[Mick]

I am a long time listener of the podcast, and have read and own TRFTUA, but I have given myself too much information I am afraid.

I am a 55 YO guy in a plains state training for a fall race with 11,000 feet of vert in 50 miles. This will be a tough race for me. I have listened to one of the Luke Nelson podcasts about doing extended periods of ME training. I also heard one of the podcasts for aging athletes, that it is not a bad idea for us older athletes to include additional strength training in our week.

Soooo, while I am considered a “Masters” athlete, my running age is relatively young. I have been running for about 7 years, but this will be the hardest race I have attempted. I have completed a 50 miler previously on a standard running plan. I peaked at about 40 miles per week, and ran a 50k a few weeks before the race. My general strength is good, since I train strength harder in the winter. I also work at a fairly physical job, for what that is worth…

So my question is this, how long can I see benefits from prolonging the “Base” and ME training? I think on the Luke Nelson podcast 16 weeks was mentioned. The only option I have for any steep vert within 2 hours of my home is lake dams, and I am currently 27 weeks from my race. I have done the gym based ME training last week, and this morning,. and included a dam workout last Friday. I had some DOMS from the gym program last week, but I seemed to recover ok doing zone 1 type runs the next day.

I want to be clear, I am training to finish this race, and prepare myself for future endeavors. I have no delusions of grandeur.

I hope that my problem is clear? Any advice would be appreciated…..

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 12, 2022 at 8:44 pm #67088

Hi Mick:

Thanks for writing in to the forum with your question. Give that you live in what we call a “terrain challenged” place you really do need to rely on the that gym based ME progression when you have a goal event like yours. Since you have the dam I would recommend doing 1x/week of the ME program and 1x/week of hill sprints on the dam since it is probably relatively short and steep. You can read about hill sprint detail in the book. This is a combo I use a lot with runners I coach and it has proven very effective. There is no more specific strength/power training for runners than hill sprints. I have seen the benefits of the ME training block continue to show gains for about as long as the block of training lasted. I typically use the ME until about 6-8 weeks before the race and then switch to uphill intervals for 4-6 weeks. These will help maintain the ME gains but give some needed cardio vascular benefit. These can be done on a treadmill or better yet incline trainer. Then a 2 week taper.

I hope this helps.
Scott

[Mick]

Mick on May 14, 2022 at 6:13 am #67154

Thank you so much!