Macrocycle Selection & A Few Noob Questions

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #49542
    Alex
    Participant

    Hello everyone! I’m in week #8 of my transition period and I’m writing here hoping you could point me into the right direction with choosing the macrocycle most suitable for my goals.

    Here’s my background:
    – first time following a structured training program for endurance. Not my first time training regularly tho.
    – I’m a 32yr old, Category 1, fat-hlete (planning to lose about 16kg in the next few months)
    – The trail I train on is ±450m D+ and almost 6km long (car to car)

    And some numbers for week #7 of the Transition Period:
    – Total hours: 10:02 (skipped a Core & General Strength session due to an unplanned errand).
    – Ascent: 2256m
    – Distance: 37.66km
    – Workout grades: A-. Workouts felt good. Haven’t had any problems completing them. Legs a bit sore after the long workout but nothing crazy.

    My goals for August 2021:
    – A 45km run with 3000m D+.
    – Enjoying the summer in the Alps, climbing some easy-ish 4000m peaks in a day (most of these require 2500m D+).
    – Ideally I’d like to have 4000m in my legs but I don’t know if that’s too lofty of a goal.

    I was wondering if I should choose the “Cat 1, Preseasons Skimo Progression” macrocycle or the “Cat 1 First Time 50k” one. Or somehow mix them?

    Due to COVID, sometimes the government shuts down movement between cities and I can’t make it to the trail. Sometimes it’s just pouring rain and the trail is prone to landslides. Are there any guidelines regarding substituting Vert for Distance? I live in a hilly area but in order to get the same amount of Vert I’d have to considerably increase the Distance as well.

    Sorry for the long post! If you’ve made it all the way here, thank you very much for reading and I’d love to hear what you think.

  • Participant
    trygve.veslum on #49623

    Hi,
    first off Im wondering what your main goal is; the 45km run or the 4K-peaks in the alps?
    If the latter, I`d recommend the 24-week Mountaineering plan since it includes for eg pretty long days back to back which is highly relevant for long days in the alps. It also includes progression wrt carrying weight during these runs. The strenght workouts emphasizes upper body also for a bit longer than the UA plans do which is relevant for climbing/scrambling.
    This plan assimilates more the plans in TFTNA than UA. Im sure you will get super fit following the UA plan you suggested (I have both books and the 24wk plan), but the 24wk plan is even more specialized towards mountaineering Id say depending on their technicality and how heavy of a backpack youll carry. For FL mountaineering the UA plans are perfect.

    Please, anyone, correct me if Im wrong here.

    Wrt vert, do you have any hills where you can condense down the distance while getting a good amount of vert? Im thinking laps. Remember the FKT-holder of the PCT and AT, Karel Sabbe, who is from Belgium which is flat as a pancake. He accumulated hundreds of vertical meters by doing so many laps on a local hill that even got named after him. Or John Kelly who lived previsouly in Boston who did some insane amounts of vert on a treadmill and a local 30m-hill – he is one of the few Barkaly finishers. I live in a “flat” place myself so I`ve lost count on how many laps I did on my local 100m-hill – but it works!

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #49941

    In addition to the local laps idea, substituting the occasional flat run (based on duration) for an inclined hike (based on gain) shouldn’t be too much of a negative. It may even be a good thing if it helps recovery.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.