Training Log - December 6-12
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 12:47AM Nothing outrageous to report this week in training. I was on target for getting my 15 hour/week goal and then got side-tracked by the damn job! Yes, life certainly gets in the way when you don't get paid to train. So, I ended up taking an extra day off on Thursday after getting hammered in the operating room for 11 hours and just could not get psyched about going up on the King after 8pm. This allowed me a short block of over-reaching into the weekend that I certainly felt. Hopefully, I will come up out stronger because of it.
I did no really long days this week, with the longest being 3.5 hours. What I did get was more intensity and I felt it by the weekend. I did my usual VO2 max intervals on Tuesday and felt good. I experimented with getting the "engine running" prior to hitting the throttle for multiple minutes. I liked how that worked and will repeat that tact this week. Instead of jumping right into a 5 minute all-out effort, I "warmed up" with 1 minute on, 1 minute off for 5 minutes to start. This is still hard but easier than 5 minutes straight, obviously. I then hit two more efforts of 5 minutes each with full recovery followed by one more set of 2 on, 2 off x 3. I proceeded into the weight room after that and called it an honest day's training.
The other hard day was somewhat less taxing although it seemed to cost me more into the weekend. Friday night I hit the King for a bunch of 30/30 efforts, 37 of them to be exact! Sounds like a lot and probably is for this old man. I warmed up for half a lap and then did 10 of them to the top. The next lap I started them from the bottom and took 27 minutes to top out again. One thing is for sure: doing them on a machine road is way easier than doing them up the fall line. Holy crap! The lactate load is much higher and recovery less going straight up. It took me ten or eleven of them to get to the machine road and I was ready for the quasi break. Take home point here is that I probably get closer to my actual max when doing them straight up the fall line. I will do more of those!
Following those efforts I went straight into the weight room and tried to catch up on some missing work for the week in the form of 3 sets of 30 rep squats. I warmed up with 95 lbs on the bar and that felt easy. I did the next two sets with 135# which was hard but not ass-kicking in the I-think-I'm-gonna-puke kind of way. Nonetheless, they take their toll, for sure. I think I will bump up to 140# next time.
The real beat down was Saturday when I agreed to meet another, faster skimo racer up on the Pass for some laps on Edelweiss. After our approach run, he stripped down to his friggin' race suit and I knew some pain was coming. I hung pretty close for the first 20 minute lap, probably ending up 10 seconds behind him. When he did a full race-speed skin rip I knew the descent would be fast, as well. We railed it to the bottom without slowing. Another fast transition and he was gone. I arrived in time to tell him I was slowing a bit before he took off. That was the last I saw him that day. He was planning on 5 laps before heading off to the Village for some cable time and I was going to do at least 6 runs.
I settled down a bit but kept the pressure on until the final 6th lap. I was near threshold the whole time but not quite the intensity required for the first lap. I was just tired. The weights from the night before made my glutes sore. There was a part of me that felt that maybe I shouldn't be going that hard at all. Not really sure. It had me second-guessing my plan just for a moment. I got the work done and was WORKED afterwards. Ate big that afternoon and actually did not feel too bad on my recovery day Sunday. In hindsight, as is my habit of not extending myself too much on multiple days, I would have done a recovery ski on Saturday and then got more out of a Saturday-like effort the following training session. But like I said, it was a bit of over-reaching that can pay some dividends when applied occasionally. We'll see.
Here's the run down:
Monday rest
Tuesday ski, 2 hrs., 3,000' vertical, Snow King, HARD, VO2 max intervals, 5 x 1 min on/1 min off, 2 x 5 minutes, 3 x 2 min on/2 min off, then weights, 1 hr. FS 215, SS 145
Wednesday ski, 2:15, 4,500' vertical, Snow King, recovery
Thursday off
Friday ski, 2 hr., 3,800' vertical, Snow King, hard, 37 x 30/30 intervals, break after first 10, then weights, 15 min., 3 x 30 rep squats, last 2 sets at 135#
Saturday ski, 3.5 hrs., 7,500' vertical, Edelweiss, 6 laps, race pace
Sunday ski 2.5 hrs., 5,000' vertical, Edelweiss, 4 laps, recovery
Total 13.5 hrs., 23,800' vertical
Coming up this week, more of the same. Hope to get another solid interval session in on Tuesday, perhaps adding an additional 5 minute hit. I'll add 5 lbs to the 30 rep squat sets. I would like to see 4 hours at least once if not twice this week. Perhaps a longer adventure into the Park is in order. My operating room schedule looks lighter this week so I should be less hammered on that front. - Brian
Reader Comments (8)
Brian, would like to get your opinion.....for someone such as myself that is focusing more on peaking around march/april (races that I really want to perform well at) how much time/week should I be focusing on volume vs. intensity (VO2, threshold, etc) training? As of right now, I've been doing 1day/week that is at least 10K of vert at any easy pace and 1-2 days/week of intensity training (usually threshold and short intervals). The other days are filled with recovery days and lifting. This is coming off a season of ultra running (so, good aerobic base). Part of me wants to keep up the volume, but I also need to get on the intensity stuff.....just don't wanna burn out before the months that I want to perform best. This means I'm gonna get creamed at the US Champs (kinda bummed they moved it up to Jan) but, oh well.
