[Coach]

Hello Everyone,

Carolyn and I wanted to create further dicussion around the different training plans! This thread will be a place for questions and comments, those who are on the Intermidate Plan.

We would love to hear goals, funny stories and answer any quetsions you may have!
-Maya and Carolyn

Topic

[Hannah Estrich]

Hannah Estrich on April 23, 2022 at 1:54 pm #66078

Hi all! Thanks for starting the discussion Maya! I’m on the intermediate plan and super excited to get started. I’ve been an avid hiker/backpacker my whole life and just got into climbing/mountaineering a few years ago when I moved to Seattle. It’s very inspiring to hear everyone’s goals in this group 🙂

Until now I’ve mostly self-trained with mixed results. My goal has always been to just get out as much as possible on the weekends in increasing distance and length throughout the season. I’m really looking forward to seeing the results from a focused training plan like this. I’ve never done much strength training, so I think there is a lot to gain there.

One question I had was about overall training hours. I hike almost every weekend and will likely always be out longer than the scheduled sessions on Training Peaks on one day per week. Is it okay to have one longer aerobic day and 3 shorter days? Should I shorten the other days or eliminate one of the other days to make up for the one long day? Or is there a benefit to having 4 aerobic days? Just curious how to best to balance the longer day with the rest of the training.

Thanks!

[Coach]

Coach on April 25, 2022 at 6:33 am #66101

Hello Hannah,

Great question! There is a benefit to having more days of consistent training rather than just getting in those hours in any way possible. If you are used to doing bigger days I would recommend you try the program as is and if Saturday sneaks up a little bit but you feel like you can recover well then go for it. If you start feeling tired and you can’t let go of the longer weekend days you can shorten the other aerobic days but try to still get out the door for at least 20min the other three days 🙂

This article talks about why training through the week is important, I thought you might find it interesting: https://uphillathlete.com/the-weakened-weekend-warrior/

I hope that helps!
Maya

[Hannah Estrich]

Hannah Estrich on April 25, 2022 at 10:34 pm #66170

That’s an excellent article and very helpful explanation! I have definitely been a weekend warrior thus far and am excited to see the affects of a more consistent training approach this year. Thanks Maya!

[Pia Lichtblau]

Pia Lichtblau on April 26, 2022 at 2:00 am #66174

Dear Coaches,

when I look at my Trainingpeaks account it shows me that my level of fitness (the CTL) is constantly declining during the program. Shouldn’t it be rising? And do we learn something about the fitness ramp rates mentioned also on my dashboard?

Thanks a lot!
Pia

[Coach]

Coach on April 26, 2022 at 8:31 am #66180

Hello Pia,

We will be covering CTL towards the end of the program once everyone has enough data for the talk to be useful. If you have been using training peaks a while this type of training may be different from previous workouts and showing a decline in fitness. Remember Training Peaks is just a tool and never tells 100% of what is going on. Additionally if you are looking at the projected CTL you can ignore that because it doesn’t actually know what the TSS scores are going to be in the future since you haven’t done the workouts yet.

I hope that helps!
Maya

[Pia Lichtblau]

Pia Lichtblau on April 26, 2022 at 1:00 pm #66190

OK thank you!

[Mia Kilborn]

Mia Kilborn on May 10, 2022 at 1:14 pm #66984

Warm ups!

Sorry if this has already been asked, I can’t search forum posts with the website re-design. The aerobic days we have are structured 10-20 min warm up, 30-40 min exercise, 10 min cool down.

I haven’t warmed up for anything since high school track. Questions:
– Any suggestions for how to spend this warm up time? I’ve been running even slower than the pace for just under the AeT. Sometimes I walk for 5 if I’m just getting off my desk chair for the first time all day. Is that the idea? In high school we did a skipping-based dynamic warm up that would definitely put me over AeT… but I also only ever was a sprinter during those days.
– How do I decide if I do 10 or 20 minutes? 20 seems super long to me, but maybe I need it? Not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 10, 2022 at 5:46 pm #66988

Hi Mia,
Great question, warm up needs vary from athlete to athlete due to age, training volume (fatigue on board at the time), sitting all day, you get the idea. Hence the window of time. So you have to go a bit by feel but you should feel ready to run.
I’d suggest a brief bit of walking to warn your heart and lungs you are going to move a bit especially if you’ve been at a desk, maybe a set of 10-15 leg swings, front to back, side to side, a light little jog in place for feet and ankles, then a slow jog 30sec/walk 30 secs a few times through, see if anything is talking to you. Maybe a light calf stretch keep it mellow, then ease into an easy jog zone one. At that point 8 – 10 minutes have gone by and if you feel ready to run fabulous, if you need a bit more jogging to feel the motor turn on do that then pick up the pace a bit. I hope this helps!

[Mia Kilborn]

Mia Kilborn on May 10, 2022 at 5:58 pm #66990

Thank you Carolyn! That was a great response. I’ll try out some more of that stuff you suggested tomorrow 🙂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 11, 2022 at 6:09 am #67007

Wonderful ( :
And you are most welcome!