[Bond]

Bond on March 23, 2020 at 1:49 pm · in reply to: Denali Cancelled – Adjsuting Training Plan #39785

Scott is right on, to lose weight the only thing to do is to eat less. Improving food quality is always nice too but there’s got to be fewer calories in. In my experience this is incredibly difficult without a food tracker like My Fitness Pal, which works wonders if you stick to it.

For training, I find it’s difficult to do long aerobic work and a calorie deficit at the same time. The long workouts stimulate hunger and it’s actually not that difficult to burn 1500 calories then eat 2000 calories back and end up at a net negative. “It was such a hard workout so I’m having a double cheeseburger and fries, and hey a beer or two as well.” It’s tough to do two-three hours in the hills then refuel with a salad with light dressing, both in terms of your body recovering day-to-day but also the mental aspect of feeling satiated.

So my advice would be to focus your training on strength work. Gyms are or should be closed due to the virus but figure something out. Strength seems to work better for most people in a calorie deficit, but recognize that you also won’t have as fast of gains as you would when eating more.

But the diet is the main thing. And again, I know hardly anyone who’s lost weight without a tracking program like My Fitness Pal and I know a ton of people (myself included) who have used it successfully.

[Bond]

Bond on March 18, 2020 at 9:33 am · in reply to: More Books! Where to next! #39672

“How Bad Do You Want It” is the best Matt Fitzgerald book, dealing with the power of mental training and motivation in endurance sports. And it has some really excellent inspiration stories of athletes digging super deep, you can’t help but go for a great run after reading about Sammy Wanjiru at the Chicago Marathon. His “Racing Weight” book and the other ones with more specific physical training recommendations are good, but they’re not really appropriate for most of UA’s audience, better for 10k to marathon runners – they have more of an emphasis on short workouts and eating the carbs you need to fuel them.

Extreme Alpinism by Twight has some out of date info and TFTNA is better for training advice but it still gets you psyched.

Dan John writes great books though he’s more focused on track and field, olympic lifting, and football than anything endurance. I like Easy Strength and Never Let Go. His best stuff is less about specific training prescriptions and more about how to be a lifelong athlete, how to incorporate training into a healthy overall lifestyle, how to figure out what matters and what doesn’t (in training or otherwise), and just how to be a good person.

Happy Runner by David Roche is a good book about mental health in sports. It’s easy to get depressed when you get injured, or your race gets canceled, or you can’t send due to bad weather, or whatever. The book is all about how to keep a healthy relationship with sport. Grizzled and angsty alpinists might find it a little too lovey-dovey but it’s good.

Then stuff about how to be a better climber – Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper, 9 Out Of 10 Climbers Make The Same Mistakes by Dave MacLeod, Alpine Climbing Techniques To Take You Higher by Cosley and Houston, Advanced Multipitch Climbing by Andy Kirkpatrick, The Self-Coached Climber by Dan Hague, The Mountain Guide Manual by Marc Chauvin, self-rescue books, etc etc etc.