Ty's Training: Week of 2025-07-07
6 hours on the stairmill & the art of recovery
Warm up:
This week marked a major turning point in my training - the first real quality sessions since returning from Everest nearly 6 weeks ago. I logged 119 kilometers with 15,149 meters of vertical gain over 34 hours, but more importantly, I discovered that my fitness concerns from June were largely about recovery, not actual conditioning. The week featured breakthrough sessions including a strong benchmark workout up Polichaski and a solid double session that pushed both lactate threshold and CV systems.
After weeks of wondering where my fitness stood post-Everest, this week answered that question definitively and set the stage for what promises to be an intense buildup toward UTMB, Project Himalaya, and beyond.
Cool-down: The Art of Recovery
Recovery isn’t just sleep and nutrition—it’s a whole art form, and I’ve come to see it as a skill we develop over time. One of the biggest shifts in my own training was learning to periodize not just by weeks or training blocks, but on a day-to-day level. Watching elite athletes train in Ethiopia, for example, taught me that recovery isn’t just tolerated—it’s prioritized. These guys would hammer hard sessions and then shuffle 10-minute miles the next day, fully committing to going slow. That contrast between truly hard days and genuinely easy ones is where the magic happens. Recovery isn’t passive; it’s strategic, and it’s built into the rhythm of training.
But it goes way beyond the physical. Mental and emotional recovery is just as critical—especially in a sport like ours that asks so much focus and commitment. For me, mental rest means giving myself permission to step away from the grind: no workouts on the calendar, no thinking about splits or macros or long-term goals. Whether it's a post-race downtime or a walk during a tough week, that kind of “doing nothing productively” helps me stay grounded and come back sharper. And especially during life transitions—divorce, injury, big travel—I’ve learned to lower expectations, not in a defeatist way, but as a strategy. Because stress is stress, and your body doesn’t care whether it’s from a breakup or a threshold session. If you're out there feeling guilty about rest, remember: it's not the opposite of progress—it's where progress actually happens.
Lunes, 7 de Julio, 2025 - TLDR: AM: Polichaski in 57’46 w/ 9x 5’ at LT, 1’ standing rec (49’46 work) | PM: 15x 1’ at CV (1’49/KSch), 2’ rec (4’00/Ksch), treadmill 15%
07:05: Up at 05:00am for another double-day. Didn’t sleep super well but felt good upon waking. Had bicarb, caffeine gum 100mg, black coffee and toast (2x), and then another 100mg of caff gum before starting.
Planned to do my typical early-season workout of 5’ reps up polichaski (1’ standing rec), so gave myself every advantage, as I was a bit nervous. Wore reeboks and used the ultra-light leki poles. Weather was excellent.
Warmed up usually 10’ out/back and legs felt quite good. Did drills and 4x strides in the grass and then got started.
Ran about 10 seconds of the first rep and then stopped and restarted because I ran into a pack of literally 6 dogs off leash with a woman who gave zero fucks. Whoops.
Started over and got out well in the first few minutes, pace around 2’50/KSch, which I knew was very solid. I hit the first 1K right around 6’00, which I knew was quite quick, so that was a really good positive feedback loop starting. Hit 10’ just below the top of the very steep grass, maybe 11’30 up there, and then had a very strong next section to the ~5K turn in almost exactly 15’00 (work time).
Legs started to get a bit tired but had a good ramp section, next chunk at 3’12/KSch and then 3’06 up past the halfway log in 23’30ish. I was almost exactly 30’00 at 10KSCh (work) and maybe 31’30 at the entrance to the carwash. Carwash section went okay but was definitely starting to feel some muscular fatigue and got to the tall grass near the top at 40’.
From there, ran the last chunk as one rep of 9’48 to the finish. Took about 1’10 to get to the MTB trail and then 8’42 from there to the finish and 4’45 for the last “mile”. Legs were definitely tired as I’ve done these sections in 8’11/4’24, so need a bit more muscular endurance work, but honestly this is very, very strong for my first real workout on the old Poli’.
Also worth noting that HR was still fairly low on this one (only 155 avg for the whole PC including rest and no 5’ chunk was over 158 avg, and barely got over 160 a couple times).
I was honestly pretty anxious about where my fitness was in June, but it definitely seems to have been more of a recovery issue than a fitness issue. This is always the idea: Take a break after each season but come back a bit stronger than last time, and that seems to be where we are.
Caught my breath and jogged down easy. Felt good on the cooldown. Time to go work out again.
Total 12.3km, 1h43, 1154m+.
0.82 0'5'02 (2'51.6) 94 146.0
0.58 0'5'02 (3'07.6) 103 156.0
0.41 0'5'00 (3'02.9) 123 157.0
0.37 0'5'01 (3'11.7) 120 157.0
0.39 0'4'59 (3'05.7) 122 157.0
0.34 0'5'01 (3'22.0) 115 157.0
0.24 0'4'59 (3'46.5) 108 155.0
0.28 0'5'01 (3'49.8) 103 155.0
1.36 0'9'48 (3'09.7) 174 158.0
11:28am: Jogged down to the gym after about 2.5 hours rec. Had a couple pieces of toast, some black coffee.
Warmed up 200m+ on stairmaster and then drills outside and 4x 30” strides on treadmill at 12, 13, 14.5, 16 kph. Legs felt a bit tired from the morning, but not too bad.
NB: Ran in prodigio pros (kind of beat up pair).
Workout was undecided until after the warmup, but felt decent so went with 1’ at CV, 2’ rec. I wanted to hit a higher HR and cadence than in the morning and this did the trick, with ample rest to be a bit cautious.
Started at 12.0 and then 12.5, 12.8, 12.0, 13, 13.1 for the first 6 and then the next 6x all at 13.2 (1’49/KSch). No one rep felt particularly hard, but it did feel like a lot of reps, even w/ the long rest. Last 3x I went 13.6, 14.0 (1’43/KSch) and then back to 13.2 to finish. HR never got about 169 and mostly only 162-164 in that big middle chunk. Rec all at 6kph (4’00/KSch). Good session overall and a nice step up from last week.
Very short cooldown and then walk/jogged home after strength/plyos/ethio.
Total 9.8km 1h20, 1465m+.
XT: Ethio and
Strength and Plyos:
2 sets of 8x
Single leg leg press 20kg
Weighted calf leg press 20kg
Tricep pull 10kg
Single leg dead lift 10kg
Step up step down 10kg
Static lunge step 10kg
Dynamic lunge step 10kg
Side lunge 10kg
Single leg split squat 10kg
Single-leg Hamstring curl (2nd dot)
Good morning 20kg + bar
Plyos: 1 sets of 10x
Ankle hops
Toe taps
Squat jumps
Step ups
DL long jump
Skater jumps
Single leg lateral hop
Single leg hop up/down
Depth Jumps
14:38: Got home and pretty much right on the bike to finish up for the day. Very sunny again and 4 upper layers and all at 7200m altitude. Did 10’ at 70W and then 30’ at 80W to get HR into mid 120s. Finished w/ 20’ of 30/90s at 150W. All good. Another good, big day. Total 60’, avg HR 128.
Martes, 8 de julio, 2025 - 07:20: Woke up naturally at 06:00, trying to keep in this early schedule of hitting the trail around 7am. Took almost 30' to get an Uber, otherwise I would've been right on time.
Legs definitely felt tired from yesterday's session. Up polichaski in 79'00 (123 HR) and then hiked almost all of the horses climb (36', 119 HR).
Jogged down slowly. Totally empty today until I get back to teleferiqo and there were like 500 small children there. Not sure if it's a holiday and maybe that is why it was hard to get a ride. Either way, all good. Nice easy recovery day.
Total 12.8km, 2h33, 1606m+.
10:57: Right onto the bike again. HR was actually much lower today despite 4 upper layers, beanie, pants, and bright late-morning direct sunshine. Squid Game is really jumping the shark. Need some more good recommendations, as I’ve got a lot of hours in the saddle in the next few months. All at 80W and HR barely above 120 (7200m altitude). Finished w/ 20’ of 30/90s, first 10’ at 150, second 10’ at 160-200W. Good. Total 60, avg HR, 119.
XT: Ethio.
PM: Off, got fingerprinted for my visa, went to megamaxi, and then worked until 4pm when I did the rest of XT before dinner.
XT: Ankles, posture (NB: last set of heel raises / drops did with about 20 pound backpack)
Miércoles, 9 de Julio, 2025 - 07:15: slept really well last night and got up and out the door early again. Really liking this rhythm.
Legs felt much better today and ran more of polichaski hitting halfway in 38'30 and then topping out in 74’45. Kept going up horses in 33’35 and then went all the way to the bottom of the arenal and flipped there. Cold bad foggy up high but overall body felt good. A bit tired in last hour or so as reflected in lower HR.
Good day.
Total 13.3km, 2h33, 1656m+.
10:45: Right onto the bike again. Felt a bit bonky today. Doing all these morning sessions fasted, so might need to sneak in some calories between the run and the bike session if I’m going to do them back to back. 70W for 20’ then 80W for 20’ and then felt tired and put it back to 70W for 10’ and finished w/ 10’ of 30/90s at only 120W as legs were very tired. Ate a very big lunch after. All at 7200m in 4 layers, beanie, pants, as usual. Total 60’, avg HR 122.
