In 2017, I was standing on a metaphorical plateau that spanned nearly seven years. I had reached the peak of my technical rock climbing and ski mountaineering while still in my 20s, and I wasn’t perceptibly improving as a 36-year-old. Granted, I was still amassing memorable mountain adventures, more work as a ski and rock guide, and more inspiration than ever before to explore technical terrain in wild places. But alongside the good things were the inevitable effects of aging in tandem with years of physical work: achy knees and back, fatigue, slower recovery, and many unfulfilled dreams. Something needed…
Author: Uphill Athlete
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A common refrain we hear from amateur athletes is that they do not have time for high volumes of training. So they prefer high-intensity training sessions. When training is squeezed between family obligations, work, school, and life, time limitations can push it down the priority list. It is tempting to think you can shortchange workout duration and then make up for it by dialing up the intensity.Of course, adding intensity does improve your fitness quickly. However, without a well-trained aerobic base, high-intensity training simply will never allow you to maximize your fitness potential. To put it another way, the potential…
Let’s be frank: Anyone who loves extreme endurance sports is probably a type A overachiever. But when we move to ultra-endurance events, you can delete the “probably.” People who relish the challenge of running 100 miles are out there on the far end of the bell curve. The reality is that it’s only a short step from “training” to satisfying an unhealthy compulsion. We feel that there needs to be an open and honest discussion in our community about overtraining syndrome (OTS)—the elephant in the ultrarunning room—and the damage it imposes on individuals and ultimately on the sport as a…
Uphill Athlete co-founder Scott Johnston presents the theory and practice driving endurance performance in the mountains. His 2-hour talk, filmed during a November 2017 workshop, is dense with coaching history, training techniques and tips, athlete stories, and information on the physiology of training. This presentation was generously hosted by Run Wenatchee, Inner Circle Gym Wenatchee, and the Wenatchee Public Library. This was recorded as a Facebook Live event. Volume, resolution, and production are not top quality—but the information is! The entirety of the recorded presentation is in two parts. PART 1 https://www.facebook.com/uphillathlete/videos/1207164636050638/ PART 2 https://www.facebook.com/uphillathlete/videos/1207243652709403/
I got my only view of Mount Baker on my drive to the race start in Concrete, Washington. I saw the alpenglow on the mountain. It was so clear. I wish the weather had stayed like that the whole race, but it didn’t work out that way.The Mount Baker Marathon would be my first ultra—my first organized race of any sort, really. I’ve been climbing and mountaineering for 31 years, and I trail run when I can’t climb, just to get outside, but I don’t consider myself a runner. Even so, to improve my overall fitness for an upcoming six-month summer climbing trip, during which I plan…
I love The Matrix. In my favorite scene, Neo straps himself to an archaic dentist’s chair. He’s learning martial arts by downloading them into his brain. Once they’re installed, he can use them in the digital world. To make the downloads, Neo’s colleague plugs a thick cable into the back of Neo’s skull. He taps a button on his screen, and Neo’s "training" begins.Wouldn’t that be amazing? Instead of dedicating a slow, tedious decade to one martial art, we could plug in, download it, and be awesome.But life isn’t like that, is it? To master something, a slow, tedious decade…
Given the recent proliferation of high-intensity, strength-based fitness programs with names like boot camp and SEALFIT, it would be easy to assume that all members of the military train this way: with heavy doses of strength and a token nod to aerobic training. It’s often true that the service branches pump up the importance of strength at the expense of large-volume, low-intensity base building—that essential foundation of any durable athlete. But not every tactical athlete bends to that one-track line of thinking.There’s a shift happening, small but powerful, with individuals like a recent graduate of the US Army Ranger School…
When I first started skimo racing, I started races way too fast. The gun would go off, and I’d bolt forward. I’d feel great for about 60 seconds, and then as if I was running through molasses I’d have to slow way down. With that kind of start, the rest of the race felt horrible.When dug into why this was happening the answer I found ws: "You have insufficient aerobic base." Said another way; the capacity of my aerobic metabolic system to produce energy to propel me was too low so I was having to rely on the other metabolic pathway,…
If the internet is to be believed, the best way to build endurance is to train hard, collapse in a pool of sweat, and really feel like you’ve given your all. Ultimately, this must be "real" training, right? Putting it all out there every time? Not exactly. When we reference the 100-plus-year history of endurance training, we see a different story. The use of high intensity is actually rather rare in a properly structured endurance training plan. So when (and how) do wise coaches and smart athletes add high-intensity training to their programs?We know for a fact that high-intensity aerobic training…