Muscular Endurance for Mountain Athletes

[P Carter]

In case folks are interested: the men’s and women’s winners of UTMB this year were both coached by Scott Johnston, and he focuses heavily on muscular endurance, including weighted uphill carries. This cropped up frequently on the evoke endurance podcast, when he was talking about these two athletes and their ME training even before they won.

Here’s an article discussing this somewhat unconventional approach: https://www.irunfar.com/coaching-the-2025-utmb-champions-scott-johnstons-focus-on-muscular-endurance

 

[mtwarden]

^ great article, thanks for posting

 

[mtnbound]

In case folks are interested: the men’s and women’s winners of UTMB this year were both coached by Scott Johnston, and he focuses heavily on muscular endurance, including weighted uphill carries. This cropped up frequently on the evoke endurance podcast, when he was talking about these two athletes and their ME training even before they won.

Here’s an article discussing this somewhat unconventional approach: https://www.irunfar.com/coaching-the-2025-utmb-champions-scott-johnstons-focus-on-muscular-endurance

When my training was focused more on ME, I remember thinking man my legs feel strong and I have no fatigue even after a 10 day hunt. When I didn’t focus on ME and did a more traditional training program my legs were stronger but I incurred more fatigue. That was my introduction to the importance of ME training. For me sled work is my favorite ME exercise.

 

[mahonsr]

There’s a lot of comments on how much to carry for weighted/ruck hikes - from a quick skim of the article I noticed “He has his beginner athletes carry about 5% of their body weight, and elites carry 12% to 15%”

 

[P Carter]

When my training was focused more on ME, I remember thinking man my legs feel strong and I have no fatigue even after a 10 day hunt. When I didn’t focus on ME and did a more traditional training program my legs were stronger but I incurred more fatigue. That was my introduction to the importance of ME training. For me sled work is my favorite ME exercise.

Agree—one year I didn’t do an ME block and I could definitely tell the difference, both on the mountain and from a recovery perspective.

 

[P Carter]

There’s a lot of comments on how much to carry for weighted/ruck hikes - from a quick skim of the article I noticed “He has his beginner athletes carry about 5% of their body weight, and elites carry 12% to 15%”

Agree, but keep in mind that these athletes are training for 100+ miles with 30,000+ feet of elevation gain carrying <5 lbs with frequent resupply. I think it’s fair to say hunters’ ME loads should be heavier. That said, it’s easy to go too heavy. In the books, the aim is to have a slope steep enough and pack heavy enough such that local muscular fatigue (burning leg muscles) rather than aerobic fitness is the limiting factor. So the pack weight for each person will be different, and even different from slope to slope.

 

[mtnbound]

Agree, but keep in mind that these athletes are training for 100+ miles with 30,000+ feet of elevation gain carrying QUOTE]

Complete agree with using heavier weights for hunters. I typically don’t go above 25% of BW for ME workouts. I will do some workouts where the load goes up to 50% but those are more about getting the body and mind accustomed to the feel of heavier weight.

 

[mtwarden]

Yeah for hunting I think you can easily bump that percentage up—we're carrying a lot more than 5 lbs on race day and we're typically out longer than a day. I start at 35 lbs for a couple of weeks, then 45 lbs for a couple of weeks and then 55 lbs for the last couple of weeks, ~ 20%, 25% & 30%.

I've been keeping track of my time up to the top (keeping heart rate somewhat in check), this year my second workout was ~ 10% quicker than the first and today was ~ 10% faster than that one; bump up the weight next week and see where my time falls.