10,000m of vertical per week

The aim for July was to try and get 10,000m of vertical gain each week, to make sure that the improvements came from going uphill, again and again and again.

It became a bit of an obsession to hit the target, but with UTMB recces at the start and end of the month I knew there was 10,000m there for the taking to kick things off.

Add in the 3600m of Trail du Velan, a UTMB recce with British internationals Tom Owens & Andy Symonds, plus plenty of sessions that involved running up to the lift and jumping a ride back down and it almost seemed possible to get to such a target with my body still intact.

The first 7 days of July actually had 12,500m of climbing in there!

Quantity over quality?

As the month went on, with the first 2 weeks well over 10,000m and a race coming in the third, I started to wonder if the rule of “quality over quantity” was being forgotten in the search for vert.

Was it worthwhile getting a 1500m climb in each day instead of doing a hill session with 500m? What was going to be more beneficial?