You should do well at Nats. that's some hardcore training your doing.
What happened to less is more? With that kind of volume are you able to still hit the high intensity during your intervals?
Actually, I'm just jealous that you can get that kind of week in. I overextended myself, and caught a cold, and have been out for a week.
Ray,
IMO, you have plenty of time to do several things with your training. You are getting some long days in and if you are enjoying them, by all means, continue. But if they seem to be a chore going that far, shorten them up. It depends upon the length of the events for which you are preparing. If it's something like the Pierra Menta then you need the 10k days. But if it's regular rando racing then you are probably wasting your time some. Overdistance has some utility but should not dominate the training year.
With your goals a ways out, you can relax some on the intensity, maybe doing just one quality workout a week. Keep it relaxed and just ski. With 8 weeks to go before your first key event you can add another intensity day and back off on the longer stuff. Keep plenty of recovery skis in there. With enough volume behind you, you really only need to sharpen what you have. Too much volume during this period will dull the edge and keep you from maximizing the important efforts.
As you move into this lead up period, spend all your time on race gear. Even if the powder is going off, just hit it on the 160's and laugh it up! You'll still be lapping your partners and be stronger for it on the downhills.
You know me, I would keep with the weight work outs throughout and avoid them the week before the event.
The other thing I would add is a complete back-off week every 5-6 weeks. Drop out all intensity and cut the hours in half or even less. This should recharge you batteries nicely for another round of punishment. - Brian
Brian, thanks for the input. That makes a lot of sense. I'll likely be keeping in the 10K+ days since I have a couple of pretty big traverses/link-ups down here in the San Juan Mtns this winter. They will be big 24hrish events. Got pretty inspired by Jared's WURLOS project and realized the potential for similar things down here.
I've been doing a lot of research over the last yr about how the elite distance runners train (particularly the Kenyans) and its surprising to see the similarities in their training schedules. I have been approaching my skimo training in a similar manner....i.e. a week based on one very long/easy day, 2x intensity days, and the rest are filler with recovery runs or just days off. The key being that each of those three days is followed by a recovery day. Those three days, however, are the core of the training. As they say though....the devil is in the details. The "intensity" days get faster, longer and with shorter rests as the season progresses, so in the beginning they can almost not even seem like intensity days. The long days are also relative and they increase each week through out the training period. They then take a week off every few weeks (just like you suggest) based more on feel and how your body is currently responding to the training. Apparently weight training is just plain silly to Kenyans..ha! This format worked great for me for running and I have been trying to see if I can apply it to skimo training. The interesting thing is most of the top runners keep this program going most of the year and then take a month or two off completely and never do any true "base periods".
...the only problem is we need some freakin snow.....we haven't gotten jack down here....
So, I was wondering what you would be doing for training if you were not focused on racing and more on recreational B/C skiing/ski mountaineering? I guess I'm kinda asking for myself! I find myself skiing on the weekends for fun (4-5 hours) and intervals 1-2X during the week, plyometrics 1X, weights 2X. I used to run 4X a week, but found that I hurt more and performed the same as just doing intervals and a long day or two on the weekends. I still try to run, but only for fun and not usually more than 3-5 miles. Throw in a sesh or two on the climbing wall and you've got a punter weekend warrior!!!
Thanks,
Ralph
Ray,
That is some great stuff about the Kenyans. Makes us feel better about what we are doing. Although the temptation is always there to go harder than we should figuring that if a little intensity is good then more is even better, most physiologists suggest otherwise. There are several studies out there looking at guys like us and playing with the number of "quality" workouts in a week. As soon as they bump the interval days up to 3 or more, the athletes start crashing. Most start exhibiting symptoms of overtraining within a couple of weeks.
For the unaware or poorly disciplined, a HR monitor with an alarm setting would be good to keep intensity in check when we are supposed to be going easy, which is most of the time. I simply check in with my legs and breathing. I try to be nearly conversational on those days.
Clearly, you need to keep up those 10K days to prepare for those long traverses you are talking about. You will be well-prepared. - Brian
Ralph,
You know, in between two long stints as a bike racer, I spent 10 years in full punter mode, as you say, doing a little bit of everything and being pretty fit. The only thing I lacked back then was the top end. I got so tired of breathing hard racing my bike that I shied away from that part of training until I got back into racing a few years ago.
You, of course, are still doing intervals so you are probably cultivating that end of your cardiorespiratory fitness just fine. Frankly, I'm not sure I would change anything about what you are doing. Perhaps getting the odd 8-10 hour day on some weekends will better prepare you for the typical mountaineering beatdown that you might face on bigger objectives. Other than that, probably some uphill hiking with a heavy pack on an intensity day would also be a good supplement and very sport specific when you trade in your skis for crampons. - Brian