[niall f]

The Uphill Athlete model is aimed mainly at longer endurance events, and many of the recommendations make sense for general health and fitness also.

But what about shorter events–lets say 3 hours and under? (For myself, I’m targeting mountain runs and hilly trail half-marathons in the 2–3 hour range.) I understand that aerobic base is still key, but how should training differ generally for these shorter durations? There’s some passing references in TFTUA to spending more time in Zone 3 or 4 depending on the demands of the event, but it’d be good to get some more detail.

Also, are there any other recommended online resources for shorter events? A lot of the good endurance resources seem to be aimed at long events.

Topic

[Mark]

Mark on April 28, 2021 at 2:26 pm #53467

Hi there,

The coaches have answered this in broad terms before (if you search “VK” in the search bar you will get some responses in previous threads) but the most relevant response is probably here: https://uphillathlete.com/forums/topic/is-vk-training-any-different/

TL;DR Aerobic base is still extremely important and you should start with the basic principle of ensuring that your AeT/AnT spread is less than 10% and that you should introduce some Z3/Z4 at around 5-10% of your weekly volume.

Taking a step back and thinking about this more broadly, it’s always worth examining the races you are training for and what attributes you would require for a positive outcome and comparing this to your current strengths and weaknesses.

As an example, I currently live in a very flat city but I am training for a fairly steep FKT that is 21km w/ 1000m vert. Therefore, the ME workouts in Mike Foote’s Big Vert plan have been an enormous aid as I lack access to hills or mountains with decent vertical gain.

If I was training for a less steep or less technical race, I would probably shift my training more towards the Z3/Z4 workouts in a weekly cycle (see Luke Nelson’s 50km Plan). Again, it will all depend on the requirements for your races.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 30, 2021 at 9:27 am #55277

Prescriptions wouldn’t really change much until an event is under an hour. Even for 2h events, the total of high-intensity training minutes shouldn’t exceed 5-10% of total training time.