[Nathaniel Gehring]

12 months ago, I DNF’d at the Ouray 100 ultramarathon held in (unsurprisingly) Ouray, CO. I had trained relatively well and been focused on that race for 6 months, and DNF’d anyway. I was not disappointed by the DNF. It was my first foray into really serious mountain ultramarathoning, having only finished much smaller mountain ultras previously. And I had reached 65 miles and proved to myself that I belonged. And I registered for the race again, and set out to do what needed to be done to finish in 2022.

Two weeks ago, I finished. I finished despite the vast majority of my training being done in South Florida where the largest “mountain” to climb is a 100 foot capped off landfill. There was lots I did to make the training work, and many of the concepts came from Training for the Uphill Athlete adapted as well as possible to life on a treadmill and training on flat terrain. And I centered my training around the Uphill Athlete At-Home Muscular Endurance workout and, later, the ChamonixFit program. I largely credit those two programs with getting me ready for race day, a day in which I never once struggled with endurance or strength or balance issues. (I had other very significant issues to overcome, but not those.)

So, thank you to Uphill Athlete for the work out do, the content you share, the programs you offer. I would not have finished this massive goal race without it. It was a giant accomplishment for me, one who’s suffering I hope to never experience again.

Thank you.

-Nathan Gehring-

Topic

[Jane Mackay]

Jane Mackay on August 8, 2022 at 1:38 am #69747

Huge congratulations, Nathan, on accomplishing that goal, especially under vertically challenged training conditions. I’m a volunteer moderator here and working towards my own mountain goals (having started late in life), and I echo your experience with ME and CMF making an major contribution to endurance, strength and balance under test. Thanks for sharing your story and your experience, and again, congratulations!