What is HRV? Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is technology that claims to score our HRV and predict how long we need to recover from a given workout and when we’re ready to train again. Whether it’s an app or a program built into a watch, it is wonderful to think that one metric is all we need. But inaccurate recommendations, especially false positives, mean that this technology must be treated with deep skepticism.For a complete treatment on monitoring HRV, please read this comprehensive article.We also have an updated article to share how our coaches use HRV to gain insights into…
Author: Uphill Athlete
Introduction In the broadest context trail running means moving quickly over mountainous terrain. To distinguish it from mountaineering, trail running is movement at a higher speed and with less weight and equipment, over terrain that is usually less technical. Trail running includes everything from running buffed trails through the hills of California to navigating technical, high-speed scrambling linkups in the mountains outside of Chamonix. Further, it encompasses efforts from vertical kilometer (VK) races to mountainous 100-milers and beyond. Despite the breadth of disciplines that fall into this category, training for all trail running is incredibly similar. The trail runner will…
Training makes you weaker- it is through recovery that you get stronger. That very simple concept is set in bold because it is often poorly understood across the full spectrum of sports training. Put another way, the hours to days following a workout are when your body responds to the training and adapts to better handle similar loads in the future. It should then come as no surprise that what you do following a training session can impact your body’s response to it. From practicing yoga to eating well to integrating self-massage, there are many strategies that can facilitate a…
One of the most important distinctions in endurance training is the difference between building capacity and utilizing it. At Uphill Athlete, we refer to these as Capacity Training and Utilization Training, terms originally coined by Bob Bowman, the coach behind Michael Phelps’s 18 Olympic gold medals. The concepts apply well beyond swimming. They explain why some athletes improve steadily over years while others see rapid early gains followed by a frustrating plateau. For mountain athletes—mountaineers, trail runners, ski mountaineers, and climbers—understanding this distinction is essential to making good decisions about how you spend your training time. What Is Capacity Training?…
Mike Foote shows you how to quickly and efficiently transition from downhill skiing to uphill skinning. Break out the skis, skins and stopwatches…let’s go!
Mike Foote shows you how to quickly and efficiently transition from uphill skinning to downhill skiing. The first video describes transitioning from uphill skinning to downhill skiing in the scenario where you will need to use your skins again. The second video demonstrates a slight variation, going from uphill skinning to downhill skiing where you will not need your skins again that day. Click, watch, learn and enjoy these great tips from Mike Foote.
Female Uphill Athlete Coaches Carolyn Parker, Maya Seckinger, Nikki LaRochelle, and Karen Bockel discuss how to strategize and balance life’s many different responsibilities.
USA Skimo National Team Member Mike Foote shows you how to build a simple and inexpensive workbench to get your skis and skins tuned up right. For three dollars you can build a great functional ski bench.
Mike Foote teaches you how to choose and prepare your skins for your first, or 20th, ski mountaineering event.https://youtu.be/L3gmgrCylRk
The core training that ski mountaineers do should be as functional as possible. Your core is basic to many of your sport-specific movements, such as poling, uphilling, and turning. For example, the more force you can exert on your poles when double-poling across a flat section of a downhill, the faster you will go. Strength correlates nearly perfectly with speed in this example. Why Train Core Strength for Ski Mountaineering? Core is important in other ways as well, especially in turning the skis, in bringing the trailing ski forward when skinning, or bringing either ski around to execute a kick…