears as Z1/2 by heart rate is actually a Zone 3 workout in the legs.
3. The gym-based ME program is intended for runners and skiers as a separate program. For them, it’s more effective in the early Base period.

I would back off on ME right now and focus on building your aerobic capacity. The bigger the base you have by late-March, the better response you’ll have to the ME work done at that time. Doing ME work for months on end is too much, and it will likely backfire.

Good question. It’s best to think of it as a dial, not a switch.

Any time you add extra weight there will be a greater ME effect. I can’t say for certain what weight would be more centrally aerobic than peripherally ME. That depends on the athlete. Even just going uphill at bodyweight will have more of an ME effect than moving across flat ground.

In our coaching, to account for ME effects, we start manually adjusting the TSS of client workouts when extra weight is only 10% of body weight. So it doesn’t take very much weight to have an effect, especially when going uphill.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that more effort means more fatigue means more fitness. That’s similar to ski tourers that set skin tracks that are too steep, thinking they’re making more upward progress because it feels more difficult. (The climb rate is actually slower.)

If I were you, I would focus on increasing my bodyweight aerobic threshold speed as much as possible. That way, when you add weighted ME work before your trip, you’ll get a bigger benefit from that work. Even at 180#, a ~50# pack is significant.

Hi Scott,

Useful input to this question which has raised a question from me.

I’ve started to add 10-15% bw to some of my treadmill sessions as I was finding it increasing difficult to walk at a 15% gradient (max I can get from treadmill) at the pace required to get into upper Z2 HR, and indeed found it almost impossible to walk sufficiently fast to get my weekly 10×3 Z3 session without hanging on to maintain balance which I feel reduces the secondary benefits to core and balance. The added weight reduces the pace for same HR making it easier to do the Z2/Z3 sessions and maintain form. Legs are working but are no way close to a limiting factor. I’m still classifying these as aerobic and not ME – am I wrong to do this. I’m also still doing 2-3 bw Z1 sessions a week.

One other reason I’m doing this is specificity. My winter days on the hill have a pack that is minimum 10% of BW, higher if ski touring, higher still if it has glacier or climbing element and considerably higher if it multi-day self-sufficient. Am I wrong to start adding weight to some treadmill sessions to closer replicate hill days? Note that this is on the back of 4 month bw only Z2 sessions.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Derek

PS – I don’t want to introduce running due to a long term achilles problem which I’m worried will tear again if I start running.

Thanks Scott – good tip re walking faster – will try it but not this week re Scott J’s advice on my other post. Good to know my option of adding a bit of weight isn’t materially impacting the aerobic benefits, but I do need to be carefully it doesn’t become too much of an ME session.