[Zach.jin]

I am starting week 10 of Mike Foote’s 20 week BIG VERT plan for intermediate to advanced mountain runners and want to be sure I’m using the plan correctly for my event. 

Event: 6 day fastpack of the JMT. Biggest day planned is 43.3 miles and 9751′. Average day is 36 miles 7400′ for a total of 221 miles and 74k feet. 
Big question: How should I be calibrating my weekly totals? I’ve basically been thinking of this as a 100 mile event with a lot of vert. 
Current status: My last build period concluded with 52 miles and 11500′. I’m handling this pretty well and trying to stave off injuries. This past week (9) I got a bit soft with 48 miles and 3500′. All of my workouts are on TP.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 28, 2021 at 2:01 pm #55203

Zach:
This is a tricky one. The Big Vert has proven itself in single push events like the Tor d’Geant and Tor d’Glacier which are roughly 200 and 300 miles with no prolonged stops. I’m not sure if you listened to the pod cast I did with Luke Nelson but in the 6month leading up to his 7th place finish in Tor d’Geant his averaged weekly miles as 48. He had only a couple of weeks above 100miles. The ME seems to lessen the need for mega miles and mega vert running. We’ve seen this with hundreds of users. Are you still doing the optional ME progression? If so keep it up. That’ll make your legs more fatigue resistant. It won’t make you faster but it will keep you from slowing down so much.

In short I think you’ll be fine with the 100 miles you are calling your event and sticking to the prescribed distances and vert…..if you stick with the ME.

Scott