Over the last decade the sport of ski mountaineering racing, or skimo, has seen a dramatic increase in participants, most notably in North America where it captures legions of trail and mountain runners seeking winter challenges in the mountains. Thanks to rapidly improving equipment, moving fast on skimo race gear has started to look more and more like the cross-country ski racing of yesteryear. It’s no surprise that skimo racers can reap huge efficiency gains by adapting a number of Nordic ski training methods. One of the most valuable of those methods is training on roller skis. By closely mimicking…
Author: Uphill Athlete
Professional alpinist David Goettler, coached by Scott Johnston, uses a special muscular endurance workout in preparation for an alpine-style ascent of Shishapangma in 2017. The day’s session involves sets of weighted climbs of a long staircase. Specific training like this should be layered on top of hundreds of hours of aerobic base building. It is not recommended for those who are suffering from a lower-limb injury. You May Also Be Interested In: Mount Everest without Oxygen: Reaching the Highest Point of My Life Shishapangma 2017 Running in the Khumbu to Acclimatize
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…
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…
The metrics that TrainingPeaks produces using data from your GPS and heart rate monitor have potent implications for monitoring, controlling, and adjusting your training. Anyone can write a training plan. The challenge is successfully applying it to the athlete so that it produces the best results, and one of the biggest problems for coaches and athletes is assessing training load—on both a short-term and long-term basis—and the effect that load has on the athlete. TrainingPeaks was initially set up to serve triathletes and cyclists. Exercise physiologist Andrew Coggan developed the Training Stress Score system as a simplified version of an…
Sometime in the late ’90s I was approaching a grade 6 Canadian ice climb, Virtual Reality, with my climbing partner Joe Josephson. As we walked and talked, the subject of Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face came up. I was the only one of us who had been to the Himalaya and I had seen the mythical “biggest wall in the world.” At the time the king line, the central pillar, was unclimbed and the famed 1970 route established by Reinhold and Gunther Messner and the Karl Herligkoffer–led expedition had not been repeated. Joe and I laughed about how awesome, and yet…
In this video tutorial, Scott Johnston discusses the purpose and process of doing muscular endurance (ME) workouts using a steep hill and a backpack weighted with water. This ME water carries video is complementary to the article "What is Muscular Endurance?" Scott offers great tips and technique for beginner to advanced athletes, honed by years of experience. Related Articles Aerobic Training Exercises for Muscular Endurance Strength Training Strength Training for the Mountain Athlete Aerobic Training What Is Muscular Endurance? Why Is It Important? How Do You Train It?
Why can some alpinists ascend 1,000 meters in an hour with a 15-kilogram pack when others struggle with 1,000 feet? The answer is muscular endurance (ME)—the capacity to maintain a high percentage of muscle contractile force for many repetitions of the propelling movement. Famed Russian coach and researcher Yuri Verkhoshansky was one of the first to explore this quality and demonstrate its impact on endurance performance. His research showed that ME is the main determinant of an athlete’s maximum sustainable speed in efforts lasting more than a few minutes. ME training is of critical importance for any athlete involved in…
In this Uphill Athlete video tutorial, Scott Johnston demonstrates a series of basic core exercises. This beginner progression is an excellent form of pre-conditioning for Scott’s Killer Core routine.Interested in learning more about developing strength for mountain sports? Check out "Strength Training for the Mountain Athlete."