Let’s get one thing straight right away. I may be new to trail and mountain running (less than one year) but I’m certainly not new to running or racing. I ran my first cross-country race as a gangly nine-year-old, and my love for the sport blossomed into a college scholarship, All-American track honors, and a stint on the prestigious Mammoth Track Club. Outside of running as a competitive sport my passion has always been in exploring the outdoors, which naturally led to a progression into trail/mountain running last year, when I took on two major trail running adventures: running across…
Author: Uphill Athlete
Lucky. That’s how I would describe my success thus far on all six of the Seven Summits I’ve attempted (only Carstenz in Australia remains). To a certain degree, my experience as a triathlete and Ironman participant carried me through. But with any big mountain, there are conditions outside of yourself that you cannot control (weather, route, team, fitness, etc.), which need to align just right if the climb is going to be a success. As a mountain climber, it is imperative to train as well as possible, to put your body in the best shape possible to handle whatever the…
The worlds of trail and ultrarunning are growing incredibly fast. Athletes from all types of mountain sports, as well as track and road runners, are signing up for these races to test their bodies and minds against the difficulties associated with running in the mountains. It also seems that the more technical and demanding these mountain races are, the more popular they become. As it turns out, however, making the transition from running roads or climbing peaks to running an ultra-distance race or route in the mountains comes with a relatively steep learning curve. Here are six mountain running tips…
In the lexicon of our times, cardio has come to define any exercise that raises the heart rate. Walking, running, elliptical trainers, and rowing machines are all considered “cardio.” While there are health benefits from any exercise, coaches and exercise scientists know that low-intensity exercise has no significant cardiac muscle training effect for anyone except those with low fitness levels. A study by Jan Helgerud, PhD, found that the best way to strengthen the weakened hearts of cardiac patients was to engage in high-intensity interval training. But the term cardio is misapplied when referring to the way endurance athletes spend…
When John Giraldo and I watched the plane float away above the Yentna Glacier a few weeks ago, I was a little bit surprised, to say the least. For the past year, John and I had been anticipating a trip to the Revelations, for which we had won a McNeil-Nott award through the American Alpine Club. But with low clouds sitting between us and the Revelations for almost a week, our pilot suggested we fly into the seldom-visited area on the southwest side of Mount Foraker. One of the primary qualifications for the McNeil-Nott Award is “the remoteness and exploratory…
The simple but time-consuming Rusko orthostatic test was developed by the famed Finnish exercise scientist Heikki Rusko as a way to monitor for overtraining among high-level cross-country skiers at training camps. It requires only a basic heart rate monitor with real-time display. Here is how it works:At the same time each day, usually upon waking in the morning and after a trip to the bathroom, the athlete lies supine for 5 minutes and notes the average heart rate level during the last 2 minutes.The athlete then stands up. Immediately after standing, and while remaining still, the athlete notes their heart…
Attention Uphill Athletes: Some of the nutrition information in this article is now outdated. While certain highly trained endurance athletes like Cory and Adrian may benefit from fasted training and other nutrition strategies, our coaches and dietitians no longer recommend these strategies for most athletes, especially female athletes. You can read more in our most recent nutrition and fat adaptation articles, written by Uphill Athlete’s registered dietician Rebecca Dent and reviewed by the Uphill Athlete team, that reflect the most up-to-date scientific findings on fat adaptation and fasted training.If you need further advice, we encourage you to reach out for…
How about this for a week’s worth of mountain fun?Days 1–2: Approach several hours on foot from Chamonix, France, to the north face of the Grand Jorasses. Climb the Colton-MacIntyre route (ED, VI, 1,200m) and then descend a long, difficult route into Italy for a total time of 27 hours while consuming only two gels and a half liter of water.Day 3: Pace a friend in a 50K trail race.Day 4: Win the Chamonix Vertical K race.Days 5–6: Travel to Alaska.Day 7: Win the Mountain Marathon in Seward, Alaska, setting a new course record.Sounds unlikely if not downright impossible, right?…
Okay, you’ve taken your Metabolic Efficiency Test (MET) or Gas Exchange Test (GET) and gotten your grade. But what does it mean? And where do we go from here?One advantage to paying professionals to test your blood lactate or metabolic efficiency is that they should explain what the results mean in terms of your training. But for the DIYers out there, or for anyone who felt a little fuzzy on their lab technicians’ explanation of the results, here is a basic look at what your results in these tests might mean. Hopefully by covering some of the basics, along with…
At a coaching conference a while back, I listened to some very experienced triathlon coaches speak about Ironman training. According to these coaches, the TSS (Training Stress Score) numbers that TrainingPeaks can calculate are solid enough for them to say with some conviction that to complete the world championship race in Kona in under 9 hours, a triathlete needs a CTL (Chronic Training Load) of 150. They also had enough data to produce similar benchmarks for other races and marathon times. This got me thinking: Would it be possible to establish a CTL yardstick in TrainingPeaks for the mountain athletes we coach?What follows is a deep dive into how we came up with…