Edgar- Without getting to far into the weeds here it is OK to mix energy systems in the same workout. For our purposes in the early phases of training in this group for mountaineering objectives there isn’t any real call for it for most folks, but you’re in a slightly different place with running objectives that are coming up. I will prescribe “progressive” workouts for my athletes at times that hit several systems or intensity work at the beginning of a workout then a long low intensity “cooldown”. I like to frame it more as thinking about which energy system you’re prioritizing in a given part of a workout. It quickly devolves into semantics but in my mind most every workout is already “mixed” since even fairly low intensities burn some glycogen and quite high intensities still have a fat burning portion in well trained athletes. Thus it had never made sense to me when folks say you can’t mix them as you’re already always mixing them, its just a matter of what energy system are you trying to stress and whether there’s an advantage to trying to stress more than one in a single session. With climbers I think its easier to keep them separate but with competitive running training its a bit more complex.
mixing energy systems in workouts
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Looking at the calendar, it appears that we do not mix energy systems in the same workout. I ask because I have some trail races coming up that require both. In the past I had done some ultra distance training runs with hills interspersed that I went at hard along the run to simulate the race. So I might spend 4 hours at AeT, another hour at AnT and then some much shorter period absolutely redlined.
Should I avoid intentionally mixing energy systems in the same workout? 80/20?
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