Barrett, as long as you’re being honest with yourself I definitely weight the personal assessment of subjective fatigue more heavily than any of the training peaks metrics. As Long as you’re mostly recovering day to day then you can stick with the plan and not worry too much about the form and fatigue numbers in training peaks. That said to answer your question a bit more since form and fatigue are basically mirror images of them selves I tend to just watch the form metric only. For most of my athletes in heavy training cycles it will dip down somewhere between -25 and -40 during big weeks but mostly I’m watching to make sure that it comes up near zero or even small positive numbers at the end of a consolidation week. If you look at the dashboard projection in the future you will also see what the curve goes up to assuming a solid taper and the date of the theoretical peak. For very well-trained athletes this peak number will approach 50. Hope that helps you think about the metrics a bit, gauging fatigue and making sure you’re pushing hard enough but not digging the hole too deep is honestly one of the biggest challenges as athletes progress and are doing bigger and harder training cycles approaching a goal. Make sure you’re taking at least one rest day a week, honoring the consolidation week, and making sure sleep and nutrition are optimized.
MarkPostle
Forum Replies Created
-
ModeratorModeratorMarkPostle on January 7, 2022 at 4:54 pm · in reply to: Possible future call topic – training psychology and motivation #61748
I think this might be a great topic to dig into in the next zoom meeting for a few minutes Matt as many folks may benefit from it. It has definitely been an issue recently with many peoples goals being canceled or disrupted due to Covid. I generally find that climbing goals that are far away in time frames are hard to wrap your head around on a daily basis and get your butt out the door and train for. A lot of folks benefit from having a couple of intermediate goals along the way to keep the stoke than trying to envision some thing that is six, 12 or 24 months away.
ModeratorYes most of the same concepts apply to snowshoeing. My experience with athletes is that their threshold for snowshoeing will actually be pretty similar to their threshold for hiking. One additional thought, if you’re performing an AeT drift test for uphill skinning try and make sure that the angle of the skin track you’re using is relatively constant. I’ve had folks in the past do threshold tests while skiing and if the angle of the skin track varies significantly the data never turns out that great.
ModeratorMalibu Bill, My initial take on it is that a Hood climb en route is very unlikely to help you on Rainier if that’s the desired purpose. These sort of warmup climbs that close to the goal will are more likely to wear you out than anything and have little acclimatization effect as you’re not up high long enough. I have had the best luck with folks who have a primary goal and keep their eye on the prize instead of muddying the waters. If anything you might attempt Hood on the way home if it is a lesser goal. That said if they are both big goals then of course its possible, I would take at least 5 days off in between.
ModeratorMarkPostle on January 7, 2022 at 4:19 pm · in reply to: Staying under AeT while doing steep hikes #61744Personally I would never use the TM over good outdoor terrain. Slow down as you need. Take heart some higher intensity sessions are coming in the next 12 week so you’ll be able to let you horses run free a bit more!
ModeratorIndividual choices vary for sure but personally I would definitely opt for a group tent and a megamid if desired. Mid is certainly optional. A single group tent is so much less weight, less work building/defending camp in storms etc. With a mid I would bring a Trango 3 or similar. If no mid I Like some of the Hilleberg tents as you can cook in roomy vestibule when stormy. Keron or Nammatj 3 GT are palatial for 2. (I like to cook outside if possible to minimize carbon monoxide exposure). If you do go with separate tents you could consider a hybrid system where you bring one bombproof tent like Trango 2 and one BD Firstlight or similar. This will save some weight but you can both sleep in the Trango 2 if its super stormy and also at 17K’ camp.
ModeratorKazu, As Nate mentions here after some fudge factors your TSS scores will likely be more in line with goals. Additionally I would say its good to use the TrainingPeaks metrics to help guide your training but don’t get overly caught up in them. In this instance the sport specificity of something like a pack carry with weight in hiking mode will benefit you much more for a mountaineering goal than always doing an unweighted run even though the running might result in a slightly higher TSS score. At some point in the later phases of training before a goal doing things that look as much like your goal as possible outweighs other considerations.
ModeratorAndrew- Glad to hear you’re recovering from the big days for the most part. I do think it’s worth putting an emphasis on skills type training as that’s one of the most important things were being successful in the mountains if not the most important depending on the objective. One thing I would look at is how much TSS these big days have that is causing your CTL (blue line) to jump so much. In general long days that have a high technical component usually don’t have a ridiculously high average heart rate and thus the corresponding TSS score should be relatively modest assuming that you’re using heart rate TSS. I would go in and check the threshold heart rate setting under the default heart rate in settings. This is the number that controls your total heart rate TSS for each session. Many times this is still the default setting and needs to be raised to what your AnT is. (I.e. 160 not 130 or similar for instance) This should result in hrTSS scores that are 40 to 50 TSS per hour on long days where there’s lots of technical climbing where you’re stopping to belay etc. Etc.
