Keep it simple. Slowly work in weighted pullups with minimal weights. The book is quite good at giving a few options for this. But it really sounds like it’s an ME issue not a power one. And you’re really fit so I understand this can be frustrating. I would consider dips or other whole-arm exercises that concentrate on the triceps, but I am not an expert. Have you considered not competing with them or using that at all and enjoying the weight loss?
hafjell
Forum Replies Created
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Participanthafjell on November 17, 2023 at 12:58 pm · in reply to: Ski Erg / Ski machine for mountain ultra pole use #82309Participanthafjell on November 14, 2023 at 12:46 pm · in reply to: Lack of AeT improvement following UA approach #82259
This sounds like a good example of confusing the map with the territory. Can you ditch the heart rate monitor and just nose breathe? If you can carry a conversation, Z2. If you can carry a conversation really easily, Z1. For bc touring and mountaineering, ime, you’ll want to stick to Z1 and Z2 if you want to go farther. If you just want to repeat the same loop, you can get faster with Z3.
Tl/dr don’t give up on the Z2.Participanthafjell on November 14, 2023 at 12:40 pm · in reply to: Ski Erg / Ski machine for mountain ultra pole use #82258Hmmm…10-12 pull ups is pretty good. How are you lacking strength? “Endurance” means you tire after how many hours of running / hiking uphill? A lot of us are running the flats and descents without poles and then taking them out of the pack for the climbs. Is that your strategy? Or are you using them from start to finish? Over how many hours and miles / km? I defer to Jane, ofc, about planks, rows and dips.
Participanthafjell on November 13, 2023 at 12:53 pm · in reply to: Ski Erg / Ski machine for mountain ultra pole use #82217I would not spend the money. I had access to one at last job and, imo, it’s a very specialized piece of equipment that is not applicable here. It’s also intensely boring.
If you get tired poling, you are generally weak in the upper body. That’s actually good news as you can change that with weight and muscular endurance regimens.
Have you trained pull ups? Have you done muscular enurance workouts for a sustained period of time (16 weeks?)
Spend your time doing arm exercises and pullups. Strong core (back and abdomen) will help too.ParticipantAll you can do is train steadily, try to avoid injury and sickness so you don’t miss training volume, and see how your body recovers. IME, this will be the limiting factor. If you can recover well, you can keep pushing the mileage or hours. Your body will let you know within 24-36 hours if your biggest days are too much. I think you can responsibly train for this event with less than 200k / week. That’s more or less the distances covered by professional, sponsored athletes. How you handle the vertical gain and drop will be another issue. The problem with training for ultras is the extreme uncertainty. See Tom Evans’ UTMB. Terrific runner, impeccable training, with a lot of confidence…then on the event day, altitude, elevation, and some very fast competition changed his plans.
Your big days in the mountains on foot will be as or more valuable than the triathlon training. IME, triathletes underestimate the difficulty of being on your feet for the entire event. But you do have the advantage of long training days. These are all serious efforts. I think you’ll be fine. “North of the gr20 in Corse was 90km 8000m éelevation in 2 days, tour des glaciers de la Vanoise 70k 3800d+ in 2 days, traversée de Chartreuse 75k 4500m élevation in 12h).ParticipantIvan, incredible course. In US terms, this equates to Hardrock 100 at a much lower elevation. I would approach this first year as a learning year, training and competing. Imo, you’ll want to budget more time for hiking up and running down. Flat training miles should be kept to a weekly minimum of 1 to 2x per week. The course will run much more up and down then you imagine in your “4 big blocs.” It will be constantly changing and you’ll want to train for the ascents, descents, and transitions. The dude who just came in 2nd at UTMB with a similar profile but higher elevation (if I read your profile correctly) said afterwards that he stopped worrying about mileage and started focusing on feet / meters of elevation gain and loss as his training goal. You don’t have his training base, but still, you can’t cheat the up and down. And forcing too many miles of running might not be healthy.
Don’t over-train. That’s avoidable.
If on the event day you start feeling unhealthy mechanically, stop. You can stop at 80k or 100k and still have had a massive day.
“Enjoying the moment”…hmmm…good luck with “enjoying” your first 100mile race with 30,000 feet of climbing and descending. Bonne chance!Participanthafjell on August 20, 2023 at 10:03 am · in reply to: Is there any benefit to a single overnight trip at altitude? #80443Plus you’ll get to spend time on the route. Road test nutrition, sort out some route finding. Just general familiarity is worth the time in my experience.
ParticipantSorry if I missed this, but what are you training for? In any case, you’ll need to start slowly with the running as you’ll be moving much faster than hiking up hill. Also, more repetitive motion. Pay attention to how you recover. If you feel fresh the next day, you’re likely ok. If all you’re doing is hiking and climbing you’ll be physically strong but not have much aerobic base. Don’t worry, you’re fit and should transition well.
