[Lauren Pfund]

I’m quickly coming up on the main “event” I’ve been working towards and wanted to check in about the weeks leading up to it. The 1st week in January I’m flying in by helicopter to a backcountry ski trip to stay in a hut for a week, then the last week in that month I’ll be backcountry skiing at a yurt in Idaho for 5 days.

I’ve been training with this group since it started, focused on hiking. I’ve done the beginner plan 1 time, the intermediate plan twice, and am now on the advanced plan. I am currently hiking about 2k feet per hour within HR Zone 2.

So my questions are:
1) Given my present level of fitness, how can I estimate approximately how much vert is feasible for me to squeeze into these trips per day?

2) Am I correct that I should ease into the first trip by taking the previous 2 weeks leading up to it essentially off from training? What do I do during the taper? Dynamic stretching and walks only?

And, 3) I presume that the 2 weeks in between both ski trips are going to be a recovery/taper period, too, since I just really exerted myself at the first trip?

Thanks for any insights!

Topic

[Coach]

Coach on November 21, 2021 at 1:26 pm #59593

Hello Lauren,

First of all, it sounds like the training is doing its job if you are able to do 2k vert feet in an hour in Zone 2. I don’t have a perfect number to give you on how much you can handle per day. My advice is to do a little less than you know you can on day one and monitor your energy day to day. If you are feeling incredibly strong then push for bigger vert days, if one day you are having a hard time getting up then aim for a lower day. Another way to think about this is how are your longer days feeling now? Are you able to easily do 3hrs with 4-6k of vert and feel good? If you aren’t feeling exhausted hiking then I would think you can aim for the same or more skiing if you get in some ski days before your trip.

As for tapering, I would not recommend taking a full two weeks off from training. I would recommend cutting out ME workouts two weeks before and doing Cham fit instead. Then a week out I would take one of the recovery weeks and modify it down (give yourself recovery day the day or two before you leave) but follow roughly those hours.

For the two weeks in between- the focus should be recovery! Keep up your aerobic work though so you don’t feel bad going into the second trip. Cut out ME but keep in maintenance strength (30min min of Cham fit, mobility). If you have access to keep skiing I would do that in those two weeks so you don’t lose your ski legs 🙂

I hope that makes sense, please let me know if you have any follow-up questions! I am really excited to hear how well the training has worked 🙂
Best,
Maya