In keeping with Steve’s recent article about wearing through your gear to become a better climber, runner, or skier, here is another tip that you may find useful: The magnitude of your commitment must be equal to the size of your goal. Let’s start by looking behind the curtain at what three very successful Uphill Athletes’ training looks like. Luke Nelson First up: Luke Nelson. Luke is a mountain runner and skimo racer par excellence. Most recently, he and Jared Campbell knocked over 3 hours off the FKT for all 19 of the 13,000 foot peaks in Utah’s Uinta Mountains,…

Work hard? Rest hard! If your idea of post-workout recovery is flopping onto the couch with a beer and chips or a quick dash through the shower as you race off to work, you might want to reconsider your approach. Chances are you take the improvement of your performance in your chosen sport pretty seriously and want to maximize the gains from your training. The Toll of Training Training requires many hundreds and even thousands of repetitive movements. Lack of recovery, rather than too much training, is often the cause of poor or no adaptation. If you are pushing your…

We are fortunate to live and train in a time when physiology testing is becoming more available and accessible. Either at home or through local labs offering testing services, athletes can better orient themselves and their training by knowing their biomarkers. In endurance training, understanding your metabolism is the key to increased performance, and the test is called the blood lactate test. While the Gas Exchange Test offered by many physiology labs, if administered correctly, can be held up as the gold standard for determining your metabolic response to exercise, a simpler and cheaper alternative exists. Many labs offer blood…

Ultimately, climbing in all forms combines fitness, skill, and judgment in varying ways dependent on the climb and conditions on that climb. Fitness alone can take you far on a route like the North Col on Everest, which requires few technical climbing skills. But fitness by itself is less impactful on a technical route that requires a high skill component. We spend a lot of time, ink, and pixels talking about improving fitness. But how does one best improve technical skill? Everyone involved at Uphill Athlete has spent most of their life dedicated to a technique-intensive sport, whether that be…

One of the most difficult things for an athlete using a training plan or self-coaching is to know when to say stop. If you’re weeks into your training plan, and you get started on your workout for the day, what are some signs that you might need to call it off and convert to recovery mode? Here are the three most common signs that you didn’t recover that we see in the athletes we coach. 1. Slow to Warm Up The comment in TrainingPeaks on a 1-hour run will be something like: "It took me 30 minutes to get warmed…

BUY NOW FOR $39 This training plan is for those who want a shorter-term training plan that prepares them for an alpine rock climbing objective, or to prepare for Steve House’s 8 Week Advanced Rock Alpinist Training Plan. The plan calls for 1 climbing day, 3 aerobic training days, and 2 strength training days per week. The focus of the plan is building general fitness that is capable of supporting good climbing technique. This plan will lead to improvements based your technical climbing ability and prepare you for the more taxing "Steve House’s 8 Week Advanced Rock Alpinist Training Plan".Is…

When doing ARC training or accumulating pitches during a climbing marathon session, it can be easy to lose your concentration and let your form slide downhill. Here are some technique drills you can work on while you log the vertical. If you have your own favorite climbing drill, email us your suggestion and we’ll add it to the list! If you are looking to incorporate drills into a robust training session, see the article: Training for Rock Climbing. Rock Climbing Technique Drills Pick one drill per session. When your mind wanders to that Weiss beer waiting for you at the…

If you know the history of rock climbing in Yosemite, you know that many of the famed Stonemasters would winter in Joshua Tree. There, with no long routes, John Bachar and friends invented the Half Dome Day (20 pitches in a day) and the El Cap Day (36 pitches). Climbing marathons were born. This decades-old practice is a valid and often-overlooked training tool. I was reminded of this time-honored tradition as I laced my boots for a competitive climbing marathon this last weekend. The event, a fun, tongue-in-cheek celebration of the birth of sport climbing, has as its signature event…

When it comes to rock climbing training, building a solid foundation is just as important as perfecting advanced techniques. While trail runners and mountaineers often rely on extensive aerobic base training for endurance, climbers need a more tailored approach to improve their performance. This is where ARC training—short for ‘Aerobic, Respiration, and Capillarity’ training—comes into play. Similar to a long Zone 2 run for mountaineers, ARC training serves as the cornerstone of climbing endurance, establishing the base fitness that supports strength, power, and power-endurance during climbs. ARC training specifically targets the forearm muscles, a critical area for maintaining grip and…

As many of you know, Everest season is upon us. Two athletes that Scott and I have coached—Cory Richards and Adrian Ballinger—are in Base Camp as I write this to attempt the world’s tallest peak without oxygen. With their permission we wanted to share the stories of what brought us to work with these two motivated mountaineers. This is how Cory Richards of #everestnofilter fame made a 180-degree turn in his training to successfully climb Everest, and why he’s headed back again. Enjoy his story below, and read up on Adrian’s experience here.When I saw the incoming call from Cory…