Training alongside winter season

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  • #3716
    owentomkins
    Participant

    I work offshore on roughly a two weeks on, two weeks off rota. I have recently started the 8 weeks mountain strength/fitness training plan. How would i be best able to continue training whilst enjoying big days in the mountains, alpine skiing, ski touring and climbing? I realise this could have very negative effects on my fitness. Is there a way to adapt this to fall in with my time in the mountains/time in the gym offshore? Any help appreciated.

    Owen

  • Participant
    mthorman on #3719

    Owen, I am no expert but here are a couple of thoughts. I think with any kind of training consistency is super important. Are you getting in your workout hours when you are offshore working? If you are then you should be set to continue those hours on your weeks off of work. I use the the mountains a lot for training. Just know that most likely you won’t be in your best shape or climbing your hardest grades due to the amount of strain on your body. I am not sure what hours you are at in your training so that may limit you a little. For me, I am usually able to get 2 pretty good days in the mountains each week. If I get an extra 10-15% during a week I am not too concerned as long as I am still breaking up my training to my target zones correctly.

    For example I am just finishing Base week 7 and my target is 13hrs. I actually got in 14.25hrs for the week which is basically 10% over what my target was. But my training was 85% in hear rate zones Z1/Z2 and only 15% in Z3 (with no Z4/Z5). I was able to spend 1 good day up out in the backcountry touring which accounted for about 40% of my hours and then I also spent about the same amount of time ice climbing (35%) and then the rest was strength training and a couple other small things. One of my big concerns is making sure I am getting my rest and not overtraining.

    I guess to answer your question, it probably depends a lot on the number of hours you have set as your goal. If you are only doing 4-5hrs a week on the weeks you work, I would NOT recommend doing a 15hr week on the weeks you are off. You would have fun but that isn’t going to be the gradual buildup towards an end goal. Maybe look at what your highest priority goal is. If you have a big trip or time period where you want to be in peak performance then having to cut things out during the training cycle is inevitable and totally worth it. However if you are just trying to get stronger or stay in shape and you aren’t building towards an end goal, then maybe trashing your body for a week might be worth it…..but only if the climbing is classic and the powder is deep 🙂

    Hopefully somebody else with a little more knowledge might chip in too, but that is my $.02

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