Hi Scott,
Thanks for that. You confirmed what my intuition was telling me, but my ego wanted to ignore!
As for rebuilding my base and evaluating progress, I was thinking of doing a MAF test monthly as part of a run day. Do you feel that this has value for one training for alpine objectives, or is it a protocol more suitable for other athletes (i.e. runners)? Also, I walk to work and back every day (5km, uphill on the way home), in your experience does this sort of Z1 ‘work’ contribute over time to one’s aerobic base, or does it serve mainly as recovery training? Is it worth officially tracking it for the charts, or not really? One last question, since I’m here: do you find the pa:hr and EF metrics on TrainingPeaks to be useful? At the moment I’m avoiding hills (very difficult in Wellington!) which is where the decoupling measurement is at its best, I think, but I’d be keen to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for taking the time to respond and a big thanks for your work creating these programs. After I quit competitive cycling I flailed around for a bit trying to work out how to train for the mountains. I came across a Mountain Tactical program that I was convinced would work, but I arrived in the Southern Alps this year slower than my climbing partner (a recreational triathlete) who I used to smoke on any gradient! Never again!
Cheers,
Pat