Posted In: Rock Climbing: Route Climbing Level 3
Steve, thank you! I appreciate your insights, very helpful. Nearly all of my training injuries and failures have been from trying to do too much rather than too little, so I’ll probably play it safe and add an easier build week between 16 and 17 as you recommended. That seems to make a lot of sense. But it’s also good to know that I have solid “upgrade” alternative if I do feel really strong a few weeks from now.
Thanks again!
@sws Thanks, Scott! I’ll do another AeT test in a few weeks, but for now continue to train at <145. I really appreciate the feedback, this forum is an amazing resource.
Thanks, Reed! I really appreciate the feedback—that helps confirm what I (mostly) suspected. I’m going to take your advice and be conservative with my pace for a few months. The plan calls for a ton of easy running for the first 9 weeks anyway, so it shouldn’t be a huge adjustment. Looking forward to it and optimistic that I’ll see some improvement!
@nullkru Cool, glad you found it! There’s a bit of a learning curve to managing these plans with Training Peaks, but totally worth the effort.
@scott THANK YOU! This is an amazingly helpful response, I appreciate the effort and detail.
I’ve been roughly following the Transition Period guidelines from TftUA for a few months, and am comfortable with about 25 easy miles a week right now. So I think I’m ready to dive in to the plan, but will back off and reassess if I feel like my base volume isn’t sufficient. I’ll re-review Chapter 11 to get a better sense of exactly how to structure the volume progression.
At this point in my life—a week shy of my 40th birthday—I’ve realized that durability and longevity are more important than specific race goals, so I’ll take your advice to err on the conservative side of the volume ranges. (I’ve been running off and on since high school xc, but not seriously until a few years ago. I didn’t truly understand the importance of an aerobic base until finding your book last year. As for genetics, let’s just say I was never picked first in gym class!)
Thanks again for the reply. You’ve built an excellent resource here, and I can’t recommend your books and website enough!
@mike-faulkner5335 thanks for sharing your experience! That sounds like a good target for me too, and it’s reassuring to hear from others who’ve had to solve this problem.
Scott, I do have one follow-up question about scaling the Big Vert plan volume:
I browsed each week of the plan in Training Peaks, and I see that for shorter distances, the weekly volume maxes out at 160% of the goal race distance (around week 16):
For events under 50km in length with less than 3000m in elevation, this week should contain about 160% of the event’s total elevation and distance.
My primary goal race distance is only 12 miles/3000′, so following these guidelines would only put my highest volume week at 19 miles/4800′. This still seems like way too little mileage (at least from a road-running perspective).
So, my questions, for a 12-mile/3000′ goal race:
1. Should I scale up the Big Vert plan’s weekly volume beyond the 50km guidance?
2. Or, alternatively: what would an appropriate max-volume week look like for such a short race? (If I have an idea what my max distance/vert should be, I can scale the other weeks from there.)
Since I do have some longer ~50k goals in the weeks/months after that race, would it make sense to simply scale the Big Vert plan as if I’m training for the longer distance/vertical? So I’d essentially be sacrificing some race-specificity in order to be better prepared for the non-race goals?
I understand there’s probably no absolutely correct answer, and I’ll have to adjust as I go. I’d just like to begin as close to the target as possible.
Thanks!
Aaron, thanks for your comment! I searched the forums for your previous posts and see you’ve already asked most of my questions, and received great replies. It seems our age, training goals, and circumstances are very similar, so I’m extracting a lot of wisdom from those posts.
Scott, thanks for the feedback! That’s super helpful.
You confirmed what I’d already kind of suspected, so I’ll skip the freeride plan this year and focus more on my aerobic base this fall and early winter (downhill performance isn’t my weakness anyway). I’d love to be optimistic, but my life/work/dad/husband/training schedule is demanding enough already, so I don’t think I’d manage that extra volume successfully.
Also, thanks for clarifying the Big Vert plan structure. I just purchased it, and now see that each week’s overview gives a distance/vert progression for shorter distances. Very excited to get going on this in a few months!
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