10,000ft a week

[Mark Smith]

For my summer round (late June) I started biulding up the climbing in Jan and reached 10,000 in early march. From there on i did 10-15,000 most weeks, with the odd week of doing a little less to rest and a few more bigger weeks during May (inc the Fellsman). This seemed to work.

For winter, I had a better starting base of fitness so went straight into 10,000+ in early august for a mid-december round. I averaged 14,000' a week from august to dec, but i was not working and could fit more in.

So, about four months of 10,000' a week plus climbing for me in both cases.

Whilst the amount of climbing increased slightly throughout these periods, the proportion done on the 'big day' in each week went up. the emphasis changed from lots of outings of 1500-3500' to big days of 8000' plus, with more rest days. I think this helps prepare your fitness and your head.

[stevers]

I did the 10000ft a week thing from Feb through May for my 2008 round, with a couple of week long breaks thrown in. Worked for me. I didn't make it in 2007, for several reasons but the main one being I had trained for running and not steep ascents/descents.

10000ft a week was done in 2 sessions of about 3hr, repping Win Hill from Yorkshire Bridge.

I did a few other races, runs, recces etc and odd bits of cycling, rowing machine etc, but the backbone of it was the 10000ft a week.

I wrote up my training & prep notes, I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything but I had a remarkably drama-and-pain free round in 23:45, pm me if you are interested and I will forward them (same goes for anyone else). Most of it is sensible advice distilled from other successful BG numbers.

Stevers

[Derby Tup]

Thanks Stevers and Swiss Toni. Your experiences are very useful

[Al Fowler]

Was just interested to see how the BG-hopies are getting on with their training.

How much miles/feet are you all clocking up?




P.S I dont know if hopies is a word but i thought it sounded good.

[Derby Tup]

30ml / 5000ft most weeks since end Nov. Went out a lot in the snow mind including several headtorchers. I'm not a high-mileage man and did a 41hour walk off less than most folk would do for PPP

[stevefoster]

30-40m/7-10,000ft since last June, had three weeks off running sept/oct with shin injury but still got out on bike. Being jobless over xmas knocked the stuffing out of me for 2 weeks so two 20m/5000ft but back on track now

[ZootHornRollo]

Was just interested to see how the BG-hopies are getting on with their training.

How much miles/feet are you all clocking up?




P.S I dont know if hopies is a word but i thought it sounded good.

about 800ft at the moment

[ukhursty]

Not on BG training, but I'm in and around 10,000ft per week.

[Al Fowler]

Good effort gents!

[ZootHornRollo]

I seem to remember somewhere on this thread (or maybe another) there was talk of squats with weights being a good gym exercise, especially for strengthening the descending muscles. That right? Anything else?

I'm trying to compensate a bit for lack of time in the hills this winter and get my legs in shape for some long days.