Low Energy Availably (LEA) and Relative Energy Deficit in Sport (RED-S) scientific knowledge and general awareness has grown massively in female athletes, but there is also growing recognition of applicability to male athletes. From my decidedly armchair reading my takeaway is 1) practice good dietary habits + fuel well and train hard and 2) DON’T mess around with caloric deficits while training.
Aaron
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After a few yrs of ME where I had pretty bad/long DOM I’ve simply starting grading into it much easier. I find now that less is more and it does not take too many seemingly ‘easy’ sessions where I can ramp up to what feels like more proper ‘hard’ without the same DOM consequence. I find the adjustment non-linear. I start easy but then do pretty good ramp up of overall volume and intensity of ME where the hardest workouts don’t seem to hit as hard in the aftermath.
ParticipantJust dealing with thinking about COVID return to sport myself. This is a good article with much clearer phased return to sport guidelines. https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/372/bmj.m4721.full.pdf It is clearly conservative, and I am inclined to follow it with the goal of minimizing risk of long covid.
ParticipantAaron on April 1, 2022 at 10:10 am · in reply to: Question on TSS scoring and breaking up workouts #64951To augment the UA guidance Shashi links above, I also use this Training Peaks guidance for estimating TSS:
After about 6 years of steady HR monitor use I’ve largely stopped using one, especially for long days, multi days or ski touring. This is in part due to HR watches with sufficient battery life for long events being stupid expensive and disposable (a few yrs life…), and yet another potential source of blue tooth interference with transceivers, and finding that HR chest straps are a real pain in drier winter conditions with wildly variable results owing to static issues.
So, long winded way of saying I mostly estimate zone/RPE by breathing and feel now, with occasional recalibrations during the year with a monitor. I use Training Peaks RPE estimation for the base, and then UAs adjustment factors. I built an excel spreadsheet for calculating longer days when too hard to do in my head.
ParticipantAaron on February 25, 2022 at 5:09 pm · in reply to: tftua early base example clarification on strength training #63662I’ll re-read the book later to look at the Cat 1 runner recommendations but my understanding is:
-I think of ME as mid to later progression, done either in gym and/or as sport specific (e.g. longer hill intervals, water carries etc), and early base strength work as general to MaxS spectrum (both gym and sport specific).
-A general strength, ME and hill sprint during the week seems like too much- I agree I need 2-3 days to recover from gym based ME work before doing another higher intensity workout.
-If you have a history of strength work it is fairly easy to top out the TFTUA assessments. I always start my transition to base with some general strength, but move through that progression into max strength work pretty fast if all feels good.
-Topping out on the gym based strength work either sends you towards max strength either in gym (e.g. 3-4 sets of 3-5 reps of ~85% to 95% 1RM) or sport specific ~10 second max effort hill sprints.
-I often aim for an early in the week gym workout, followed by a late in the weekday outdoor based specific strength workout (be it 10 sec hill sprints, 2 min hill intervals, or ~8 min ME hill intervals). I can’t picture fitting in 3.ParticipantMy takeaways from that and other articles/podcasts/books is: if double long runs are the only way help get the chronic month over month volume up go for it. And that super long runs are not about getting a special training stimulus, but to prep your body and mind for dealing with the feeling of extra fatigue, nutrition dynamics, mental factors etc and thus only need that to the degree that part of you needs that training – and you have those 2-3 long day adventure runs for that purpose.
ParticipantJason Koop opines on this frequently, see for example: https://trainright.com/double-day-training-ultrarunner/. a few quotes:
“Double days can be effective for ultrarunners who meet the following criteria:
Runners who rarely, if ever, get injured
Runners whose schedules don’t allow for weekday runs longer than 2 hours
Runners with more than 4 years of training experience who have hit a performance plateau”“Just like an individual very long run will not make or break your season, one double run day is not going to turn you from a sloth to a superhero. Remember, endurance adaptations are chronic. They take weeks and months, not days or hours, to manifest into some reasonable improvement. So, if you are planning to engage in double days, do it for the long haul.”
“I only end up prescribing double days for a very small percentage of the athletes I work with. This is because, minute-for-minute, single run volume is more effective than double run volume. In fact, my internal rule of thumb is that if I am going to apply double runs to an athlete, it should result in greater than 25% more volume when the month is all said and done.”
ParticipantI think there are likely a few ways to think about this. My 5 cents:
1) if you like MaxS and have >stage 3 capacity then sub stage 3 for MaxS earlier.
2) MaxS has been mentioned in UA books and elsewhere as something that can be sprinkled in as maintenance and almost ‘recovery’ like strength workout (e.g. neuro vs metabolic stimulus)
3) I think generally at later stage training sport specific is the recommendation, but if you like/want gym strength work then fill your running shoes, just understand it might not be the optimal thing?
4) I also get the impression from other coaching approaches out there, that general strength is recommended at later stages of training to reduce that stress to make space for the sport specific running work.
5) I have found that if I go too long without strength work that is when niggles appear. I am trying to not go more than a month or two without some strength work. And if I go to long without, then I need to start with general to ease back in.ParticipantBlisters where on your foot? And which buckles do you think problematic? E.g. My heels blisters were improved by adding more volume to the foot board heel. One foam pad ~2/3 of board, and 2nd layer just under heel.
ParticipantIf have xc skied some winters. My basic observation is not as specific but if it fits in your life better do it. Two specific reflections: classic for z1/2 and skate ski for higher intensity intervals. I was simply not a good enough skate skier to stay in z1/2.
ParticipantThanks for sharing these details especially the success you found in a very sport specific final phase.
I recently watched the Smiley/Porter video of their sea to summit trip and was blown away by the physical demands of this trip. Well done and very inspiring Brett!
ParticipantAaron on December 16, 2021 at 10:54 am · in reply to: Heart rate monitor and avalanche beacons #60881For ski touring with a transciever I have adopted NOT wearing one, and simply using my experience with HR monitors to estimate time in zone and use a spreadsheet with a combination of Training Peaks TSS estimation guides for zones 1-5 and Uphill Athlete fudge factors (weight, vertical). Works pretty darn well, to the point where I have gotten tire of using HR monitors, especially in the winter when static and dry air gives me too many false readings.
Participant1.7kg per foot is a fairly substantive difference. I had to do a couple laps last winter on clunky frame bindings, oh man was that a cruel experience after having only every toured on light 3-pin or tech bindings.
ParticipantAre you on a heavier class of skis and boots? I’ve sure found my aging body appreciates the lighter gear.
ParticipantI don’t have any size insights, but my understanding is that AeT and AnT are unique to an individual and shifts in those #s for that person are relative to their fitness. So not applicable to compare across to yourself as an indicator of theoretical fitness equivalency.
I think your’re going to have to look at deeper training history (last 5-10yrs), recent training history (last 6 months), immediate history (last few days of training or illness), technique etc for differences in the apparent fitness.
For example, if I did a muscular endurance workout 1 or 2 days ago, and am in a higher volume week or block, I will not have the same performance as an equivalently fit friend who just had a lighter rest week. As another example, I have 30yrs of ski history and my up and down technique and my thermoregulation is way smoother than someone who is a yr or 2 into the sport. Similarly, if I am coming down with or recovering from a cold, my performance tanks.