Creating your mountain training plan

A training plan is a schedule of sessions, organized so as to draw the maximum from our potential. Having such a plan isn't mandatory, but it makes training easier, especially when outside constraints (family, work, etc.) are numerous. It's also these constraints that will disrupt the plan's execution, because it's hard to anticipate a nasty flu, for example, weeks in advance. It's very frustrating every time, but there's nothing better for handling those surprises than designing your plan yourself.

The different cycles

The training plan will comprise several cycles. The first and most important of these cycles is your career as a mountain athlete. It's the progression we want to follow to reach our big objectives — the ones that seem completely crazy, but which, one day, maybe… Our objectives can change over the years, but defining them is essential to keep a north star and help us stay motivated on the off days. As for the more down-to-earth cycles, they break down as follows:

The microcycle organizes the sessions over one week. It makes the various training stresses coherent and gives the body a chance to adapt to them. In the case of endurance sports, a microcycle typically consists of two strength training sessions, four aerobic development sessions, and one rest day. The mesocycle organizes the weeks of a month of training. It typically consists of three weeks with a progressively increasing workload, plus a fourth week at 50% load to give the body time to adapt before the next mesocycle. The macrocycle is the number of weeks the training plan contains. It has four phases, namely a transition phase, a build phase, a specialization phase, and a taper phase:

Finally, the mastercycle is the assembly of one or more macrocycles, objective attempts, and rest periods. We'll never say it enough: rest is essential to last over the long haul. On the one hand, it lets you take a mental vacation and reconnect with the people close to you. On the other, stopping completely allows the body to recover fully from training and outings before attacking a new, more ambitious program. An example of a mastercycle:

In this example, each macrocycle ends when the mountain season is right for the target activity. The transition is particularly short, with a fast ramp-up in load. The build is of normal length and allows weak points to be properly developed. The final weeks are a mix of genres, with the specialization done directly on objectives of increasing stakes, each with its own mini taper-and-rest period beforehand.

Defining the framework of your future plan

The starting point is knowing how much time you have before attempting your next objective. A minimum of 16 weeks is ideal, with 24 weeks being even more comfortable. If you have less time available, hiring a specialized coach is one solution to maximize your training without getting injured. It's then up to you to determine the ideal framework, in particular by adjusting the number of weeks needed for the transition phase. The fitter you are, the more this period can be shortened. Two example frameworks:

Experience lets you find the framework that works best for you, so don't hesitate to experiment at first, while keeping watch that you don't fall into overtraining Monitoring your training . If you'll allow us, let's start from the 24-week program. It then remains to define the number of weekly hours during those weeks. The starting point is to take half of last year's average weekly volume (with 600 h last year, that gives 0.5 x 600/52 = 5.8 hours) for the first week, then increase the load. The rate of increase should change throughout the weeks to keep the body constantly surprised. Following our example, one option would be:

For the specialization phase, you'll need to get out and do activities close to what you plan to do during your objectives in terms of hourly volume, while keeping the classic microcycle structure. Watch that the estimated training volume for the current year doesn't represent too large an increase over the past year. 20% is an absolute maximum: the more experienced you are, the closer the increase should stay to 5% at the very most.

The types of sessions

Once the weekly volume is known, you'll need to distribute it across the different days and sessions. The session types to incorporate are:

Aerobic development sessions are the priority; they should represent more than half of the weekly volume, with at least one bigger outing of at least a few hours. Plan for 4 sessions of this type per week. Anaerobic development sessions should not represent more than 20% of the total weekly volume and must be spaced far enough apart to give the body a chance to absorb this type of load. Plan for one session of this type per week during the build phase. Core work and strength training sessions should be done twice a week. A maximum of one hour per session is a good compromise. A few examples of core work and strength training sessions:

Examples of general strength & conditioning (GSC) sessions (coming soon)

Muscular endurance sessions can be combined with aerobic development sessions, or can stand alone. Either way, they take the place of the strength training sessions. A few examples of muscular endurance sessions:

Examples of muscular endurance sessions (coming soon)

The why of strength

It may surprise you to be developing muscular strength in order to be more enduring. Yet this extra strength will help us reduce injuries, increase the efficiency of our movements, and be more powerful. More power in the legs means more speed on the climbs. But of course, the extra strength we're looking to gain must be limited. Too much strength means too many muscle fibers, which have to be both fed and carried. A strong mountain athlete is not a gym rat. Doing strength sessions becomes all the more important as we age. For athletes over 50, the proportion of strength training sessions should be higher, even if that means stealing hours from aerobic capacity development. That does mean a decline, of course, but this decline can be strongly limited and most often offset by more efficient movement and technique on the terrain.

Examples of intensive sessions (coming soon)