Main thing to keep in mind? Nothing competes with outdoor training for mountain climbing condition. I would keep it outdoors as much as possible, even if I had to suck in bad air or it was -40f/c. Keep the excuses at bay.

ok, looking back...I am not sure any of these dudes were straight! But we won races. (in all fairness, those were my wife's glasses)

We actually called this team, "Straight up with a Twist" because one of my partners was gay......crowd got a kick out of it...he was the best swimmer in the field.

jordansahls wrote:
If you want to see how your strength and muscular fitness measure up you should really try something like MichaelJ's suggestion.

Agreed. I have workouts that I use to measure the progress I am making in strength and power, and of course I use actual climbing as its own measure. I've never done the specific workout Michael mentioned (and probably couldn't, for all I know), but I've used and will use similar measures.

But I was looking for a fairly objective, fairly climbing/slogging/mountaineering-specific method to gauge aerobic fitness that was not conditions-dependent. Sounds like the stairmaster will be my best bet there until all the snow melts and I can get reliable and accurate times on local trails. Of course I'll still be hitting those trails in the meantime....just not as a week-to-week or month-to-month measure of improved fitness.

I'm coming off 3 and a half months where I literally never worked out (September-December) due to school, work and grad. school applications (and being sick 3-4 times thanks to the stress). It's been years since I went on a break even nearly that long, so I'm interested to see how quickly the fitness comes back and how much I really gain from a 5-6 month training cycle. I suppose all of this hearkens back to running, where I was much more methodical about my training than I ever have been with climbing (and more methodical than most climbers I suppose).

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

Why not have different modalities for measuring base line at different times of the year? You mention that cnditions are not good - snow/mud - for a while, but there's no reason you cannot use a hill climb as you test in the late spring and summer and then switch to some indoor method during the winter.

If you are following a periodization plan you won't be in peak condition for most of the year anyway so I would set it up so that my baseline measurement for the first 1/3 of my training year measured my aerobic endurance and then switch over to something that measures my AT/power output (like hiking up a steep hill with a pack) as I got closer to my peak season.

Twight does all sorts of LSD. Read his essay, TNSTAAFL on the knowledge page of the Gym Jones site. He went exclusively cross fit for a while and found that his endurance and ability to recover from longer events suffered. He's since gone back to a more traditional endurance based program, but with some intense strength training included as well.

I agree with the different measurements. I hike Hood every weekend with a loaded pack. I watch both my time and average HR for the 2000' climb. I know I am in decent "slogging" shape (for me anyway) at sub 60 minutes and avg HR under 150. I use the stairmaster as a barometer as well.

By the way, KB, where is your profile shot taken ? It looks somewhat familiar.

ScottyP wrote:I agree with the different measurements. I hike Hood every weekend with a loaded pack. I watch both my time and average HR for the 2000' climb. I know I am in decent "slogging" shape (for me anyway) at sub 60 minutes and avg HR under 150. I use the stairmaster as a barometer as well.

By the way, KB, where is your profile shot taken ? It looks somewhat familiar.

That's a few hundred yards East of Tiog Pass camera pointing South.

what about a treadmill at a very steep grade (say 50%) instead of a stairclimber? there would be some muscle-specific loading differences, especially at the ankle. in the treadmill case, the ankle will be in a more dorsiflexed position than on the stairclimber.

would this be more similar to leg movements with boots / crampons?