fitness is as fitness does wrote:
The basic concept is simple for (most) people to understand (unless they are a deranged troll on this site):
-a runner can increase their amount of total training volume at elevated heart-rate, with the addition of cross-training, that they would not be able to do strictly by just running more before breaking down.
There are an infinite permutations and ways to do that, and coming up with what works best for an individual to improve their fitness shouldn’t be difficult to figure out.
But it’s Valby’s specific training protocolthat people are interested in. There is probably a market selling copies of her training log, maybe in the form of an inspirational book.
However, an important point that Valby self-discovered is that one particular form of cross-training not only improves cardiovascular fitness, but also functionally improves strength that, at least for her, translates to improvement in running hills (and “hills pay the bills”): the Arc Trainer.
Some ‘science’ on the Arc Trainer’s ability to functionally improve strength is provided in this thread: