Author: Uphill Athlete

I got my start in climbing in high school, while growing up in Boulder, Colorado, in the late ’60s and ’70s. Boulder was one of the hotbeds for rock climbing at the time. I had many heroes—Layton Kor, Duncan Ferguson, Jim Erickson, to name just a few—to look up to and try to emulate. I was also part of a group of young swimmers selected to live and train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. After a failed attempt to make the ’72 Olympic team, I decided to use my swimming talents to pay for my college education.…

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In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet gives all uphill athletes one simple piece of advice: Keep your motivation high! Do the things you do seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Because in the end running up a mountain is—and should always be—joyful.

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Each person has a different strength in ski mountaineering: either their muscles or their endurance. This also tells how you run or ski. Kilian Jornet explains this concept in detail—and how you can utilize it while racing—in a video interview with Steve House.

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In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet discusses training for multiple sports. He describes how everything is linked: your physical, technical, and mental preparation, even your gear. It needs to be an evolution of everything together.

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In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet talks about goals and why they are important for training. Not only for staying motivated each day, but also for knowing what you actually have to do to achieve the goal: each year, each month, each week, each day. Training is the process that makes you into a different person. A fitter athlete. Kilian also points out common mistakes with goals, including not being realistic about having the time to do the work needed to achieve your objective.

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In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet shares some essential training advice. He touches on athletes who start training later in life, especially those who take on a high training volume while also working and having a family. This means that they have a lot going on besides only training. Kilian points out that whenever you train, it adds stress to your system. Because of this, it is important to remember that time spent at work and/or with family is not necessarily rest for your body. A key takeaway: Training is a long-term progression. As best you can,…

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In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet describes his journey to being able to train by feel. After educating himself about training theory for several years, Kilian began to self-coach at the age of 17. Eventually, thanks to his extensive training and theoretical background, he began to proceed by feel.

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When Kilian Jornet started training for skimo racing when he was 13 years old, he worked with two coaches. One coach provided training plans each month, and the other conducted technical training (e.g., how to stride and glide, avalanche courses, and general mountain skills). Between the ages of 13 and 17, Kilian was immersed in this kind of structured training. As a teenager, Kilian didn’t just train; he describes himself as being obsessed with training. He would frequently run 25 kilometers to and then back from school, or he would cycle 60 kilometers to find snow and then do his…

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