[bill]

bill on April 18, 2022 at 2:06 pm · in reply to: Machine vs. not very steep terrain #65708

Brad – Forest Park is fifteen minutes from home and the nearest steep hills are more than an hour away, so I end up there once or twice a week. One thing you might try, if you don’t mind doing repeats… the steepest section of trail I’ve found there starts at the steps on thurman, to aspen, along wildwood, and to the top of birch (1.6mi, 625 feet). The longest climbing section starts at aspen and ends where wildwood levels off (about .78 miles and 540 feet or roughly 692 ft/mi gain).

There is a bit of steepish terrain, but not much, and it takes four round trips to get 6.25 miles and 2160 feet of climb. Not as good as Defiance or Hunchback but a lot better exercise-to-drive time ratio.

If you want steps, Mt Tabor probably has the two longest runs in the area, on the east side and between the reservoirs. That will give you more steep, at the price of a lot of mind numbing repetition.

[bill]

bill on April 4, 2022 at 1:44 pm · in reply to: breaks in between training cycles #65109

Thanks!

[bill]

bill on April 4, 2022 at 1:44 pm · in reply to: moving workouts within a training week? #65108

Mark, that’s really helpful. Thanks!

[bill]

bill on March 16, 2022 at 11:56 am · in reply to: question about LnT testing and subsequent training #64477

Thanks Mark. This was on a treadmill, at a 15% grade. I actually increased the speed a bit once I got in the AnT test because it didn’t feel like I was pushing it. I will run the test again at a faster pace and risk blowing up to see if the number is higher.

I wouldn’t think I was in the ten percent zone yet, or maybe I might be barely so. I am recovering quickly, my ground speed at a given HR is still improving, and I generally feel pretty good afterwards. I will keep doing Z2 workouts for now under the assumption that I have’t quite gotten a good read on either my AeT or AnT.

[bill]

bill on March 14, 2022 at 6:16 pm · in reply to: gps fails to capture true speed – just weird #64422

rcj – that’s an interesting thought. i also figured that i should check to see how often gps is updating. i think the fenix 6 has a power save mode that slows down gps updates. thanks for the idea.

[bill]

bill on March 8, 2022 at 9:02 pm · in reply to: gps fails to capture true speed – just weird #64043

I know. If you look at the speed data it looks like I am alternating between stopping and moving fast (the speed varies between zero and three or four mph) but I was moving at a steady pace but for three or four tree falls I had to work around. But the elevation and distance data is pretty good, which is why I think the problem is GPS drift. I’ve noticed this in the garmin devices before… the point GPS can be off ten or fifteen feet.

No matter. The data is good enough to figure out my climb rate, etc and gives me a benchmark for future training hikes on this hill.

Thanks for the help, Mark.

[bill]

bill on March 8, 2022 at 11:43 am · in reply to: gps fails to capture true speed – just weird #64025

Thanks Mark. I will see if it is a GPS locking problem next time out. I will also see how the phone GPS tracks my progress on the same trail.

[bill]

bill on February 26, 2022 at 10:22 pm · in reply to: Z2 hikes: what is steep enough? #63693

Thanks Mark. I will continue to use Forest Park for the “easy” terrain. Luckily, with Starvation Ridge and Mount Defiance trailhead about an hour away, I also have terrain close by that is roughly 20% average grade (and in sections much steeper), which should serve well for the tougher hikes.

One more question: the trails on steep terrain around here is generally snow and ice covered for much of the winter. Any adjustments to be made for being in crampons or snowshoes? I am assuming that “staying under AeT” is still the rule.

[bill]

bill on January 7, 2022 at 5:20 pm · in reply to: skin is in #61750

I hadn’t thought of doing my AeT test on snowshoes… I have a couple of fairly constant angle snowshoe hikes that would be pretty good for that. Thanks for the help.

[bill]

bill on January 6, 2022 at 1:41 pm · in reply to: skin is in #61686

Nate, I am guessing that the same advice applies to snowshoeing?

[bill]

bill on January 6, 2022 at 1:32 pm · in reply to: Rainier and Hood in one trip? #61683

I think it depends (of course). How much time will you have between Hood and Rainier? How quickly will you recover from a 5000′ climb? Conditions are really variable. During the prime season, there are a lot of people on the hill, the going is slow, and rockfall is an issue. Climbing Hood can be hard or really hard and it is a technical climb not a hike.

As an aside, as I am just on this side of 64, I’d love to hear more about your Rainier plan. My end goal is to climb Rainier and Hood but not this year, as I am focusing on basic training and summit hikes like South Sister.

[bill]

bill on January 6, 2022 at 1:20 pm · in reply to: Staying under AeT while doing steep hikes #61681

I think you probably need to be willing to go as slow as you need to go to keep your heart rate under your AeT. From experience, that can be painfully slow while you build a base and improve your AeT. It can take a lot of patience, especially if you are used to hiking at a faster pace (and above your AeT). The alternative is finding a less steep hike and seeing if you can set a pace that isn’t quite so slow. For me, the treadmill would be the last option; I’d stay with the hikes if I could because hiking is what I am training for.

[bill]

bill on December 21, 2021 at 1:47 pm · in reply to: anybody having trouble syncing Garmin Connect with TP #61043

Edgar – Training Peaks was having some sort of problem this morning with logins and syncs failing on both the web and application interfaces. It appears to be fixed now. Is the sync problem still happening for you?

[bill]

bill on December 20, 2021 at 9:25 pm · in reply to: training for objectives – looking for pointers #61012

Thanks Mark! Yeah… working toward a three year goal seems a bit mystical to me (I am in awe of people with that kind of future focus) but I can manage a progression of five six month goals. Right now I am trying to figure out how to translate something like “climb south sister” which is my first six month goal into some set of sub-milestones that will help (a) motivate me and (b) give me feedback so I know that I am on track. Maybe I am overthinking it and it is as simple as setting intermediate speed or elevation/hour goals and measuring my progress against them on a regular basis, like I plan to do with AeT testing?

As far as TP goes, I don’t want to get trapped in number-making, but have you found general guidelines that correlate CTL (for example) with levels of readiness for particular objectives? To take your example, CTL 70, ready for South Sister; 85, ready for Mt. Rainier; 100, ready for Denali? I mean, how much more fit is the guy at a CTL of 70 and the same guy at 90?

[bill]

bill on December 20, 2021 at 9:10 pm · in reply to: TftNA zones and Z1/Z2 #61011

Nate – Thanks! Your detailed response is really helpful. I am basing all of my training on AeT and AnT as we’ve been talking about it and I am fairly certain I have TP set up correctly, too. My question came out of my desire to take advantage of all the knowledge baked into TftNA and want to be sure I am properly mapping between older approach (based on HRmax) to this newer one, based on AeT/AnT.

While I’ve trained to the point of having a measured less-than-ten-percent difference between AeT and AnT, I am not there now. I have a lot of base rebuilding in front of me before I worry much about doing too much Z2 training!

– Bill