[csl]

historically i've been terrible at keeping much fitness from euro sport climbing trips going when home in the uk, im keen to try and stop wasting fitness ive gained, and try and build on it for a trip in the autumn + stay fit for uk trad/sport in the summer.

I suspect it comes down to just doing loads of climbing when im back, but unfortunately i only get out on rock once every two or three weeks.  I tend to climb indoors 3-5 times a week, mostly at a bouldering wall with a steep circuit board

Would going back to the base phase style training of lots of aerocap be the way to go? Does anyone have any tips on maintaining fitness for a long period of time?
How often do people find they have to train endurance a week to maintain it?

Any advice welcome!

[abarro81]

This winter I experimented with ditching any PE sessions in my base phase (i.e. no aero pow and no an pow in my terminology), with the only maintenance being any cross over from long an cap and harder aero cap. I had a long peak phase to ensure that I had enough time to make up for it (8 weeks + 2 weeks taper) before going on a trip. I think it worked well and will be ditching the maintenance work in future base phases. I'll probably shorten the peak phase by a week or two next time. Of course this isn't likely to put you in good form for pumpy routes whilst you're in base phase, but to some extent you always have to make a call between performing now and sacrificing the now for the later.

[csl]

Thanks for the reply!

I suppose that should work out fine. As i'll mostly be trad climbing this summer and not really trying to much hard sport. Aerocap is the sort of fitness i think i need for most uk trad.

I had a fairly whack attempt at following the energy systems approach for this trip so i'll give it a go again for the next one in the autumn.

Ps it was Ian who stole your plug converter, he said he'd return it when we are back!