Too Much Treadmill!

As you probably remember, I've been healing from an injury so I'm working on the treadmill to help my knees get back in shape for my outside running and mountaineering goals.

I have been outside a few times.

Trail Running in foot deep powder snow at -1F - STORY HERE
Quandary in a Snow Storm - STORY HERE
Ice Climbing Solo - STORY HERE

But I have been on the treadmill a lot. I wear my SUUNTO Ambit 2S and keep track of my stats, and use my Incline Treadmill Calculator (HERE) and record my training logs. Here's a sample for you:

Monday 10th
ITM:
Time: 15:54
Distance: 1.001
Incline: 1.5%
Elevation Gain: 79.28'
Average MPH: 3.777
Average Pace: 15:53
Vertical/Hour: 299'
Vertical/Minute: 4.99'
VAM: 91.2

ITM:
Time: 32:18
Distance: 2.202
Incline: 3%
Elevation Gain: 348.80'
Average MPH: 4.09
Average Pace: 14:40
Vertical/Hour: 648'
Vertical/Minute: 10.8'
VAM: 197.5

Tuesday 11th
Ice Climbing:
3.0 mi Distance
24:14 Moving Time
589 ft
(going too slow to register in Strava)

Wednesday 12th
Outside:
Gulch
5.1mi
1:19:58 Moving Time
15:35/mi Pace
114 Tough Suffer Score
Elevation 619 ft
Calories 863
Elapsed Time 1:27:13

Thursday 13th
ITM:
Time: 63:09
Distance: 5.017
Incline: 1%
Elevation Gain: 264.90'
Average MPH: 4.767
Average Pace: 12:35
Vertical/Hour: 252'
Vertical/Minute: 4.19'
VAM: 76.7

That's a good mix I think for a normal winter. So far this week.

Here is a gallery of my treadmill shots. When my brain is fuzzy from riding it at 90% HR for an hour or half hour or fifteen minutes or whatever, it's a whole lot easier to just take a quick pic of the display. BTW: The vertical feet estimator gets less accurate as you raise the incline. In case you compare the stats in the pics with the above. Also some of these include multiple sessions in a day at different speeds and incline.

Now, mostly I'm showing you all of this so you can form an opinion one way or another. Can you do 25 miles a week primarily inside? Can you do it 50/50? What works for you? Here we have a ton of snow and weather and cold to deal with. Sometimes it's just too dangerous to run outside. Also I find that it messes with my ankles and hips and knees to be on invisible unstable terrain when I'm in soft snow. Even firm snow is tough on the stabilizer muscles now and then. I also tend to slow down over the winter and forcing myself to go faster on the treadmill is a great way to maintain fitness through the year.

That being said I should mention that the treadmill stats include anywhere from about 5 to 15 minutes of slower walking as I warm up, and sometimes a few minutes of cooling down. In 60 minutes of training, going 2.0-3.0 mph for 10 minutes is a major impact on the average speed. Do the math and you'll see.

I'm kidding in the title. You do get tired of the treadmill (dreadmill) and then go outside. Plan it for your own needs and don't stick to one thing only unless you know why.

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Elbrus Race Records

Elbrus Race posted a new article [HERE] about the conclusion of the 2013 event, with the records as they stand. Remember that these aren't sanctioned by a Skyrunning Federation or whatever, though they might be a bit faster than the ones they've established as records.

Todd Gilles and 3rd Place Trophy

RE: Classic Race: Among the athletes, who run Classic route (the route from Barrels refuge till 5000 m) the winner was Valentin Vergiljush (who was the Winner in International Elbrus Race in 2009). The second was Russian Alexander Popov, the third was American Todd Gilles. 

And if you recall, the Polish team talked to me about how my blogs helped them with training and logistics..

RE: Extreme Race: The great result showed also Polish athletes Daniel Choinacki (he became the third in the race) and Blazej Lyjak. 

Polish Racer with 3rd Place Trophy

An interesting statistic from the Extreme Race results of Kilian Jornet and Russian Vitaly Shkel:

showed the great surprise: in the extremely hard fight the both athletes reached the finish line at 5000 m simultaneously, with the result 2 hrs 37 min 06 sec.  The average speed of their climb was 16 vertical meters gain per 1 minute! (16 meter is more or less altitude of standard 5-stores house – so try to walk by ladder to 5 store within 1 minute  and repeat it 173 times!!!)

For our purposes we'll convert that to 960 VAM.

That's a great training goal. Sustain 1000 VAM for 3-4 hours.

Now for the Records, another worthy goal:

There’re actual Elbrus records, set in International Elbrus Rаces:

[Extreme] Andrzej Bargiel (Poland)  from Azau to West Elbrus top showed the result 3 hrs 23 min 37 sec (2010)

[Female Classic] Svetlana Sharipova (Kazakhstan) has established the women's record at the route from the Barrels, which lasts till now: 3 hrs 21 min 29 sec. This is so far the absolute female record in speed climb of the highest point of Europe from the Barrels. (2006)

[Male Classic] Anton Proshenko (Russia)  on Barrels-West top route showing time 2 hrs 28 Min 02 sec! (this is so far the absolute speed record ascent on Mount Elbrus from Barrels). (2012)