Hi all. Excited to be here learning with you all. My name is Alyssa, I live up in the North Cascades. I’m mostly a skier and go on alpine rambles when I can.

I do a lot of things outside but have never trained formally–so much to learn! My main goal here is to establish a strong baseline so I can begin training for specific objectives within the next year, and to gain a better understanding of how my body works so I can have reasonable expectations of myself (probably just as much mental training as physical training to be done on this front).

My work is very physical at times, so I’ll also be trying to figure out how to incorporate that. I would love to hear how you all manage the juggling act!

Hi Laurie! Good to meet ya. Rainier is an exciting thing to have on the horizon! Sounds like you’ve got your hands full at home, props for taking the time to do this program.

Hello – I’m Melissa and I live in Corvallis, OR, which is about an hour and half south of Portland. I am a trail runner, alpine skier, cross country skier (classic style), and general mountain activity skiing of person. I am also a mom to a 12 year old daughter, who is into mountain sports too, so I feel like I won the parent lottery. While not a runner, my daughter is my best training partner on her rode or mountain bike.

I have been running for 32 years – I am 46 now. I had a few years stint as a sponsored runner in my late 20’s/early 30’s before I became a mom. I have always trained on trails and dabbled in ultras before becoming a parent, but after becoming a mom, I found it incredibly difficult to train with the commitment needed to sustain racing. I continued to log 20-30 miles a week of running, but that was more for mental sanity than actual training. A few years ago, I started getting serious about my training on the sly – running at 3 or 4 AM with a headlamp before my family woke up, to see what my middle aged body could do. As it turned out, I still had a fair amount of speed and my body could handle more training volume that I thought. The secret training turned into a spectacular three-year build for some ultra racing in 2022. That plan went caput when I had a pretty serious ski accident in January 2022 and blew out my right knee.

Two knee surgeries, hundreds of hours in rehab, and 15 months later, I am running again and enjoying every mile. I did not think that I would ever be able to run again, so every day is a treat even if I struggle to complete a workout. I spend a lot of time working on strength and speed work these days, and I use a spinning bike for about half of my aerobic base and recovery workouts. I am hoping to rebuild my base miles enough to attempt a 50K or 50 miler in 2024, but I am taking my time with adding miles and listening to my body. The Uphill Athlete way of training has so far been very different from my previous ways of training, so I enjoying the chance to learn and see what concepts I want to integrate. I am also excited to be a part of a community and celebrate everyones’ accomplishments. It’s been a lonely 15 months in the gym doing squats, and I am feeling very inspired by all that everyone is doing.

Hi All,

I’m Abby, I live over in the Central Cascades of Washington (Leavenworth). I had big life changes over the past couple years that with the extra stress made me drop a lot of the outdoor objectives I had. So now I’m back and training for a couple upcoming events, Ski mountaineering Baker June 1-4 with PGS, and alpine climbs with my partner later in the summer (Sloan, Glacier, Rainier…).

I hate feeling like the slow one in the group so, I want to improve my aerobic fitness so I can do some epic adventures.

Message me if you want to meet up to train or do something cool in the PNW (climbing, skiing, mountaineering, hiking).

Abby

Hello All,

My name is Ginger and I live in Salt Lake City. I work as a wildlife veterinarian so I do a lot of physical things for work but I joined because my schedule is so insane and I haven’t had good accountability to do a training program. I am thinking about doing the half marathon in the Tusher Mountains in Aug. and I really want to climb some peaks in the Tetons and Winds, hopefully the Grand this summer.

If anyone lives in Salt Lake and wants to train together, let me know! Luckily I have the foothills in my backyard so it’s easy to get out even on busy days. I enjoy backcountry skiing, hiking, and am trying to get more into mountaineering.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for starting this thread! I’m Ruth and I’m based between Gryon and Geneva, Switzerland. I’m originally from the Scottish Highlands.
I’ve always been a mountain lover and am keen to get into some more events etc this year. I did my first skimo event earlier this year and am signed up to my first trail run event this weekend! I also do some easy mountaineering and road biking in the summers and lots of ski mountaineering/touring in the winters + cross-country skiing (classic + skate).
Great to meet you all! Ruth