Since starting to use TFTNA’s training principles late last year I’ve been on and off with “cardio” as I usually refer to it. I usually do 3 hour stair climbing workouts at least once a week, sometimes shorter ones, but have a hard time figuring out a routine to do them consistently.

This winter I’ve had a lot to do with school and moving, so in between mountaineering and climbing excursions I’ve tried to squeeze all my zone 1 training into big days in the mountains to save time. Just from doing those I’ve noticed improvements, I can go longer without eating.

The past few weeks I’ve had time to settle back into my training program, and I’ve been building up the stair climbing volume.

Suddenly this week I noticed I could skip every other step and still only breathe through my nose. Then today I blew past my previous 1 hour stair climbing PR of about 600 meters of elevation gain. I ended up at 793 meters in an hour today, and finished at 1138,8 meters after my 1.5 hour session was done.

In contrast, the 600m/h PR was set in a zone 2 workout where my heart rate was 10 BPM higher than today. Today I went faster, at 10 BPM lower (maxed at 157) and kept going at the same pace another 30 minutes without any problem. Last 3 hour stair climbing session I did, just about 2 weeks ago, I did 1250 meters in twice the time it took me to get to 1138m today.

So, this is a long-winded way of saying I think Scott and Steve are on to something, you guys