Updated Incline Treadmill VAM Training Targets

When I updated all of the statistics for the current course records as of Elbrus Race 2013 it revealed a need to update the incline treadmill training targets.

% Incline/VAM	200	400	600	800	1000	1200
3	4.14	8.28	12.43	16.57	20.71	24.85
6	2.07	4.14	6.21	8.28	10.36	12.43
9	1.38	2.76	4.14	5.52	6.90	8.28
12	1.04	2.07	3.11	4.14	5.18	6.21
15	0.83	1.66	2.49	3.31	4.14	4.97
18	0.69	1.38	2.07	2.76	3.45	4.14
21	0.59	1.18	1.78	2.37	2.96	3.55
24	0.52	1.04	1.55	2.07	2.59	3.11
27	0.46	0.92	1.38	1.84	2.30	2.76
30	0.41	0.83	1.24	1.66	2.07	2.49
33	0.38	0.75	1.13	1.51	1.88	2.26
36	0.35	0.69	1.04	1.38	1.73	2.07
39	0.32	0.64	0.96	1.27	1.59	1.91
40	0.31	0.62	0.93	1.24	1.55	1.86
Top 10 Classic/Extreme
Record Qualifier/Extreme
Finish Qualifier/Extreme
Finish Classic
Record Classic
Top 10 Qualifier
Women's Record Classic
Women's Record Qualifier = 900
Women's Record Extreme = 650
< 4000 M Overcompensation Training

As you can see, I've included color coded columns for easier reading. I added in a 1200 VAM overcompensation training column. I added in more specific targets for the following categories:

• Cutoff (finish)
• Top 10
• Course Record
• Women's

I've been considering this spreadsheet before every one of my treadmill workouts so I have some motivation to attempt to stay inside one of these categories for training sessions where possible. No, at 1% I will not be going 30+MPH.

Training Considerations:

We'll skip the Extreme in this section. If you're training for the Extreme I'll trust that you can figure out from this next section how to adjust these numbers for your own training. To squeeze it into the Phase 2 training from a previous article, at least once a week you should, at minimum:

• Finish a Qualifier
• Finish a Classic
• Simulate the Downhill Sections

Finish a Qualifier:

Incline Treadmill: Set your treadmill to 24-36% and cruise at 600 VAM for 3 miles.

Standard Treadmill: Set your treadmill to 15% (or max) and cruise at 600 VAM for 3 miles.

In general, a VAM is a VAM and going 1.3 MPH at one angle and 2.6 MPH at another should have some carry-over benefit, though it's not as sport-specific. You should be able to plug your data into the Incline Treadmill Calculator and get more than 2.8 miles and more than 3500' of vertical. These are your targets for a Qualifier simulation.

Downhill: set your treadmill to 1% and cruise at 4-6 MPH for 3 miles. If you want you can do this on the same day or another day, though on the same day it would simulate the same type of load as on the event day. Vertical is irrelevant. If by some chance you have access to a decline treadmill then set it to -6% and cruise at 4-ish MPH (I think that's the max speed at -6%) - adjust accordingly for your own treadmill capacity, but don't set it to -1% and 8.0 MPH or something else tempting and enticing.

Duration: On the incline treadmill this will be about 2 hours for the uphill section. On a standard treadmill this will be about 80 minutes. The downhill section should take 30-45 minutes. If you do this all together in one day it will take up to 3 hours for the whole workout. If you are also doing running training, like for a half or full marathon, this will take the place of one 5-8 mile, or 3 hour day.

Finish a Classic:

Incline Treadmill: Set your treadmill to 24-36% and cruise at 400 VAM for 5 miles.

Standard Treadmill: Set your treadmill to 15% (or max) and cruise at 400 VAM for 5 miles.

In general, a VAM is a VAM and going 1.3 MPH at one angle and 2.6 MPH at another should have some carry-over benefit, though it's not as sport-specific. You'll want to see Incline Treadmill Calculator stats of more than 4.8 miles and more than 6500' of vertical. Adjust your speeds and inclines to make it work for you.

Downhill: Set your treadmill to 1% and cruise at 4-6 MPH for 5 miles. If you want you can do this on the same day or another day, though on the same day it would simulate the same type of load as on the event day. Again, if you have a decline treadmill available set it to -4% and 4-ish MPH and cruise gently for your 5 miles. Don't worry about vertical when you do this. 

Duration: On the incline treadmill this will take about 5 hours uphill. On a standard treadmill it will take about 3 hours. For the downhill it will take 50-80 minutes. If you do it all on the same day it will be a total of anywhere from 4 to 6.5 hours. If you're also doing running training, this should replace your long run day, just for the time investment, if nothing else. You should have about the same physical/cardio load as running at your endurance or long pace.

Warnings:

Be warned that training downhill running can be tough on your joints and soft tissues of your feet. Go slow, use whatever cushioning you need, and if you have to, work your way into it at about .5% decline at a time until you're comfortable.

When going uphill that steeply and that quickly  you'll be tempted to grab onto the treadmill and hang on for the ride. When you are first training like this it's better to just get in the vertical and miles and slowly work your way into Hands-Free Mode. Ultimately you want to not be hanging on. Otherwise you'll be surprised at how weak and slow you feel when you're suddenly out on the mountain without a handrail. Trekking poles will take up some of the load, but there will be intermittent times between placing them when you have no support. Don't get used to hanging on.