Before Uphill Athlete, I’d been engaged in structured training—mostly self-coached—for mountain and endurance sports for many years. I was a runner and cyclist through high school and college, then got into skiing and climbing toward the end of school and did those almost exclusively. About seven years ago, my daughter, who was a competitive Nordic skier, took up cycling as part of her dryland training, and I got back into road biking with her and started racing again. My main winter thing was still skiing, so my training revolved around biking and skiing.A couple years ago I wanted to get…
Author: Uphill Athlete
I first heard the term “death by threshold” during a session with famed track coach Alberto Salazar at a seminar a few years ago. It’s a trap people fall into when they do a lot of Zone 3 training—middle-to-higher-intensity training (around Anaerobic or Lactate Threshold)—without the sufficient aerobic base to support it.At first it seems like the regimen is working: you see a rapid improvement in performance, because the adaptations that take place in your glycolytic metabolism are quick to occur. Then after about a month, these steady gains level off. When you hit that plateau, the immediate reaction is…
Aerobic Deficiency is a frequent issue we encounter at Uphill Athlete among new clients seeking coaching and training. While the term might sound daunting, rest assured it’s not dangerous and can be reversed. It often affects athletes who have prioritized Zone 3 or higher-intensity workouts for years. These individuals typically boast impressive anaerobic fitness, feeling strong, fast, and fit—but their aerobic base, the bedrock of true endurance, is significantly underdeveloped, sometimes almost absent. For those who are less fit, Aerobic Deficiency is practically a certainty. The Significance of an Aerobic Base Base training, or sub-aerobic threshold work, isn’t the focus…
I’ve gone on over 20 expeditions in my climbing life—to Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, India, Antarctica, and all over South America. In the early days, when I was new to packing for these big trips, I would just lay out my stuff and fixate on what I was forgetting. I’m not a naturally organized person, so it didn’t occur to me to make a list and check it. Then before one of my first India expeditions, someone in my party started a shared Google document, and we filled it with everything we thought we might need for every possible type of…
VO2 max is often seen as the gold standard of endurance, but is it really the best predictor of performance? This article challenges the VO2 max myth and reveals why factors like economy and lactate threshold may be more important for athletes aiming to excel.
Maximize your fitness with this 12-week mountaineering training plan, especially for athletes with limited time availability.
Kevin Daniels was a climber to the core. For over three decades, the Bishop-based owner and operator of Fixe Hardware USA divided his time between outdoor-industry work and vertical play: alpine, ice, trad, sport, bouldering—he did it all. Then an ACL re-injury sidelined him in 2013, and his doctor suggested he tool around the mountains on a trail bike while recovering. The next day he bought a motorcycle, and the following year he raced over 40 hours through the Mexican desert to his first Baja 1000 Ironman finish. He was hooked. Determined to win the 2017 running of the event—the…
BUY NOW FOR $49 The Uphill Athlete 8 week Mount Blanc Plan is designed for climbers bound for either the Gouter or the more demanding Cosmique route over Mt Blanc du Tacul and Mt Maudit. This plan assumes that you have no strength training background and is ideal for mountaineers and trekkers who have never engaged in an organized training program or who have not done so for a long time.This training plan is based on scientifically sound training principles and a combined thirty years of professional endurance coaching experience and sixty years of world-wide climbing and mountaineering experience. In…
I am 55 years old. Even though I started climbing when I was 14, for the vast majority of my life, I never did anything too strenuous, or big. I climbed Pocotapetl when I was 14, and Aconcagua when I was about 24; and I was always an outdoors enthusiast. But it wasn’t until 2011, a year after I left my corporate career at SAP (a global business software company), that I decided to take on climbing in a much more formal way. In the three years following my departure from SAP, I was fortunate enough to make quite a…
Developing core strength is important for all mountain athletes. A strong core will guard you against injury and will enable you to more effectively use your arms and legs in your chosen sport. Watch the following video demonstration of Scott’s Killer Core Routine to learn the proper form for each exercise. All athletic movements originate from the core; do not neglect this foundational form of strength. For a deeper dive into the exercises, consult Chapter Seven in Training for the New Alpinism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqpbU1Y3bU&feature=youtu.be Scott’s Killer Core Routine: Notes on the Exercises Strict Sit-ups: Straight back. All the way up and…