Ski mountaineering is my endurance passion…
Do you mean ski touring or skimo racing? The training and demands are different.
..even though Scott has said you won’t improve doing stairmaster two days a week
Me or Scott J.? If so, can you link to the comment for context?
, some of my training during COVID has been inside on elevated treadmill and stairmaster and stairclimber……I sometimes use ankle weights (I think 2.5 lb each) thinking that skis boots and skis in the real world are certainly weights……anyway on one of the skimo podcasts here a month or two ago it was opined that the best uphill ski training was actually with the LIGHTEST boots and skis !?
Again, it depends what you’re training for. In general, going light, increasing speed, and then adding weight is more effective (across a wide variety of uphill sports) than it is to add weight from the beginning (and practice going slow.)
So question regarding training (zone one and two especially) what role should (or not) training be with ankle weights? if, when, what situations? what strategy?
As suggested above, I would start with building lightweight speed and then gradually introduce extra weight. A big part of skimo racing is a high cadence and becoming efficient at it. Adding weight prematurely will interrupt that practice. But if it’s ski touring we’re talking about, then cadence is less of a factor because it’s no one’s racing (usually.)
