[Gabe]

I got a disappointing result from the AeT drift test at the start of the big vert plan, pointing to possible ADS. I have successfully done an 8 week transition up to this point, and I am ready to do hill sprints. My big concern is the weekly ME workouts. My goals (not races) all have significant elevation change, but I know that tackling ME workouts with ADS is not ideal. Should I switch to a plan that more resembles the intro to ultras plan? Or should I delay the introduction of ME for a month but keep everything else the same?

Thanks!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 1, 2020 at 1:13 pm #41081

…I know that tackling ME workouts with ADS is not ideal.

It’s not ideal, but it’s possible. Just keep the total time under ME load to less than 5% of your 4-week average weekly volume. So if your previous 4-week volume was 40 hours, the weekly average would be 10 hours. 5% of 10 hours is 30 minutes.

I’ve found this to be a good rule of thumb for two reasons:

1. It’s a conservative amount, so it’s less likely to make ADS worse; and
2. It makes athletes earn their high-intensity with greater supporting volume. Earn the burn!

However… fixing ADS should be your top long-term priority. So I would focus on that above all else and limit all high-intensity (including ME) to the last four to six weeks before a goal event. If you don’t have a date-specific goal event right now, your time is better spent fixing ADS.