[Coach]

Hello Lovely Humans,

Carolyn and I are going to start posting research to provide more information on different topics . This week we wanted to start you all off with more information on aerobic training and why it is so important to Uphill Athlete’s training methodology. For those who are interested the articles below will hopefully provide more clarity about why you will keep hearing Carolyn and myself talk about base training, and staying at or below Zone 2.

First article: Slow and Steady is Boring. Is It Necessary? (an overview of why Aerobic training is important) https://uphillathlete.com/slow-best-for-fitness/

Second Article: Sandcastles: A model of Endurance (A bit more technical in explaining why aerobic training is important on a deeper level) https://uphillathlete.com/model-of-endurance-training/

Third Article: David Goettler and Ueli Steck Put Low Intensity Training to the Test (This article gives a bit of inspiration and proof that this training really works!) https://uphillathlete.com/goettlersteckkhumbutraining/

Please feel free to ask questions, it would be great to start a discussion!

Happy Monday!
Maya

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on April 18, 2022 at 9:37 am #65689

Thank you Maya! Welcome to week two (most of you) of FUA training! We hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for a rest day and another quality week ahead.
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[Jennifer Jones]

Jennifer Jones on April 18, 2022 at 2:57 pm #65709

Thanks for the great articles, Maya! I love reading the theory, research, and science, and training practice. It’s really fun to nerd out!

I liked the analogy of endurance training to building sand castles, both the description of first adding lots of sand=endurance, judiciously adding water=high intensity, and the artistry involved=coaching, to sculpt the castle. It’s a great reminder to resist the urge to add water early, and to keep the workouts low intensity.

At what time in one’s training plan do we add higher intensity (zone 3) and how much? If we’re self-coaching, are there markers to look for to decide we’re ready to move on, or it’s based on how much time we have left before the event? What have you learned from being under-trained or overtrained, and how to adjust in future training cycles?

[Coach]

Coach on April 18, 2022 at 6:37 pm #65717

Jennifer!

These are such great questions. I am so glad you found the articles interesting, and you are starting to understand water vs. sand. Each one of the training programs for FUA starts to add in some intensity slowly, so I would say for now, just stick to the program. I know that it is hard to be patient but getting more sand, the better 🙂

If you are truly self-coaching, I would spend more time reading up on training theory and practice; I don’t have a one size fits all answer because it depends so much on your background and your goal. If you are running a marathon, you will use different intensity than if you are training for a mountain climb. You can’t really have too much base training, so I recommend trying to get in as much of it as possible before going into an intensity block. Again depending on your goal it is important to have some intensity before a big event but sometimes you need no more than a month of harder effort to get you ready.

As or overtraining vs undertraining. I would take being undertrained ANY day of the week over overtrained. I tell every single athlete I have worked with that if you go into an event undertrained but well rested, your mental strength and what you have trained will take you farther than you know. If you go in overtrained, it won’t matter how mentally tough you are; your body just won’t be able to do what it needs to. Also, there are serious lifelong health effects of being seriously overtrained that I am terrified of as both a coach and athlete.

Coaching yourself is hard-that is why Carolyn and I have jobs 🙂 Listen to your body as much as you can, even if it means shutting off your brain and ignoring the training plan from time to time.

We will talk about this and goals in a future zoom so bring it up again if you have questions or want to discuss more!

[Jennifer Jones]

Jennifer Jones on April 19, 2022 at 8:09 pm #65776

That’s great advice, Maya, thank you! I’ll just try to keep it simple for now.

[Pia Lichtblau]

Pia Lichtblau on April 26, 2022 at 1:02 pm #66191

Thank you for the articles – I read all of them and find them really interesting. I’ve read also the Uphill Athlete book, which is an amazing source of theoretical and practical knowledge!