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…
Author: Uphill Athlete
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…
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In this episode, Steve House, Alyssa Clark and Physical Therapist Pete Dickinson dive into the foundations of physical performance from a pre-habilitation perspective. They examine when an athlete should begin heavier training loads, injury prevention, strength assessment, when to visit a Physical Therapist, common mistakes that lead to injury, and several other topics. Pete offers his top 3 favorite exercises for injury prevention and helps athletes to understand when it’s training fatigue and when it’s more serious. They also use Alyssa’s 95 marathons in 95 days as a case study to assess how an athlete can be durable and endure large training loads without injury. Join in for a great discussion on maintaining health and staying on track with your training.
Committing to the Brathay 10in10 I have no interest in doing just one road marathon again. But I’d do the Brathay 10in10 again. That probably sounds counterintuitive—that I’d rather do 10 road marathons in 10 days than one in a single day—but the commitment and endurance demanded by the former attract me far more than the idea of pushing myself as hard as possible over 26.2 miles.I was inspired to sign up for the Brathay 10in10 after becoming a trustee of the Brathay Trust, a charity dedicated to using interventions—including outdoor activity—to improve the life chances of young people who…
How the CEO and AI pioneer Rene Morkos realized his dream of climbing Denali.