Doug Freese said:dirtdog said:Ok - Specificity. In my case, run and hike hills. Next
question is volume and frequency. Are 3 hill interval
efforts per week too much? 2? 1?
Do your long runs have hills in them? What are your other
non-hill interval runs like? Some people live places where
all they have to run is fairly hilly. Others may have no
hills (other than overpasses or bridges) or maybe one good-
sized hill. (see examples at end)
Quoted message said:As Donovan asked what do you consider an interval AND how
fast do you recover? You talk about climbing hills fast
but you don't mention elevation gain, miles or time. Your
bread and butter hill hump will be proportional to your
anticipated hikes.
what they said.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:What is the optimal consideration for (times/wk or any
other metric) hills, medium distance, long, bike, leg
squats with weights (worth it or am I getting plenty with
the hill runs and biking?)
Again going with specificity, if your trails are steep with
poor footing (roots, pointy-side up rocks, loose gravel on
top rock/hard-packed dirt
= like running on marbles), I would focus on technique as
= often as you
can (rather than gym work; of course, *I* tend to be clutzy
on steep downhills so need the work) - keeping in mind what
Doug said about knowing your recovery rates.
If you live some place where hills are steep and snow
covered in winter (possible avalanches) so you're not likely
to run them then but might be doing winter mountaineering
once a week or doing smaller hills, winter would be a time
for single-legged squats and other strength (weighted step-
ups, lunges, etc), foot agility/dexterity, propriocepton
exercises (they help me, but I'm at the very inexperienced
end). Snowshoe running helps with strength also, but uses
muscles a little differently than regular running. As my
hill load picks up in the spring with snow melt and better-
footing trail conditions (=I can run farther in same amount
of time and do more hills), I drop back on the strength on
my non-running days, but don't eliminate it completely
(probably becomes more stretch-like drills). Single-legged
squats strengthen the foot / ankle balancing muscles, which
you may find helpful on trails, esp. with tricky footing.
Two-legged squats would help more with large muscle
strength, 1-legged with small muscle strength. Step-ups and
lunges work other things.
Choose the workouts most specific for what you are trying
to do, where your weaknesses are, and what your recovery
time allows - and maybe some footing considerations (ice
in winter).
Quoted message said:You're asking about the meaning of life. if you ask a 100
people you will get 99 different answers.
Just to give a range of examples from our local big hill
(3000ft up in 2-2.5mi then turnaround and lose all that
elevation, downhill is frequently the limiting factor).
beginner female (late 50s) - run/hike - once every 3-4 wks
on the big one (smaller ones in intervening weeks) locally
competitive female - about 3 times per week on the big one
when training for the mtn running grand prix elite males - a
bunch - at least when it's not snow covered. I've heard that
one guy does something like 300+ miles a year with about
300+k elevation gain (and same amount lost), so he's not
spending a whole lot of time doing any running except hills.
The folks that do well on Mt. Marathon (3mi, 3k ft, out/back
so about 3k ft in 1.5 miles) go down to Seward and run it -
multiple times (not sure if back-to-back days or if run,
fish, run, etc.). But they've spent time building up to that
- or are hs and college age and "indestructible" 😉 One of
the other Alaskans that only posts occasionally could tell
you more about how they train since he and his brother are
competitive in some of the mtn races. As already mentioned,
CaveDog trains on what he's going to run, and I suspect he's
running or hiking hills most days when it's close to race
time. Their current conditioning and recovery rates allow
that, and their goals require that. YMMV.
Just some thoughts for cross-training. I've noticed many
competitive mountain runners are also competitive snowshoe
runners and some are competitive at ultra distances also, so
there's a lot to be said for snowshoe running in the winter
for conditioning for hill running.
At least where I am in Alaska, I think the weights and stuff
like that are used mostly only in the winter. Most indoor-
exercises places have reduced summer hours since everybody's
outside. Snow-free mtn running season is probably 2-6
months, depending on year and elevation, so you cross-train
heavily at other times so you can max your time on the mtns
when they're there. This is where understanding how to
maximize cross-traiing benefits helps. Things like agility,
which isn't usually associated with snowshoe running, are
nice abilities for downhilling on loose gravel and where xt
drills can help.
OTOH if your goals are rapid winter ascents, then you're
doing the hills then also and running on dirt in summer
becomes cross-training - or a different goal.
Dot
--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope
