Do not let overtraining sabotage your performance. Learn how to recover from overtraining and avoid the pitfalls with the insights offered in this article.
Author: Uphill Athlete
A climber achieves his 17-year-long Mt. Aconcagua summit dream. This is the story of his perseverance, training approach, and climate change.
In this episode of Training for Mountaineering, Steve House and Alyssa Clark welcome coach Martin Zhor onto the podcast to discuss tapering and the post-mountain blues. They discuss the dos and don’ts of tapering along with advice on the duration and types of workouts athletes should be focusing on during this time period.
Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, conjures images of adventure, glaciers, superhuman mountain guides and Sherpas, and majestic views. But how long does it take to climb Mount Everest, and how much fitness is needed to undertake an expedition to Mount Everest? We’ve researched for you and outlined what it takes to climb Mount Everest and how important logistics and physiology are to reach the summit.
Listen to this Episode: Episode 7 of the Winter 22-23 SeasonIn this episode of Training for Mountaineering, Steve House and Alyssa Clark are joined by veteran Uphill Athlete coach, Jason Antin. The trio opens by discussing the role of strength in Jason, Steve and Alyssa’s athletic careers and the purpose of strength training in the mountains. They continue with defining strength, strength training and its role in helping athletes move efficiently and safely in mountain objectives. Jason and Steve break down the three periods of strength training including transition, max strength and muscular endurance. Jason discusses his favorite max strength exercises and how single…
Listen to this Episode: Episode 8 of the Winter 22-23 SeasonIn this episode of Training for Mountaineering, Steve House and Alyssa Clark discuss the last training period before tapering, the climbing specific period. This stage follows the crucial base period, and serves to sharpen the skills a climber needs for a specific goal. Steve and Alyssa tackle how to navigate and plan this period from build up climbing trips, to training at home. They break down how a climber should distribute intensity, volume, recovery and strength throughout the week. They also touch on the importance of mental preparation and the confidence this…
In 2013, work friends invited my wife and me on a Tuscany biking (really wine-drinking) trip. I didn’t and still don’t care for road biking—Tuscany excepted—but I needed to get in biking shape. So I started mountain biking. In the subsequent four years, our group went on three more trips: Machu Picchu via Salkantay, the Dolomites hiking and biking, and a Canmore/Banff birthday bash. The more time I spent in the mountains, the more I wanted to be up there. I’m a retired electrical engineer living in Elizabethtown, Kentucky—we only have hills here—but I decided mountaineering was a sport I…
"Alaska favors the strong." Uphill Athlete coach Jason Antin kept reminding me of this in the months leading up to our spring climbing trip to the Alaska Range. “You’ll be out there for twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours straight, trying to optimize a weather window,” he told me, “then you’re going to get into camp, and you’re going to need to have energy to build camp, build a platform, chop a ledge, put a tent up, get water going, feed yourself—and then sleep for six hours and go do it all again the next day.” Jason knew this from his own…
In this episode, Steve and Alyssa talk with return guest, Chantelle Robitaille, on the base period of training for Mountaineering. They discuss the importance of the base period, the main principles behind base training as well as the strength component. They explore how to work around limited gym access as well as adaptations if athletes live in flat areas. Steve explains his own experience with weighted uphill climbs and training muscular endurance for upper and lower body. In closing, the trio explores how to differentiate a mountaineering plan from a more technical alpine plan and what these differences should look like within the training. Join in to learn about the crucial period of training that helps athletes reach their best in the mountains.
A Climbing Passion Reignited after Two Decades Brian Carlock Sometimes when you get slapped around, you have to keep stepping forward. I repeated this mantra to myself as I stumbled over the snowbound talus encircling Chasm View Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), Colorado, en route—slowly—back to my bivy higher in the cirque. I was bonking, hard, due to a combination of the attitude and improper provisioning. I’d brought only Gu energy gels and a single liter of water for a guided outing on Kiener’s Route (5.4; easy snow) up the east face of Longs Peak: 3.18 miles in…