Got another one in Sunday— longer at 1.3 miles w/ 1950' gain, roughly the same steepness (we did an additional 6-ish miles w/ very little gain, almost all down hill).
I think I was calculating slope degree wrong. I was using distance traveled with ascent putting it into a calculator that shows both grade % and degrees. Looking at it, they use the "horizontal travel" and ascent; horizontal travel is not the long side of the triangle, the long side is the actual distance traveled—so that shortened up (not a lot, but a little) the one side I needed to enter w/ the ascent. Had to brush up a bit to the horizontal travel side—who said geometry would never be useful
Both of these were pretty close to 20 degrees, which IMHO you're not going to get much steeper without being on your toes the entire time and most likely pulling on rocks/vegetation to help get you up the slope.
We were able to carry on a conversation the entire way up and according to my watch pretty solidly in Zone 2 (occasional Zone 3).
Like the prior session, pretty sore/fatigued legs, but not sore enough I couldn't hike my regular trails the next day.
, but we still lost a lot of elevation w/ weight on out backs.
Absolutely.
For those that can’t get to the mountains during the week I’ve found adding a few sets of jumping lunges & squat jumps after a Stairmaster ME session does a pretty good job of building endurance for the downhills. And if I’m doing steep hiking with a lighter pack on the weekend seems to convert well. I do like to get in 1-2 steep outdoor session with a heavy pack in the month before though.
This is a great gym-based ME workout that's based on jumping lunges and squat jumps. A good block of these, followed by a good block of weighted uphill hikes, is a great way to prep and then peak.
www.uphillathlete.com
Also just doing this without the uphill block is probably much safer and effective than trying to hike with 110 lbs, if you don’t have access to steep enough terrainThis is a great gym-based ME workout that's based on jumping lunges and squat jumps. A good block of these, followed by a good block of weighted uphill hikes, is a great way to prep and then peak.
FREE At Home Muscular Endurance Workout with Progression
Click to download a printable PDF of this workout.The following gym-based ME program is ideal for runners, skiers, alpinists, and any other mountain
I agree 100%. If you can afford to hunt western big game then you can sure as hell afford to get a membership or punch card for a gym with a Stepmill. Even though I’m 45 min from a great 35% fall line, I primarily use a Stairmaster for my ME sessions and even some endurance sessions when it’s impractical to drive to that hill. I think the Stepmill is better for the pure ME benefit, the off trail hiking is just icing on the cake for me. It’s some serious mental training to stay in on that suffer machine for an hour or more with no cool breeze and mountain air to keep you happy.the "steep enough" terrain should be available to almost anyone; stairs as it turns out are almost the perfect steepness
find a multi-story building, strap the pack on, rinse and repeat—just ignore any funny looks!
One thing I remember from reading Uphill Athlete was that your lungs and heart should not be the limiting factor for lower body strength endurance. The limiting factor should be your legs. I'd suggest adding more weight.
A mile of lunges or the BW squats could be ME work so long as you do keep your HR in Z2 or with nasal breathing. If you are working in Zone 4, then I would say you are not doing ME work. You are working in more of a threshold zone, so two different energy systems.