Jueves, 10 de Julio, 2025 - TLDR: Polichaski in 55’06 w/ (6’, 4’, 2’ at LT), 1’ rec | PM: 5x [45”/75”], 10x[60”/60”, 5x [75”/45”] at 1’51/KSch, 4’00/KSch rec.
06:30am: Up at 04:30am for a big day. Had 100mg caff gum and bicarb.
Got over and did clockwork warmup out/back and drills and 4x strides.
NB: Ran in reeboks again. Had another 100mg caffeine before starting.
Legs felt good if a bit tired. Plan was to do a fartlek w/ reps of 6/4/2’ on, 1’ easy jog (not standing rest) for all. I was quick, almost to the first km in the 6’00 rep, and then up to the ~5K in 16’20ish (including the rec reps). DIdn’t look at HR, but in retrospect, it was pretty low the whole time. I think I hit the halfway in 25’30 or so. Ran the last chunk as one continuous rep from just below the MTB split. This was a good step up from last time (8’45 from MTB to finish and 4’42 last ‘mile’).
Topped out in 55’06, though NB, my watch had no GPS when I started for some reason, so it didn’t register the segment. Avg HR was only 154.
Oh also NB testing carb intake, I took 1 full bottle of maurten 320 on this one (320 calories), a bit hard to deal with in terms of poles on hands, etc., but managed.
Easy jog down. Another good one.
Total 12.2 1h37, 1156m+.
10:49am: Jogged down to the gym for workout number two. Had two pieces of toast and protein shake and bar after the first session.
Plan was to do some quicker, shorter reps to try to get the HR higher than the morning. This went very well. Warmed up 200m+ on stairmaster and then did drills and 4x strides on treadmill (12.5, 13.5, 14.5, 16kph), 6kph rec for everything (4’00/Ksch).
Eased into the workout, so broke it up into 4 sets of 5 reps, each one starting every 2 min. So, first did 5x 45” on, 75” off. Started out very easy at 12.2, 12.6, and then the rest of the workout was all at 13.0 kph (1’50.8/KSch) for the fast reps. This felt good and for the 45” reps and then the meat of the workout was the middle 10 reps at 1’/1’. These required at lot of focus as it was basically the same as last week’s session, but with half the rest. HR was getting well into the 160s on the fast reps, which was what I’d hoped for. Just told myself to get through the 1’ reps and then if all we did was do one last set of 1’ reps, that’d be fine.
In the end, I got through the last 5x 75”/45” no problem, though it required even more focus as the rest felt quite short. I did not change the speed the whole time, as the short rest and longer reps naturally got the HR up high (though still never hit 170).
NB: Drank 200 cal tailwind and 100mg caff maurten gel during the workout, so 300 calories in 40 min.
Cooled down 200m+ on stairs and then did all the strength/plyos and jogged home. Very good session.
Total 11.7km, 1h24, 1652m+
14:20: Right onto the bike when I got home. Actually felt decent overall, good energy. HR a bit higher, to be expected. Did 10’ at 70W and then 80W for 30’ and then finished w/ 20’ of 30/90s. Very good day! Total 60’, avg HR 128.
XT: Ethio and
Strength and Plyos:
2 sets of 8x
Single leg leg press 20kg
Weighted calf leg press 20,25kg
Tricep pull 10kg
Single leg dead lift 10kg
Step up step down 10kg
Static lunge step 10kg
Dynamic lunge step 10kg
Side lunge 10kg
Single leg split squat 10kg
Single-leg Hamstring curl (2nd dot)
Good morning 20,30kg + bar
Plyos: 1 sets of 10x
Ankle hops
Toe taps
Squat jumps
Step ups
DL long jump
Skater jumps
Single leg lateral hop
Single leg hop up/down
Depth Jumps
Viernes, 11 de Julio, 2025 - 07:15: Woof, a bit tired this morning. There was a massive concert at the estadio olímpico last night which, despite being like 2 miles away, was super loud. And also just very sore and tired from yesterday's sessions.
Kept everything very, very slow and easy today. Almost 90 up polichaski walking just about every step. HR very low like 112 and then even lower after that as I was getting very bonky. Need to balance the high protein goals with still getting enough carbohydrates and overall calories.
Didn't even make it to the bear cave in 2h00 but flipped and jogged down very slowly, tacking on a bit on the steep climb to hit the time.
Total 10.7km, 2h30, 1483m+.
10:44: Right onto the bike as I had a call w/ Kelsey (though, that got postponed, whoops). Had a David bar and a bolt bar before getting on, so at least had some calories. Kept wattage low still (same layering, so HR was good). Kept it the same for 45’ (114 HR) and then did 10’ of 30/90s at 120W (126 HR). Finished Squid Game S3 which was jumped the shark pretty hard. Starting in on the TDF netflix series. All good. Total 60’, avg HR 117.
