10,000ft a week

[IanDarkpeak]

How about up to Stoodley Pike and back from the valley floor? Or anything similar in the area really.

The lane past our house drops 50m to the beck (and another 40m to the top of the lane, all in about half a Km) so a few reps gets the ascent in quite quickly.

The only problem with the climbs in the Pennines is that they are quite short compared to many in the Lakes. Leg 1 of the BG has just three climbs and descents totalling 1600m both up and down.

Most of my training was done on Kinder-Derwent edge, just lots of ascents. it doesn't matter if you can't get a 3000ft climb in if you can do 6 x 500ft or 3 x 1000ft hill reps it's the time climbing. Mixed with the odd long days in lakes or Scottish hills is fine.



You don't practice racing a marathon to race a marathon

[Bob]

Well my mileage pre BG was in the 20-25 miles per week range. Not sure what the weekly ascent figures were - probably around 6000ft. I certainly suffered on the downhills later in the round.

Now, our lane - first half below the hose is, erm, boggy and fairly steep, second half is tarmac but about 1 in 4 or steeper. Hmm half a dozen reps of that are going to hurt!

[Fellhound]

This is all well and good but there are a couple of things I think are worth remembering:

1) Some BG/PB/CR round contenders are more talented than others. I know of someone who got up to 30,000ft per week before his BG yet I know other successful completers who never approached that and never needed to - they were simply more talented.

2) Ten reps on a 200ft climb/descent DO NOT equal a 2000ft climb/descent. It may be the best you can find but there is still no substitute for BIG climbs and descents or for hours on your feet (regardless of distance).

Most people seem to agree that it's the descents that will get to you on the BG if you've neglected big hill work.

In a nutshell: train where you can during the week but make sure you get out for long days on big hills at the weekends.

[andy k]

here is an alternative to pure hill work if you can't always get to a hill.

a story

After a period of not training atall hard or well I spent a week orientering in Sweden in heather, bilberries, boulders bogs and brashings, no particluar focus on hills. I was slow, it was hard and it was knackering.

After I got back I ran a hill race and I floated up the hills.

My first sport has always been orienteering. I always did a good percentage of my training in rough terrain, totally off paths, in forest, heather, bog or boulders.
When training properly I could run a decent hill race, without particular specific hill work because of the rough terrain work I did.

Why should this work? I believe its because muscle contraction when running in rough terrain is slower and more sustained than when running on the flat, the same is true of climbing, both require excellent leg strength.

So if you can't get to a hill, get to the roughest peice of ground you can find. yes you'll run slow - but thats what gives the training effect.

This won't toughen your legs up for the descent though.
you could try squats with a weights bar for that.

[southernsoftie]

Exnay on the eightsway!!

[Swoop]

According to my Garmin I do more than 10,000 feet every week. I'm not doing a BG though.

[Stolly]

According to my Garmin I do more than 10,000 feet every week. I'm not doing a BG though.

5000 ft of arm swinging and 5000 ft of climb then? Someone told me they did the London Marathon with a garmin and recorded 800 ft of climb

[mxhornet]

Did they have a bouncy stride ?

[Stolly]

Did they have a bouncy stride ?

It must be arm movement if worn on the wrist. I suppose wearing it on the bi-cep would be better.

[Pilgrim]

Did they have a bouncy stride ?

*goes into geek mode*...

Not that bouncy if you think about it. Say stride length gives distance between same foot hitting ground ~ 3m, that would make ~ 14,000 over 42km. 800' is (ROUGHLY) a little under 10,000''. 10,000''/14,000 ==> just under an inch per stride.