[keith brown]

I returned last week from Peru (fun, intermediate goal)from a 7 day trek – 50+ miles, and a few passes and camps at 13k, 15k and 17k. Trained on intermediate plan and got through about 8 weeks of ME training. Tailored the training schedule to best meet personal schedule. Beyond the Z1/2 E training, I thought the ME training was a game-changer. Never had recovery issues from sore medial chain or legs. Most of the challenges were “old-man” issues with knee & hip pain (former surgeries, arthritis and bone-on-bone); things I’ll mitigate in other ways down the road. I did catch COVID and probable experienced symptoms COVID-related symptoms about day 3/4. Have had to significantly taper training over the last two weeks.

Preparing for Aconcagua, January 2023.
Starting next week, I have 28 weeks before departing for Argentina. My thought on training are:
– 12 weeks back on base training,
– 16 weeks ME training using intermediate/advanced program

I recall previous guidance about an honest self-assessment and being 90%+ compliant on previous programs before progressing.

Is this a reasonable/recommended approach?

How should I scale the base program to continue building on existing fitness?

Where should I be in healthy, progressive base program (CTL) to transition to Advanced program?

Thanks in advance, Keith

Topic

[MarkPostle]

MarkPostle on July 17, 2022 at 4:02 pm #69231

Keith, Glad you had a good Peru trip and I hope you’re getting over the Covid quickly! I do think the broad brushstrokes of what you’ve laid out here with a 12 week transition and then 16 weeks of focus training will get you to where you want to be before Argentina. I think the most important thing in the short term is to make 100% sure you’re recovered from Covid and can train effectively. Secondly as you begin to ramp up through the transition 12 weeks make sure that you’re recovering well day today and week to week this is an important time to lay the groundwork and intelligent way and make sure you’re not overdoing it as you need to have some real energy and be healthy diving into the final 16 week run up.
As for the transition from the intermediate to the advanced plan they were written with that in mind I purity. The intermediate leaves off basically right where the advance plan picks up. Most folks that had a high compliance rate and felt like the total load of the intermediate was appropriate will be ready to transition into the advanced plan levels fairly naturally. Of course we’re all a bit different and I’ve definitely had a few folks that were using the advanced plan well but needed to scale back some of the volume a bit to ensure that they’re recovering appropriately

[keith brown]

keith brown on July 17, 2022 at 8:43 pm #69239

Thank you Mark.

[keith brown]

keith brown on July 19, 2022 at 1:29 pm #69306

Another question Mark.

If I do the base plan as prescribed, will those 12 weeks provide sufficient training to move to the advanced?

If no (I know the initial answer is “depends”), what ballpark CTL should I achieve before starting the Advanced program?

Understanding the second question will help in modifying the Base pgm appropriately for the Advanced transition.

Thanks in advance, Keith

[MarkPostle]

MarkPostle on July 19, 2022 at 6:54 pm #69312

Keith,

Advanced starts out at about 10 hours and 700TSS per week. (Of course you could modify that slightly as you go obviously) so you would want to have a CTL score of something in the 75-80 ball park I would say to jump into the advanced without getting in over your head.

[keith brown]

keith brown on July 20, 2022 at 7:49 am #69320

Perfect, thanks Mark!