XT: Ethio, ankles (w/ 8kg weight vest), posture
Sábado, 12 de Julio, 2025 - 07:01: What a difference a day makes! Felt so much better today and had a lovely run up. Much more running than yesterday and much quicker. Halfway up PC 38'30 and topped out in 74'38 (125 HR).
Had a good segment up horses 34'55, 118 HR, though HR dropped again which to me is still a sign of lack of muscular endurance and perhaps still not quite fueling enough day to day (all these runs are fasted).
Kept going all the way to the base of the arenal and then flipped and felt very good running down, 14'3x on the runnable piece. Quite chilly and foggy up high today.
Timed it perfectly. Great morning.
Total 13.7km, 2h31, 1662m+.
10:24am: Right onto the bike in layers (4x upper, beanie, pants), at 7200m altitude. Felt good, HR was fairly low 110s at 70W and then upped it to 80W after 10’ and kept it there for the next 30 (121 HR). Finished w/ 20’ of 30/90s at 120-200W (up 10W each rep). Felt good and strong today. TDF Unchained is quite engaging so far. Total 60’, avg HR 122.
XT: Ethio, posture, glutes (3x 6x 8 pounds each leg), 1 set of 15x post-tib bar each leg/each direction.
TLDR: Long hypoxic on treadmill, 5h00 at 7200m, 1h00 at 8000m. Heavy pack 8.5kg + boots. 22.1km, 3315m+, 6h00.
07:43: Woke up naturally around 05:30am for the last workout of the block. Thought about doing it at the big gym and splitting it between stairmaster and treadmill, but I was paranoid about frying the altitude machine again, so went back to my Annie Duke first-principals and since that is an irreversible decision, decided to just do it all on the treadmill here in the house.
Plan was around 6h00 all hypoxic. I figured I would do most of it at 7200m, the altitude at which I’ve been biking for the last couple weeks, and then, if I felt okay, move it up to 8000m towards the end.
I also wanted to use this as an opportunity to practice carrying more weight, so I spent a while last night trying to figure out just about how much my fully-loaded Everest pack would weigh, including food and water for the longest stretch, and it came out to 7-8Kg, so I put some plates in my FSP bag and wore that and carried all my own food and water. Also wore boots, LaSpo cyklon for the first half and then aequilbirium speed for the second half.
Finally, I wanted to push fueling to 400cal/hr (mostly CHO) and see how the stomach tolerated that and limit liquid, to mimic the likely limited water supply I’ll have up there. So I hoped to only use 1L for 6h00 (but had a backup bottle in case).
Overall, the session went quite well on all fronts.
Mentally, it’s a long time to be on the treadmill, but I managed to keep pretty well engaged between eating every 15 min and jotting down splits every 1km or so. I actually didn’t do any audio or video for the first 3h00 and was just reading, trying to really keep my mind calm. This actually went by fairly quickly. I kept the speed mostly at 3.8kph at 7200m and HR was right around the top of Z2 (128-132). I think a good bit of this was just getting warm in the gym.
Only stopped for a second around 75’ to open the door to cool the room off a bit and take off my jacket (also wearing snowpants, so I was very sweaty).
At 3h00, I took a longer break ~4’ to change into aequilbrium speeds, which are much heavier and stiffer. Also added extra .5Kg to the belt to make up for some of the water I’d drank.
Binged through a bunch of Tour de France for the last 2.5 hours or so. The 5th hour got pretty hard and HR was starting to get up into the mid 130s (135-137 peaking) after being stuck right around 130 for a while. I could feel muscularly that I was getting very tired, so that required a lot of focus.
Very good job fueling all the way through. Mostly fruit snacks, golden oreos, and maurten gels (and one Bobo bar). Managed to survive on 1L of guun/LMNT but was very, very thirsty by the end.
At 5h00, I pushed the altitude up to ~8000m. This felt pretty bad but I brought the speed down from 3.8 to 3.4 and that felt pretty manageable and HR was lower, around 128-130. Had one weird moment with a sharp pain in left chest, which was a bit scary, stopped for a second and breathed with mask off. Not sure if it had to do w/ rib injury (very similar spot) or just cramp or something cardiac, but it felt bad. Eased back into it and loosened up the vest and no further problems.
All told, this was a very good day and a good way to wrap up the first block. Fueling was good, weight of the pack didn’t feel too bad, and I think will be a good stimulus, and altitude at 7200m felt fine after a few weeks of biking there.
Time to recover for the next few days and then get back at it.
Total 22.1km, 6h00, 3315m+.
XT: Ethio.