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There is an uphill only event here locally. It is 3400' and 3 miles. I train on a small ski hill which has 350' vertical. I'm trying to figure out a training sequence on the ski hill that will work for the larger hill. My personal goal is 75 minutes on the big hill.(The xcountry skiiers from the college do this in the 40min range simply amazing) Going up the small hill 10 times won't do because of the time down lowers my heart rate so it is more like wind sprints. Any ideas, I only walk anymore so running is out. Walking with a vertical component is the only way I can keep the heart rate in the working range. Thanks, pak

I'd try doing the short ski hill with higher intensity than you expect to sustain throughout the race. Wind sprints deliver more benefit that you'd expect.

Out of curiosity, is the race at girdwood?

Google Tabata interval and do some reading. Tabata was/is a Jap speed skating coach. He figured out that a 2 to 1 work/rest interval got his skaters faster than any other method. IE, 20sec work/10sec rest or 40sec work/20sec rest. When I say work I mean max output or at least 90% of max. When I say 10sec rest I mean 10sec and not "let me get a drink of water". 6 to 8 cycles of this will toast you if you are doing it properly. Obviously you'll need some sort of timer with an audible beep or a coach with a watch. Skiers benefit from pullups as well, makes for stronger pole plants as the lats get stronger.

Bird Ridge. Gov't peak is another. Of course the grand daddy is Mt. Marathon but that is up and down. Down concerns me, my ankles, knees and hips at my age.

Sheep hunting partner won the lottery for Mt Marathon a few years ago. He did a bunch of those mountain runs. Said the Matanuska peak one was the worst, and now looking at the site, I can see why: "Description: 14 miles with 9,100' vertical gain and the same amount of elevation loss. OUT-AND-BACK course. Route ascends Lazy Mountain, descends backside of Lazy and then climbs Matanuska Peak before returning in reverse."

Last spring he tore his achilles tendon playing basketball... you just never know where you'll break down.

Climbing Treadmill?

Phil

Find one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/stairmaster-7000

I would not do it more that 3 days/wk. Maybe only twice weekly if you have short legs, as you will be stepping up with a more acute bend at the knee. Get to where you can hold level 10 on intervals for more than 20min, and you'll be gettin into shape.

Mix up what you do on the small hill (lunges, side lunges, descending the hill backwards, etc). You should be able to keep your heart rate up while descending the hill and increase leg strength.

This! Last Monday my workout consisted of 100m sprints X 10 with a 90 sec rest between them. I was more sore after that than I have been for a long time!

I don't know if it would work, but I do insanity 6 days a week as it suggests and I can't believe what it has done to my stamina, hiking the hills this fall was way easier even with a torn LCL! The cardio workouts flat out kick my ass!

Thank all of you for your suggestions. Admittedly, some would put the hurt to me as I'm over 60. The best machine I ever used was something called a versa-climber. However the boredom factor was too hard to overcome. I will probably need to commit more time to increase my aerobic endurance, mix in weight training and sprint work in the form of climbing the little hill.

Tabata intervals, as have already been mentioned.

Hill sprints

Burpees until you puke

Circuit type training with barbell weight lifting exercises following the tabata interval

Squats - Mainly because, when in doubt, squats.

I'm with Pointer. Do the uphill as fast as you can walking, then do the downhill as fast as you can safely.
Keep in mind that 80% of the injuries that occur while doing mountains occur when going downhill. So, inspite the loss of heart rate, building up your ability to do down slopes is very important.
I'd do such workouts for at least an hour all year long. When it's 4 months out from the event, up that to as much as two hours.
We have a similar "course." It's a little over four miles and 3000 plus ft. up. You wind up at 9400 ft. and some change. The guys that do the serious mountains in Kalifornia, like Mt Whitney, do our course three times a week. E