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Introduction: Mountain running is an exhilarating and challenging sport that pushes athletes to their limits, both physically and mentally. To excel in this demanding discipline, runners must possess exceptional strength, endurance, and agility. While logging countless miles on the trails is undoubtedly essential, incorporating cross training into your routine can elevate your performance to new heights. In this blog, we explore the numerous benefits of cross training for mountain runners and how it can help you conquer the peaks with confidence and resilience.
Conclusion: Cross training is a valuable tool for mountain runners seeking to improve their performance, prevent injuries, and maintain a well-rounded fitness level. By incorporating diverse activities into your training regimen, you can enhance your overall fitness, build strength and power, prevent overuse injuries, and enjoy mental refreshment. Embrace the benefits of cross training and unlock your true potential as you conquer the mountains with confidence, strength, and endurance.
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To understand how the body becomes stronger, it is important to understand how the body adapts to stress. This can be traced back to findings from Hans Selye, an endocrinologist who found that when stressors were placed on mice in a laboratory setting, all the mice demonstrated similar response levels. This adaptation is referred to as the general adaptation syndrome
GAS comprises three stages: 1. Alarm: When alarmed, the body has an immediate response of fight or flight where it shifts its resources to muscular and emotional needs. 2. Resistance (also called adaptation): The body is able to adapt to stressful situations and become stronger. 3. Exhaustion: If high levels of stress persist for too long, the body will begin to break down. When an ultrarunner trains or races, the body recognizes the effort as a stressor and it adapts to deal with the stress. The goal of an athlete is not to end up in the third category of GAS: exhaustion (i.e., overtraining). Overtraining Syndrome occurs when an individual continues to put stress on the body without adequate rest. As a result of this, the body will eventually break down and performance will decrease. This is a crucial aspect of effective training, as athletes respond differently to the stressors put on them. For example, some athletes respond best to multiple back-to-back hard training days, while other athletes respond best to at least one recovery day in between hard training days. It is important to note that the resistance stage of GAS differs in time and intensity depending on the athlete. For example, a professional ultrarunner would likely have a longer duration in the resistance phase than a non-professional, and the professional would certainly have a higher effort level. The concept of having at least one day off between exercising the same muscle group via strength training is standard. What is not as well-known is how many days an endurance athlete should do cardiovascular training before taking a day off or adding an easy day. To answer this question, two primary factors need to be considered. 1. Intensity and/or distance of the training session 2. Recovery rate of the athlete Generally speaking, the greater the intensity or volume, the more rest is required. The recovery rate of an athlete is largely influenced by their level of fitness. The better conditioned an athlete is, the faster their recovery rate will typically be. The optimal amount of rest required between training sessions is best ascertained through trial and error. As fatigue can set in at any point, it is important to closely monitor athletes via feedback regarding their fatigue levels. This can often be a tricky proposition because in order for an athlete to improve, fatigue has to occur. It is through the recovery process by which an athlete makes gains. For lack of a better description, an athlete has to get worse before they get better. However, too much fatigue is a bad thing and puts an athlete in a deep hole that takes a while to get out of. If after a recovery period an athlete is not improving, it is likely because they are not recovered and/or needs a different training stimulus. The diagram below illustrates the basic concept of stress and recovery in relation to the construction of a training program. As you can see, the volume increases as a program progresses, with periods of rest in between. 5/18/2023 0 Comments Why Do I Have To Run Hard?This is a fair question. It would be easy to assume that since an athlete will likely never be running at a VO2 Max intensity during an ultramarathon, this sort of intensity is not needed in an ultrarunning program.
However, the rationale for having intensity in an ultrarunning training program is for the physiological cardiovascular adaptation, not because a runner will be running at those speeds/intensities during a race. That being said, once a runner is fairly well conditioned, any increase in speed comes from running harder, not longer. For example, the true value of VO2 Max training for an ultrarunner is that they can raise and sustain their lactate threshold pace for longer. Therefore, if a goal of an athlete is to get faster at any distance, adding intensity is a must! Special consideration should be made when approaching speedwork with ultrarunners. Note that ‘speedwork’ is not synonymous with ‘high intensity,’ as it is during traditional road and track running events. High intensity in an ultramarathon context can be done uphill, downhill or on flats. However, the speed specificity of ultramarathons should be paid close attention to. For many ultramarathon runners, the slowest pace they will run will be during the actual race. So, coaches should be advised as to not mismatch speed and intensity during planning training for athletes. |
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