Flat Lander Freedom (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of our Flat Lander Freedom blog series. Part 1 can be found here.

USAGE OF YOUR HR DATA:

Now that you have found both your resting HR and your estimated Max HR, its time to build out your program. This paragraph will allow you to build an easy, weekly plan over time and give the foundations of “Work Capacity” or your ability to sustain a workload over time.

Let’s take your Max HR and reverse engineer it into zones. These zones are target ranges that you will use each day to build over time. The idea is the spend a prescribed amount of time in each zone for each day to build your cardiovascular system to handle the upcoming workload for the hunt.

ZONE 1 – BASE BUILDING ZONE

This is the zone that you will feel very comfortable in. It will almost feel like you are not working at all. That is actually the idea! This builds out the base of the metabolic system that you will need to build other zones. Think of it like the foundation of a house. A weak foundation will not support the weight of the house. These will be your longest sessions (60-90 minutes in length if possible).

ZONE 2 – AEROBIC ZONE

This Zone will build your work capacity and allow you to recover faster from bouts of hard work. The idea is to build this zone so that your cardiovascular system is comfortable recovering in it. This is the frame of the house. These sessions will be 50-60 minutes in length.

ZONE 3 – STEADY STATE ZONE

Steady State refers to what we call the “discomfort zone”, or the zone where you are approaching your threshold, but not near it yet. The ability to sustain these zones can only happen if your base is strong. Think of this as the roof of the house. The foundation and frame should be well built to support the weight of the roof. Zone 3 sessions will be 30-45 minutes in length.

ZONE 4 – THRESHOLD ZONE

This zone will begin to tax your cardiovascular system and allow you to work harder, longer. This is where you begin to operate for short periods with a higher level of discomfort. This would be speed hiking or even running at a sustainable pace, but your HR is pumping and you are breathing heavy and hard. This zone is the exterior walls of the house that protect your house from the elements. These sessions will be roughly 30 minutes in length.

ZONE 5 – ANAEROBIC/INTERVAL ZONE

Zone 5 is the level where you are working at max capacity for short bursts of time. Knowing that this workload isn’t sustainable for long periods, we will do “interval” work here. In other words, a period of max work (20,30 or 40 seconds), followed by a short period of rest to let your HR recover so you can repeat the interval. This is the finish work on the house!

HOW TO BUILD YOUR ZONES:

After you have run through the aforementioned tests and found your Max HR, use this easy formula as an example…

Estimated Max HR – 175bpm (example)

ZONE 5 – 170-185bpm – Interval Zone

ZONE 4 – 155-175bpm – Threshold Zone

ZONE 3 – 145-155bpm – Steady State Zone

ZONE 2 – 130-145bpm – Aerobic Zone

ZONE 1 – 120-130bpm – Base Building Zone

You can see that the zones are built in ranges that are roughly 15 bpm apart. This gives you a range to work within knowing that sometimes you will be in the low or the high end of the range.

You may have to tweak the zones based on the time you have to train, your capacity for workload in each zone, and your fitness level when you start training.

Now, let’s build out a sample weekly plan to begin. We all would love to have the availability to train every day, but you also need to understand that the recovery days are as important as the work days (…not to mention that most of us have jobs and cant dedicate 3 hours a day, 7-days per week to training)!

MONDAY: BASE BUILDING DAY

Zone 1 – 60-90 minutes if possible. This should be a brisk walk, hike, low intensity bike ride or swim. It will seem like you aren’t working hard on this day. That is correct. Keep it low but steady! Packing on base building days should be minimal (<20lbs).

TUESDAY: STEADY STATE DAY

Zone 3 – 30-45 minutes if possible. This is the discomfort zone. You should feel like you are working hard, but you can sustain it. Heavy sweat and higher HR, but manageable for the prescribed time. This is a hard hike with a pack on, harder bike ride or sustained running pace. Get into the zone and teach yourself to enjoy the slight discomfort!

WEDNESDAY: RECOVERY DAY

You will take this day off from the Cardio program. You can do weight training or some movement skills, but should focus foam rolling, stretching and resting your body for the next day.

THURSDAY: INTERVAL DAY

Zone 5 – 20-30 minutes max. Today will be your toughest day of the week. Run, ride or speed hike with a pack. Warm up in Zone 2 for 5-10 minutes. Then start your intervals like this…

20 second max effort burst followed by 40 seconds of rest. Repeat 5 times for 5 minutes total. Recover for 5 minutes.

20 second max effort burst followed by 40 seconds of rest. Repeat 5 times for 5 minutes total.

Recover for 5 minutes.

For the first few weeks, only repeat the intervals twice. As you start to recover faster, add a 3rd or even a 4th interval working up to a 3 or 4 interval day by the end of the first month.

FRIDAY: BASE BUILDING DAY

Zone 1 – 60-90 minutes if possible. This should be a brisk walk, hike, low intensity bike ride or swim. It will seem like you aren’t working hard on this day. That is correct. Keep it low but steady! Any pack weight should be (<20lbs).

SATURDAY: THRESHOLD DAY (OPTIONAL)

If your body is feeling good and not too fatigued from the week, get one Threshold Day in over the weekend. The goal here is to get your HR up to a barely sustainable level and keep it there for as long as you can. Based on our above formula of a Max HR of 175, try to get to or above 155 and keep it there for 20-30 minutes. Once again, hiking with a pack, running or biking would be good ways to achieve this day.

SUNDAY: RECOVERY DAY (REST DAY – LET YOUR BODY RECOVER)

OPTIONS AND VARIABILITY:

The idea is to utilize the program variables to gradually progress and overload the cardiovascular and muscular system from day-to-day and week-to-week. You will notice that the rest changes from day-to-day and the distances and type of training as well. There is some recovery built in so that you can adapt as the volume of training increases. A well developed program is designed to have some ebb and flow where work, rest, intensity and volume have a wave-like trend allowing the body to adapt over time.

The user also has the ability to adjust as necessary to ensure that the program challenges you adequately without doing too much or too little. Once you reach a point in the first few weeks where you can match your unloaded hike times with the loaded times you should either lower your rest between sets, add additional weight to your pack, increase your pace or increase the distance of the effort. This is why it is important to keep track of your times daily and log them so you can mark your progress. On the other hand, if you struggle to maintain or complete any given day or session you should decrease distance or weight or increase the amount of recovery time between sets. It should be challenging but the goal is that you will be continually improving over time.

TAKE AWAY:

The bottom line is that no matter how hard you try there ins’t any way to replicate the affects of what it takes to put on miles, loaded down at altitude except to do literally just that. For those that do not have that luxury, your best defense is your preparation to “flatten the curve” as much as possible to minimize the uncontrollable variables that every hunter will face in the high country. If you put in the work and take a well documented approach, it will pay big dividends for you in the field physically and mentally. Coupled with the time, money and other preparation that you spent to go on a high country hunt, it is just as valuable to prioritize your training just the same.

If you like what you see here or would like to know more, we have a more detailed blog dedicated to this article that can be found at www.hunthikeharvest.com or feel free to contact us anytime or get your own customized program for your next hunt by emailing us at hunthikeharvest@gmail.com.

Joel Raether, Owner – Hunt Hike Harvest Outdoors

John Cole, Exercise Physiologist – Hunt Hike Harvest Outdoors