[Zirbelkiefer]

Hello,

I am currently following the 24 weeks mountaineering plan and I am at the end of the transition phase. Fortunately I am already seeing nice results. My goal is to become as fit as possible for climbing in the alps – taking into account my time constraints with regard to full time job and family.

One thing that is bothering me is the muscular endurance session beginning in week 17. Due to family and work obligations I will have a hard time to do the weight carry workout in the mountains during the week and unfortunately I have no high buildings or hills around. I currently do my long Z1 workout in the mountains on sunday. I have two questions:

Can I do the water jug uphill carry workout on friday instead of wednesday? This would properly mean that I need a regeneration/Z1 run on saturday …

Can I do the muscular endurance gym workout from the new book instead of the water jug uphill carry? If yes, are there any other adaptions of the plan I have to make?

Thank you!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 30, 2019 at 9:23 pm #24264

You can do the weighted carries on a stair machine if you do not have access to steep hills outdoors. You can also do the gym ME workout as a substitute and see good results. You should plan on a couple of easy days after the ME.

Scott

[tkbattaglia]

tkbattaglia on July 8, 2019 at 10:21 am #24684

Hi!
I am a trail runner who ocasionally ventures on alpine terrain and hight altitude (up to 6k). I included ME workouts in my training cycles since I read TFTNA a in 2017, and have been very impressed with the results. As described in that book, or at least as I interpreted, I have been trying to focus more on the load than on the speed. But with this approach, I can’t get the expected feeling, as described in the book, of burning legs and low heart rate. I do most of my ME WOs on the treadmill at 15% at a speed of 4km/hr, carrying loads up to 12kg (~24 pounds). With this settings, I usually get z3 heart rate (up to 150-155) and my legs don’t burn at all. I have tried in the stairmill with similar weights at 65spm with the same result. When I was tapering for my last trail race (UTMB Ushuaia, 130km with 7k elevation gain) I drastically reduced load to around 6kg (a bit more than expected for race day pack) and increased speed to 4,5km/hr. Surprisingly, I achieved the low heart rate burning legs feeling. Can you guys comment on that? Should I decrease weight and increase speed for the whole training cycle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on July 8, 2019 at 4:09 pm #24728

I suspect the reason your legs were not the limiting factor in the previous ME workouts is that you were only using a 15% gradient. As explained in this article and video the gradient must be steeper than 20% and best at around 30-50% grade.

If you do not have access to such a steep hill I recommend you use the ME program for runners described near the end of this article. It is better for mountain runners than he weight uphill carries.

Scott

[tkbattaglia]

tkbattaglia on July 9, 2019 at 11:29 am #24771

Thanks Scott! I will try the routine you indicated.