It all started from a heated discussion between Maria and Henry about Zone 1 and Zone 2 training. As the treasurer that I am, and the spending reputation that I have acquired over the past few months, there is nothing that can’t be solved with money. That is how the club acquired its first book on training for Alpinism. (Training for the New Alpinism – A manual for the climber as athlete.)
“Using percentages of maximum Heart Rate (HR) gives a reasonably good approximation of intensity for most athletes. The zones are defined as a percentage range of each inidividual’s maximum heart rate.” ~ Steve House
| INTENSITY | APPROXIMATE % OF MAX HR | FEELING | VENTILATION |
| RECOVERY | < 55% | Very Light | Conversational |
| Zone 1 | 55 – 75% | Easy Breathing | Conversational |
| Zone 2 | 75 – 80% | Medium | Nose Breathing |
| Zone 3 | 80 – 90% | Fun Hard | Short Sentences |
| Zone 4 | 90 – 95% | Hard | No Talking |
| Zone 5 | N/A | Maximum | N/A |
Depending on your fitness level, your HR will most likely to be in Zone 2 – 3 in the mountains. A balanced and goal oriented training will aim to lower your hear rates for the same output from your body.
There are really two types of training,
- The general conditioning that consists of a mixture of strength and endurance but might not be mountaineering specific, and;
- The training that prepares you in a specific way for mountaineering itself.
Most of us in the group primarily climb, and to better prepare ourselves for mountaineering in New Zealand, we really need to adopt our training to be mountaineering specific. That is training for cardio over strength, long summit days in the mountains than a few hours at the local crag, endurance over seconds of explosive power on small crimps.
World-class athletes spend a ridiculous amount of time training for their races. At the highest level, it is truely a full-time job. For us, we took our first humble step at 15 Denning street, 7am on a cold winter morning. Like most first timers to the Coogee stairs, I made the mistake of trying to keep up with Ash and failed miserably. An hour of running up and down the stairs marked our first training session in preparation for the mountaineering trip.
A few weeks go by, the Coogee stairs crew grew bigger. It warms the heart to see likeminded people join our training sessions. A few of us adopted a different approach at the stairs. To attack that Zone 2 – 3 HR, some of us carried a pack filled with bricks and battle up the stairs. In a truely UNSWOC fashion, we ended each session with a core workout while Linkin Park blasted in the background.
“Climbing was about taking a stimulating and potentially dangerous environment and then using our heads, our attentiveness and our skills to make it safe.” ~ Tommy Caldwell
Mountaineering is inherently dangerous and, to a certain extent, risky. All this training and research is to better prepare ourselves for challenges we might face. The course will teach us about the environment we are in and how we handle potentially dangerous situations. It will also teach us about ourselves, what risks are we willing to take, our mental game and how do we balance between goal and safety? The aim with training (both physical and mental) is to get the most out of the course, to fully immerse ourselves in the environment safely, to condition ourselves to persevere and to tackle whatever lies ahead with passion, vigor and resolution.