[curriespencer]

I’ve now made it though the first 7 weeks of the 24 week program. I did a 17mile 9000vert day and feel like I could go out again. I’m surprised how quickly I’m gaining endurance. Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

Starting next week I move into the base period. I was wondering if switching out the Max strength work for bouldering/climbing is worth while. I come from an Oly weightlifting background so I do have a decent amount of strength. I’ve been climbing for about a year and have been able to climb a v7 and 5.12a. I want to continue maintaining/progressing in climbing while continuing to build endurance. For now I have a lot of time to train.

The program has two days of max strength a week. I was looking to climb on those days then finish my session with single leg work and core work.

The next question I have is how long can I repeat the Base. For now I don’t have a goal peak or trip. I might look to do a 50 mile race next summer as a test piece. Until then am I able to repeat the Base 4 week mesocycle? This would mean I would repeat the base period for about 38 weeks of repeating the base.

The last question is soon it will be getting into winter so running will be a bit harder. I was looking to do a lot of skinning, would it be good to add in some nordic as well because it is more similar to running?

I would say my long term(4-5year) goal is 8000m peaks in Nepal and eventually technical mixed climbing if that helps answer these questions a bit.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on September 5, 2018 at 9:22 pm #13280

I’m glad to hear that you are seeing rapid progress in endurance. That’s a hefty day by any standard. Nice work.

With your strength background you can and should drop the max strength. I’m sure you have more than adequate general strength. It would be a fine idea to substitute more climbing specific strength in the form of bouldering and or hang board etc. And finishing that workout with some single leg stuff and general core work is a great idea.

Many folks transition from running to skiing in the winter. Skiing will build a lot of up hill specific endurance. If you can keep 1-2 little runs a week it will help with the transition back to running in the spring. If you have access to nordic skiing that too is another way to keep building that aerobic base. You’ll be able to handle a higher volume of this aerobic work than running too because XC will not beat you up as much as running.

Sounds like you are off to a great start. You can just keep in the base period as long as you want. You can’t have too much base. And the bigger it is the more/harder of the event specific training you’ll be able to manage when you do find a medium term goal.

These little steps that you are now taking will accrue over time to take you to those 8000m peaks. Keep up the good work.

Scott

[curriespencer]

curriespencer on September 12, 2018 at 8:02 pm #13410

Thank You for the reply. So much great information coming from you guys.

Decided to finish the summer with the Mummy Killer Marathon. Did a 27 mile loop with 9100 vert.
Finished it all without eating anything and no bonk! The fat adaption is really working.

One question I had for training peaks and recovery weeks. Is it good to try to set the amount of TSS for that week based upon current CTL or is there a base amount of time spent doing recovery work that doesn’t change much no matter the fitness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on September 18, 2018 at 11:52 am #13477

My general rule is to cut volume of endurance work by 40-60% in recovery week. Let TSS drop in these weeks. It is hard to plan using TSS in our mountain sports where we us hrTSS but if you are doing it this way I’d plan the recovery weeks TSS to be not more than your avg weekly TSS for the past 6 weeks.

Scott