I “popped” my achilles about 14 years ago and was a terrible experience. I too added calves at the end of my gym ME sessions earlier this year using MTI’s Tabata calve raises.
, but a lot less work on the quads/hamstrings.Truth!The two hills I'm using has me on my toes (calves fully engaged) probably 25-35% of the route; thankfully not 25-35% straight—nicely sprinkled out instead.
I was purposely trying to avoid something so steep that you're on your toes the entire way—you'd have calves like Conan
Don’t know how your breaking up your circuit but I would say that using more than 25% body weight for lunges is def gonna move away from ME and more towards anaerobic strength mostly due to the longer range of motion and eccentric component. I would probably keep those below 20%. Same goes for the nature of a sled push unless it’s really light, it’s going to really hammer your lungs.
Anaerobic strength is completely exhausted by 90 seconds (but for most much sooner). So, if you are maintaining the activity for over 90 seconds continues/only breif pauses you are hitting ME. If you are doing it in the most effective way or not is up for debate.
This sounds to me like a classic lactate threshold workout, yes? Steady stay at lactate threshold for around an hour? (And I think the terms would be “slow twitch” fibers versus “fast twitch” fibers: aerobic and anaerobic refer to energy systems being employed rather than muscle fiber types.)
There’s some benefit to the lactate threshold, as it strengthens the foundation for it, but I wouldn’t categorize it as such. The effort is more similar to marathon type effort, but the fatigue is aimed at working with resistance that we aren’t adapted to so we end up to breaking down mechanically before metabolically. The approach needs to be long enough to place that stimulus squarely on the aerobic side.
Are your HR zones accurate? What are your zone values? Are you using a wrist-based HR monitor or chest strap monitor? It's Ok to be outside Zone 2 at first, but you should only be in the lower part of Zone 3 at most. If you are going into the upper Z3-Z4 I would add weight and slow your pace. Do not ignore your HR; listen to the video starting at 2:00, it is clearly stated what HR zone you should be working in.
100% agree.
Dunno if my zones are accurate, never tested. I wear a garmin watch and use that for my HR (prob not 100% accurate). My max effort HR is about 180, avg resting 53, and I was holding about 120 today trying not to let it creep up. I was also trying to make sure I could breathe through my nose. An hour of box step ups, 1/5th body weight, box height just below the knee. It felt like my muscles were definitely engaged, but not heavy pack up a steep hill level effort. Post workout, my quads/calves feel like they worked, but not wobbly sore bonking level fatigue. I’ll do another one in 3-5 days with about 20 more lbs, maybe accept a slightly higher HR and pace.
Looks like a great training hike.
Not nearly as arduous as @Poser s' hunt, but a metric for me to consider. Last weekend I packed in a 35-ish lb pack for a three day hunt and the last day packed a 80-ish lb pack (buddy killed a cow) out ~ 6 miles (mostly downhill).
The most weight I used for ME training was 45 lbs. I'm not going to say the pack on the way out felt like a feather, but wasn't overly discomfortable and my legs weren't overly fatigued.
During the day I was carrying a 25-ish lb pack and covering 8-10 miles over some relatively rough country and felt fine.
YMMV but I'll definitely be back to ME training before next season
