[Thrusthamster]

Hello again,

So I’m training with the goal of climbing 8000ers without oxygen, and doing a lot of endurance training for this, following the TFTNA program more or less (just realized this week I haven’t done the hill sprints for the whole base period, whoops!)

Anyway I’ve done some ultrarunning in the past, and for some variation from only climbing I thought I’d sign up for a few trail races this year. There’s a vertical 1.5K (11 km distance) in June two weeks before I go to the Alps, and a 50K with not much vertical (1K) the week before I go. Then a 100K in late September (no mountaineering objectives then).

So will that be a bad idea? The way I figure I’ll structure the training is to do the 1.5K following the ME workouts and general volume until then. Then do some easier recovery runs during the week and then the 50K the next weekend. Then taper until I go to Chamonix.

I’ve heard that big days like ultraruns or mountaineering get “remembered” by the body so you get more aerobically adapted in the future, so in that sense it can’t be that bad to do a few ultramarathons?

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on April 7, 2018 at 9:33 am #9159

Mountain running has certainly been a big part of the top alpinists we’ve worked with: Steve House, Ueli Steck, David Goettler and oh yes, that other guy, Kilian Jornet. Does not seem to have hurt their performance. Seriously: There is no question that they all feel it plays a key role in their success.

Scott

[Steve House]

Steve House on April 8, 2018 at 1:38 pm #9176

I’m just back from a little mountain run! One of the best tools in our toolbox. (though as I like to be alone I never entered races)

[James H]

James H on April 14, 2018 at 7:22 am #9358

Do you still use a HR monitor for training Steve?

[Steve House]

Steve House on April 16, 2018 at 11:33 am #9391

I do use my monitor every day these days. The problem is that, my (and everyone’s) Aerobic Threshold changes every day. Today I ran, after having to wake up with an upset toddler at 4:30am, and I was wearing my monitor realizing my AeT–according to my perception–was about 140 this morning. 140 felt kind of hard on the little uphills of my local 10k morning loop. Normally it’s 155-ish. Mark one up to fatigue.

I think it’s useful for the reason above, continuing to learn about our bodies. And I like to keep everything recorded in trainingpeaks so that I have that data and can keep track of my fitness level in an objective way (using CTL and the performance management chart.)

Lastly, it really does help me with consistency. I hate to see blank days on my training calendar. And I really hate 2-3 blank days in a week. So wearing the watch/monitor and recording my data is part of my motivation when I’m not just out climbing/skiing to keep up with my consistency–which is probably the most important feature of any training.