[Silviana Ciurea Ilcus]

I’m on the base plan, training to climb Mt Baker on Aug 18th, and I am currently on week 2 of the plan because I had a family vacation when the training group started. I chose this plan because I had COVID in Jan and despite being vaxxed and boosted and in great shape prior to it, recovering from it was rough for the first 2.5 months (my resting heart rate was 15bpm higher 3 months after COVID than it was before it…). I feel a lot better now though, I love working out and training, and I would like to try to handle more training volume than the base plan offers. I have a few questions:
1. Could I switch to the intermediate plan given my current fitness level?
2. If on the intermediate plan, can I do a run/walk progression for the aerobic workout? I haven’t run in a long time but I love it and when training for hiking expeditions in the past, I felt like running helped me a lot.
3. Is switching to the intermediate from the base plan a horrible idea? If so, is it because of higher potential for injury? Not enough recovery time built into the program for my needs? I’d love to learn more about this.

Topic

[Coach]

Coach on May 3, 2022 at 8:25 am #66505

Hello Silviana,

1.) You could switch to the intermediate plan. I am not 100% sure where your fitness is, but switching is an option.
2.) You could still do the run/walk progression, but it won’t be in the intermediate plan. It is only written in for the Base plan-you could make up a similar progression, though, if you wanted to get back into running shape.
3.) I am not sure if switching is a horrible idea as I am unsure what your training has looked like since Covid. If you are just now returning to training, I highly recommend staying on the base plan. I would add aerobic volume to some of the aerobic days but keep the rest weeks the same. For example (runs could be 45-1hr instead of 30-45) for the longer days, add an hour each week to what is planned. If you are recovering well, you can keep adding aerobic volume. Does that make sense? You could use this as a big base period and focus more on specialized training leading up to Aug 18th. August is still a ways away.

I hope that answers your question!
Best,
Maya