Assuming all these settings are in order then the second thing to look at is how much your CTL is climbing on average over a period of weeks. When folks first start tracking their training and their CTL is say below 50 then I don’t worry about big numerical jumps occasionally. Once your CTL is well established and something between 50 and 100 then you shouldn’t be raising it by more than about five points per week for many weeks in a row unless you have a really really well developed base. In general I think of over training of some thing that doesn’t actually happen on any one given day where you’re overreaching but much more of a chronic issue where you are under resting for many days and likely weeks in a row without letting your body recover. This is also one of the keys to the consolidation week as it really lets your body have a good reset from the preceding three or four weeks of abuse. Hope this helps!ModeratorMarkPostle on December 20, 2021 at 3:50 pm · in reply to: training for objectives – looking for pointers #61003Very different for each person but I have found a combination of training targets and real world goals works well for most peoples progression. This could be something like 1) peak CTL 80 then Mt Shasta climb. 2) peak CTL 90 – Mt Rainer climb 3) peak CTL 100 – Denali as a 3 year progression just for example. Most of us have a hard time motivating daily for a goal that is 2-3 years out so always having a goal inside of 6 months works well mentally I think. These can also be intermediate and more approachable things like -get out ice climbing 10 days this winter or -do 10 days of ski touring over 5000′ of gain this winter. They should be things that are at least loosely sport specific to your big goals but this will help keep the juices flowing in between big goal trips. I will also set little mini goals in the gym like Deadlift certain percentage of BW as that helps motivate me in an arena where I’m not naturally super enthusiastic. Make an actual checklist on paper of easy to achieve and big long term goals and put it on the fridge or somewhere you can’t avoid seeing it. Physically check things off as you do them and it will be a great motivator.
ModeratorMarkPostle on December 20, 2021 at 9:38 am · in reply to: Upcoming Dec 22nd Zoom Questions (Nutrition) #60991Thanks everyone, I have sent the questions along to Rebecca to help her with ideas about what we all have questions about. See you all at the Zoom!
ModeratorMarkPostle on December 19, 2021 at 5:58 pm · in reply to: Fueling right before and/or during long high intensity workouts #60974Fran- For work of that intensity that is right at the top of Z3 or lower Z4 I definitely use some carbs for fueling. I will generally have a light snack 30 min before and use carb sports drink of choice about every 20 min during activity. If doing intervals I’ll drink a couple of ounces between each effort. Whether its helping directly or just brain signaling from the gut either way I can definitely push harder on those last intervals. I save the fasted training for strictly low intensity days. Hope that helps.
ModeratorEdgar- We don’t have a PDF at the moment, the goal of the video led workouts was among other things in response to feed back for a video led workout instead of written or PDF descriptions which are hard for folks if they are unfamiliar with the movements. It seems maybe both formats are ideal in case folks are off line etc. I’ll mention the idea to Steve.
ModeratorLet me know how it goes!!
ModeratorAnna- I have worked with several different types of heated gloves as well as socks and insoles. IMO the Socks and insoles have a place in some mountaineering but the gloves arent worth the fiddle factor for their benefit. Mittens and hand warmers are a way better option. Having guided dozens of folks with hand circulation issues in arctic environs I have generally found once you isolate your fingers in gloves if you have reynauds you’re fighting a losing battle. When its really cold I use the Hot Hands Super Warmers. These have kept my hands quite warm even at -40.
These inside even the fairly mediocre mitten will keep your fingers warmer than the most expensive gloves. I generally try not to use a super thick modular Mittens system with many layers if I don’t have to, but something a bit trimmer so I still have some dexterity. If your finger are warm and toasty you can always pull a mitten off for a couple of seconds if you need to do something barehanded then shoe them back in the mitts. Practicing helps a lot, its surprising what you can do with good mitts on if you are accustomed. Regardless nothing has less dexterity than frozen fingers.
Something like the glissade mitts for general cold weather use.
https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/product/glissade-mitts-1/Or the super light mitts for very cold conditions.
https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/product/super-light-mitts/ModeratorMarkPostle on December 17, 2021 at 6:50 pm · in reply to: Scarpa Phantom 6000 or La Sportiva G2 EVO? #60926Yvonne, Those are all great boots, as long as folks as in the right “class” Boots for the objective i.e. warm enough then I think the most important factor should be fit. If the Scarpas fit you well then go with them and don’t look back. For what it’s worth I haven’t encountered that much foot swelling with the kind of objectives and altitude that your goals have. If they fit correctly at home then you should be fine. Just make sure your toes have a little wiggle room and arent banging the end of the boot or the long descents in crampons will cause issues. As discussed in the previous post heel lift is one of the main problems from oversized boots (assuming your goals arent super technical). You can also bring a slightly thinner pair of socks if your worries about your feet swelling a bit. Somewhat counterintuitively I’m always much warmer with a thinner pair of socks it allows adequate blood flow and allowing the boots to provide the insulation as they’re designed then stuffing extra socks in an attempt to add insulation but actually constricting the blood flow and making my feet colder in the end.