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Posted by: Mark Tucker
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
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Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Building an endurance base takes more than just long easy-paced workouts. Long workouts create the muscular efficiency to deal with long miles, but moderate intensity intervals and steady state workouts are important for building a solid endurance circulatory system that, in concert with your long workouts, makes up your endurance base. A great aspect of steady state training is that you can incorporate it in a variety of training mediums: running, mountain biking, road biking, swimming, rowing, or hiking.
A steady state workout encompasses a sustained period of hard effort, paced just under what you would consider your race pace or the maximum pace that you can sustain for a given distance. Sustained efforts between twenty minutes and an hour and fifteen minutes have been shown to be most effective for this type of training. There is an obvious difference in pace between a twenty-minute effort and an hour plus effort: the goal is to sustain the pace that you start the workout at all the way until the end of the workout. The pace is typically about 10% less than your maximum effort over a similar time period. You can use a variety of methods to measure your pace and success of the workout: heart rate monitors, your minutes per mile, or for those with more experience, basing your pace on perceived effort or feel, are all effective methods. Though the pace is below your maximum effort, this workout is uncomfortable, and one of the biggest challenges is to stay with the workout mentally and maintain the pace throughout without letting the pace drop. This mental component is also great training for climbers, since this is exactly the mental toughness that you need in the midst of a tough stretch of terrain.
Note: As the intensity of your workouts increase, the importance of a quality warm-up and cool-down cannot be overstated. This is a really important aspect for preventing injuries.
Steady state workouts provide a couple of key training objectives. Accomplished over several months as part of an endurance building block, these workouts increase cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by the heart), decrease resting heart rate, and increase lactate threshold. To increase cardiac output, your body is stimulated to increase the capillary network that delivers oxygenated blood to your muscles, to increase the capacity of existing capillaries, and to increase your blood volume. These factors help your circulatory system to deliver oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and remove waste products. An increase in your lactate threshold indicates that your body is able to remove lactate efficiently at higher levels of effort, so that you can exercise harder and longer before fatiguing. Finally, a drop in resting heart rate indicates that your heart is operating more efficiently, delivering blood to your muscles with less effort.
The training gains from incorporating steady state training into your routine will help you push longer and harder in the mountains, and the ability to move more blood that contains more oxygen will do nothing but help with the effects of altitude as well! These are difficult workouts, but keep your head in the game and push hard all the way through the end and you’ll be amazed at your endurance gains!
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Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Hi Dad!
Sounds like you guys had a great trip, glad you made it back safely!
love,
Kayla
Posted by: Kayla Eland on 1/25/2011 at 12:04 pm
What a wonderful experience for all of you.
Wishing you safe travels again tomorrow. :)
Posted by: Judy H. on 1/23/2011 at 7:32 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
What a difference a day makes! No more camping and no more climbing. Today we woke to rainy skies in Usa River, but we woke in comfy hotel beds and got into nice, dry Toyota Land Cruisers. Our Safari guides: Jakob and Ng’orongo took us west through Arusha and out of the rain into the Maasai country beyond. We made it to Lake Manyara National Park by midday. Things started out slowly… a few baboons. A bird or two. The odd bushbuck. At our picnic lunch, the mountain guide on the team suggested there was nothing much remaining to be seen and that we should call it a day and head for the hotel swimming pool. Nobody listened. Our safari guides then found a lion asleep under a tree. Which turned into seven lions when we looked a little closer. Which turned into seven hungry, hyper, and hunting lions when a cheerful, clueless zebra came strolling along. Our guides kept us alongside a protracted hunt as the zebra got smart and began to move away along the lakeshore. The lions - actually five lionesses and two lions - finally pulled the trigger and sprang after the zebra. We couldn’t quite see that but somehow, they switched prey in the middle of the attack, coming away with a couple of warthogs in their jaws. The mountain guide on our team admitted that the swimming pool idea had been a poor one and that in ten years of visiting Manyara he hadn’t seen one lion let alone seven making multiple kills. To drive home the point, we then saw Cape Buffalo, giraffes, and elephants at close quarters and in quick succession. And THEN we went to the pool. We were at the Plantation Lodge for sunset and an excellent dinner. Safari Day One, in the books and exceeding all expectations.
Best Regards,
Dave
Congratulations to all!!! Absolutely amazing!!
Enjoy this part of your adventure, you rock Allison and team:)
Posted by: Allison Fisher on 8/17/2023 at 12:54 pm
Enjoying every word, following along on this AWESOME experience. So awesome
Posted by: Deb Beechy on 8/15/2023 at 4:40 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is roughly 100 square miles and is known for its abundance of animals that call the crater home.
We hit the road early with hopes of catching a few of the big cats before the heat of the day.
We managed to see several lions, including two young males up close. We also saw seven Black Rhino, which have become very rare due to poaching.
We wrapped up the day with a visit to a Maasai village not far from the craters rim. The Maasai people are a semi-nomadic tribe that exist almost entirely off of their cattle. The team spent time asking questions and enjoyed being shown around their small and simple village.
We have just finished another wonderful meal here at the Plantation Lodge
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Last night our team endured the first full night at what many would consider a serious altitude. 15,200 feet to some serious mountain people would be cause for a scoff and teenage eye roll but for us, it means lots of huffing and puffing on top of waking up with a hangover that is not alcohol induced. We look forward to that headache later but for now we are holding fast to acclimating and training.
So after shaking out the webs we ate a good breakfast, suited up and made the 1.5-hour hike to the toe of the glacier. The wind blew hard all night and did not let up during the day. This made reviewing skills a bit challenging but true-to-form everyone did great.
After returnimg to the hut we enjoyed a great lunch, some life giving cola cola and a nice power nap.
Now we are packing for the summit climb hoping the wind will die down just a bit. Right now it is blowing a steady 25 miles per hour making the thought of 19,000 feet a little cold.
So wish us luck as we climb through the night tonight. We will let you know tomorrow how it goes.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
So excited for you all. Mike G. Is a friend from our church. Hoping and praying that you will continue to the top & be able to tell friends and family all about this wonderful climb.
Posted by: Janet Robb on 1/13/2020 at 1:07 pm
Posted by: Mark Tucker
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Absolutely amazing Safari photos. Have a safe trip home everybody! May God be with you!
Posted by: Tami Reitinger on 7/25/2019 at 8:31 pm
Safe travels to all on your expedition. I look forward to joining the roof of Africa club with you hopefully next season.
Posted by: Jory on 7/25/2019 at 3:52 pm
Hello Jon! I am actually looking for training information for Mt. Rainier, next June, 2019. I came across your comment posted in January of 2018, re: Mt. Kilimanjaro. My son’s girlfriend and her aunt just completed Kilimanjaro!! There were a couple 53 and approx. 55 year old women on this climb; including my son’s gf’s aunt! It was challenging; but they did it! I think you can access the notes from the climb. Go for it! I am looking to get strong and ready for Mt. Rainier next June; I will be 61, I totally understand your questions! :-) Hope you got to move forward on this, and either have since completed Mt. Kilimanjaro, or will soon!
Posted by: Shelby Schneider on 9/19/2018 at 5:55 pm
I am a previous customer of RMI, having climbed Rainier a few years ago.
I am interested in the Kili trek.
What is the average age of the group, typically?
I will be 64 in August.
I dont want to travel half way around the world and spend all that $$$$ and not complete the mission! I dont want to be the guy ‘holding up the expedition’ so to speak.
What is your feeling about the trek vs. my age
PS: I am in good physical condition, and work out daily.
Thanks
Posted by: Jon Mitovich on 1/18/2018 at 1:28 pm
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