Hi Scott,
Thank you for your thorough and erudite response!
I should have mentioned it in the post, but I feared it was already long-enough, and I didn’t want to write too much; in any case, I am about 12 weeks into a training program designed for a 50 miler late August here in Squamish. Presently, I am running around 90km a week, with between 3-4k of vertical gain in the mix. Each build week includes at least one variation of hill interval workout, sometimes on more runnable terrain, and sometimes up the classic steep, technical trails which frequently require strong power hiking.
Last week, in the middle of a 30k run, I ran the climb in question in just north of 70 minutes, the likes of which included a snow laden final 2km which had me hiking up shin-knee deep snow. The effort itself was very measured. I am fairly certain that on fresh legs and trail alike, I could run its length at 6min/km, if not slightly faster.
Given where I’m at in my program, and with the above information in mind, would you still recommend starting at 6x1km @ race pace w/ 3 minute breaks, or do you think I would be better off jumping to 8x1km w/3 minutes break, and going from there?
Thanks again for your time and insight!