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Is there say, a minimum amount of climbing I should be getting in per week? Living North East and only being able to get to the Lakes / Cheviots at the weekend I'm looking locally for some good routes with a few hills.
Average about 50 miles per week distance atm, would you say maybe averaging 5k feet per week? More? I'm not trying to beat Kilian just get stronger and better than I was last month etc etc
I'm certainly a fan of a decent weekly climb as well as mileage... I'd say 5000ft a week is a good target, and probably compares favourably with most fellrunners.
My personal target is 40 miles/10000ft per week, albeit most of that climb is on the treadmill unless I'm away for a weekend. I've pushed myself to hit that average for the best part of a year and my results have improved dramatically both on the fells and the flat.
One thing I'd say, is that whatever your target race distance, don't neglect fast flat sessions... they really help.
Interested in this as well. I climb between 6-10k a week which I realise now has been too much too soon - I can stay with better runners on the long, steep climbs but go backwards on technical terrain and especially descents - often I descend slower than the climb. Seems my body has begun to adapt to the climbing but the descents are painful, a mix of technique and weaknesses in those ankle and knee tendons.
The only flat running I've done is when my physio has banned me from climbing! I think I should do more of it.
A lot of people advocate very high weekly climb. It depends what you're training for. If you're wanting to do long Lakes races with multiple climbs, this makes sense. If not, I think speed work and general endurance running is just as important (with some hills mixed in of course).
daz, also being based in the NE, I sympathise with your lack of hills. Before I started trying to manage a couple of niggling injuries, I was doing about 15-20kft/mo, a big lump of which would come from a long run in the Lakes.
About 2-3k/week of that came from my base ‘training’, and I was adding about 1k of specific ‘hill work’ in various forms on top of that.
Couple of thoughts:
Don’t neglect the NY moors, they’re as close as the Cheviots (or closer!), and although there’s no tops of comparable elevation, you can still rack up a lot of climb by stringing things together.
I’m sad enough to have a google doc listing most of the decent training hills in North Tyneside, and some in-and-around Newcastle, their lengths and approximate gradients. If you’re sad enough to want a link, you can have one! :)
On the Longs, it's the latter climbs where most of us slow-up, suffer or even crawl. Thus, say I, monitor the weekly ascent and don't cry when the mileage falls. At least you'll get round.
Now, must do something about this falling behind along tops.
That would be ideal please mate, based in Hebburn so will be handy
Good one on the NY moors, doing Hardmoors Grandslam next year so started having a few jaunts to Guis woods, roseberry topping etc
I average about 6-7k, but agree with the comment about focusing on flat pace too.