Newbie question | Uphill Athlete

Newbie question

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #16862
    leighbds
    Participant

    On the training plan there are Hill climbs which say hike the uphill and run the flats for 2 or 3 hours, what do yo do about the descent,do you discount any of the downhill sections and the decent back to the start

Posted In: Mountaineering

  • Participant
    hafjell on #16896

    Not sure I’d discount the descents. Yes, they are way less aerobically challenging than the ascents. But, you will usually have to descend in real life and so you need to get better and stronger at descending. I could care less about my descent times (used to love bombing downhill, not I’m slower to preserve joints), but I started including them in my training because it’s both important to improve at and also important to have an understanding of how quickly you travel. Even if it’s just to tell the S.O. when you’ll return. YMMV.

    Also, I think 2 to 3 hours are the shortest “long” runs in some of the beginning plans. For many, 2 to 3 hours will be a lot for the body to handle even including the descent times. As with most aerobic activity, how quickly you recover will tell you how much you can add to suggested training times, but for now, I’d just trust these plans and Training Peaks, and stick to their times. It worked for me.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #16901

    I asked Scott J. this same question when I started training.

    Answer: Count the descents in the total training time, but don’t try to keep the same intensity. As @hafjell said, it’s hard on the joints and really hard on the quads.

    For estimating duration, I’ve found that at an easy pace, a descent is usually two-thirds of the ascent time. So if it takes an hour to go up, it’ll probably take around 40′ to go down.

    Participant
    leighbds on #16922

    Thanks for your help with this looking forward to getting started

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