Posted In: 16 Week Big Mountain Training Plan
Hello Stef,
Great questions! Yes-you can repeat week 7 and have this week your rest week! Just make sure you pay attention to your fatigue as you keep going and take a rest week in another 3 weeks. Switch 11 and 12 🙂
Great work with your fitness increase! We love to hear it!!!
Maya
Hello Laura,
First, I am not an expert on acclimatization in general. I have trained many athletes to be ready for it, but I am still learning a lot along the way. Carolyn may have more knowledge on this topic!
I am editing this message from yesterday as I chatted with one of our altitude experts this morning about this very topic. They said it is expected that your zones and AeT is going to be 10-15bpm lower at altitude. This is if you are coming from sea level and going to 6,000-8,000ft. If you are doing more than 8,000ft change you may see even more suppression in your HR. It is smart to train by feel and don’t push to your normal AeT because that will likely result in exhaustion!
I hope that helps, and maybe CP will chime in a little more on this topic 🙂
Best,
Maya
Hello Vicky,
The plan is yours to keep forever! Access included 🙂
Maya
Hello Janet,
I am very sorry to hear about your wrist injury!!! You should be able to YouTube or ask if you don’t know some of the names below.
Here are some suggestions I would try in general you could turn this in a circuit with 10reps, 2-3x through depending on how you are feeling.
Core:
– Bicycles
-Superman’s
– Kayakers (no weight)
-Flutter kicks
-Door Frame rows
-Leg Lifts
Workout: Add weight as you need a weight vest might be the best options so you don’t have to hold anything
-Box Step ups
-Box Step Downs
-Single Leg Split Squat
-Lunges
It sounds like you need to avoid things like overhead press? Let me know if this helps or if you want more ideas/details 🙂
Best,
Maya
Hello Angelina,
Great question! For strength training like this you do not need to fill the 45min, it is just a suggested time since we are unsure how quickly people move through the gym.
I am glad to hear you are liking it 🙂
Maya
Hello Pia,
I think the Wonderland plan could be a great fit for you! I do not think that it would be too much coming off of FUA. The start of the Wonderland plan is at fewer hours than the end of the FUA Intermidate, so you could even start a couple of weeks into the Wonderland plan if that works with your timeline better. The Wonderland Trail is 150km total; the plan is designed to have you run comfortably around 50km/day, which is more than the RUN2. Additionally, the total elevation of the Wonderland trail is over 7,000m of elevation gain, which is also greater than the RUN2 totals. You can never be too fit for anything, so I would recommend you use this after FUA.
I hope that makes sense!
Best,
Maya
Hello Silviana,
1.) You could switch to the intermediate plan. I am not 100% sure where your fitness is, but switching is an option.
2.) You could still do the run/walk progression, but it won’t be in the intermediate plan. It is only written in for the Base plan-you could make up a similar progression, though, if you wanted to get back into running shape.
3.) I am not sure if switching is a horrible idea as I am unsure what your training has looked like since Covid. If you are just now returning to training, I highly recommend staying on the base plan. I would add aerobic volume to some of the aerobic days but keep the rest weeks the same. For example (runs could be 45-1hr instead of 30-45) for the longer days, add an hour each week to what is planned. If you are recovering well, you can keep adding aerobic volume. Does that make sense? You could use this as a big base period and focus more on specialized training leading up to Aug 18th. August is still a ways away.
I hope that answers your question!
Best,
Maya
Training Peaks can be ANNOYING!! Sometimes you have to change the icon of what type of sport it is for the two to connect. Say your data shows as a run but the planned workout is other or strength. Look at the images below on how to change.
Desktop works the best too! I sometimes work off my iPad and dragging is 10x harder compared to the computer.
I hope that helps!
M
Hello Pia,
We will be covering CTL towards the end of the program once everyone has enough data for the talk to be useful. If you have been using training peaks a while this type of training may be different from previous workouts and showing a decline in fitness. Remember Training Peaks is just a tool and never tells 100% of what is going on. Additionally if you are looking at the projected CTL you can ignore that because it doesn’t actually know what the TSS scores are going to be in the future since you haven’t done the workouts yet.
I hope that helps!
Maya
Hello Janet,
We know that the plan will not be a perfect fit for everyone and this is a great example of this. If you are used to doing more weekly aerobic work I say it is fine to do a longer weekend hike. If you start feeling more tired than usual cut that down to the prescribed hours rather than cutting out other days of the week.
Maya
Hello Mia,
Carolyn and I covered RPE in the last zoom. I am happy to go over it again. RPE is “Rate or Perceived Exertion” It is a tool Training Peaks uses, for the most part you can ignore it. Focus on your HR rather than these numbers.
The warm up is included in that 30minutes and your goal is do that 30min run or hike below your Aerobic Threshold. If it gets to it or a little above slow down a little. If you are going way over for more than 1/3 of you run then it becomes impactful but if it bounces up here and there that is totally okay. Don’t stress yourself over being always below we know life happens 🙂
Maya
Hello Missy,
Great question, speed workouts can be really important especially for athletes who have competitive goals. The thing with speed work is it can be tricky to know if everyone is ready for it. Speed comes from power and efficiency and it is something I am careful with as a coach especially in a group format where I am not monitoring each athlete’s strength and ability. A safe way to start adding in some faster running is doing it on a incline as you will be limited by how fast you can go which can protect yourself from injury. The advanced plan does have intensity in it that can lend itself as speed work.
Carolyn may have other thoughts on this as well!
Maya
Hello Elaina,
I am glad to hear you feel like the base plan is the right one for you! As for Garmin connect, I believe it connects once you get into WiFi so it might just take a little longer since your phone was in airplane mode. I am not 100% sure of how the technology works. But I am glad to hear you are being safe with your beacon, that should always come first!
Maya
Hello Hannah,
Great question! There is a benefit to having more days of consistent training rather than just getting in those hours in any way possible. If you are used to doing bigger days I would recommend you try the program as is and if Saturday sneaks up a little bit but you feel like you can recover well then go for it. If you start feeling tired and you can’t let go of the longer weekend days you can shorten the other aerobic days but try to still get out the door for at least 20min the other three days 🙂
This article talks about why training through the week is important, I thought you might find it interesting: https://uphillathlete.com/the-weakened-weekend-warrior/
I hope that helps!
Maya
Hello Mia,
I would say 143 is a great place to keep your AeT for now! 5.4% is pretty close, nice job on the test 🙂
Maya
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