I always struggle with setting Week 1 volume, but my body tells me pretty quickly if I’m over or under-doing it.ParticipantI’d layer in more and more running and hiking as the biking won’t translate as well. If you have extremely high volume of training, the bike might be a good tool for recovery or very long days. But otherwise, I’d go uphill on foot.
ParticipantThat traverse has no 4th or 5th class climbing but it’s technical. I think a lot of plans would cover it: I’d go with an intro to ultra or mountaineering. Lots of technical downhills so don’t skip your gym workouts.
If you have control over the day, I’d pick earlier in the fall. Lots of folks try to time foliage at the expense of daylight. Give yourself as much natural light as possible as the trails aren’t great with headlamps. Nobody ever described them as “flowy.”Participant“The workout you do is better than the workout you don’t do.” -S. House somewhere on these forums to an overworked, under-resourced father
I think Mark and Jane nailed it and you already know what follows but it’s worth saying out loud:
1. Your priorities are about to completely change.
2. You can and should continue to train meaningfully.
3. Don’t be too rigid. It won’t work with your wife, your kid, your body, or your job. Your household is about to experience new levels of illness and you cannot get sick from over-training. Again from Steve, better to work out at 95% than 100% and get sick.
4. Do whatever feels right and connects you to the outdoors or your friend groups, BUT, I ditched the bikes once my wife became pregnant with our first. Cycling is so dangerous (it is, deal with it) and so time-inefficient (see first parenthetical.) Imo, nothing beats running for time-efficiency. Trail running > road running. Mountain trail running > trail running. I could not be the father I want to be and still ride meaningful hours on my road bike. Admittedly, I was an addict with 200-300 miles / week. (Caveat, I had a friend who built in a couple of workouts each week by commuting on his bike. Need to be able to handle the weather if that’s your strategy but it’s doable.)
5. Buy a good, reliable headlamp that you really like (even if it’s a bit spendy) because you will be using it more than ever.
6. Congrats. Best thing that ever happened to me by far. Wait until you get to watch your children do the things you love.
7. That home gym will be a blessing.
8. Without being a jerk, try to plan your vacations and weekends in the mountains. You both get access for exercise and your children grow up with that connection.
9. First couple of months post-partum, there’s not a whole lot for you to do except change diapers, feed and deal with sleep deprivation. Make dinner, clean the house. If your wife is breast feeding, she’s going to be doing most of the heavy-lifting. Neck strength comes into play at 6-8 months? Before that, you may have some time to meaningfully train. They start to crawl at 10 months? You have a year before all hell breaks loose.
10. I bought a 24 month training plan from UA. If you skip 2 workouts in a single week, they ask you to repeat the week. I repeated 4 weeks. Felt like a bummer but at the end I was very strong and fast.Participanthafjell on May 25, 2023 at 9:33 am · in reply to: Start of new training plan: how to calibrate the 1st week volume? #78475The latest podcast from UA will help. I don’t recall them giving a specific answer to this, but they do talk in detail about volume, hours vs. miles, transitioning from sports and seasons. It’s one of the most practical episodes, imo.
And, with no coaching experience, I would posit that you’re capable of handling a 30k week once recovered from your race. Might give it a few days more to make sure you’re legs are with your brain… 10% increases will compound up quickly from there. Otherwise, some approximation slightly below your biggest week before the race. My .02 cents.
ParticipantSo sorry. Frustrating when you consult doctors, PT and have the proper imaging done. Foam rolling and single leg exercises really helped me. If that isn’t working for you, have you considered something like shoes? Any chance you have really bad shoes for your stride or feet? Too much or too little drop? Pronate? Maybe a consult at a really good running shop would help? Viel Glück.
Participanthafjell on May 20, 2023 at 3:46 pm · in reply to: Tendon Injury Podcast with Pete – Bicep Rehab? #78371Bumping this. Worried that I have a torn biceps. What exercises would people recommend?
ParticipantSorry to be late to this. From experience, you’ll want to baby the port as much as possible. I would experiment with different packs and chest straps including modifications and / or cutting existing chest straps. Maybe aftermarket chest straps exist? Maybe you cut straps lengthwise (I realize this devalues the pack and likely decreases longevity.) Or just quit using chest straps.
I would also second belts, and waist packs. Tie clothing around your waist or sash-style over free shoulder. USe the pockets in the jackets for storage.
It sounds like you have a line inserted into the port? Be careful of clotting and infection. A year is a long time but it’s not forever. I would prioritize clot avoidance over sticking to a training plan. If we are talking about the same style of “port,” replacement would involve two surgeries–one for removal and another for inserting a new one on the other side.
Good luck.