How early do you typically show up in CO? What does your acclimatization strategy look like when you do show up?
Colin Simon
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ParticipantParticipant
I did my own 18-month study on fat adaptation.
I did a lab test after coming off a couple of years of alpine climbing frequently. My lab test showed that I was pretty bad at burning fat despite feeling fairly strong(on one AK trip we did summit Denali three times from 14k, and in Kyrgyzstan it wasn’t hard to get up my first 7000m peak).
Coming off the alpine climbing binge, I got my first real office job, 50-60 hours a week when you consider the commute. My activity level went way down, but I decided to eat mostly fat with minimal carbs. After 18 months, on a trip to Chamonix my fitness felt like garbage. On a powder day at Mont Blanc, my lack of fitness is what ultimately shut us down. Other mistakes happened, but during a different year I would have happily broken trail to the summit. Instead I was struggling hard just to keep up in my friend’s skin track. I got another lab test anyway, and the verdict: I had completely ruined my fat burning capacity.
That office job sucked, but at the time I had to take it, and at least it also allowed me to collect my own personal data that definitively says that physical activity level is dramatically more important than nutrition for the sake of fat adaptation. You cannot just eat fats and expect something amazing to happen. This doesn’t mean “eat garbage,” but hopefully it may help someone focus on what’s important, which is actually getting out.
That being said, yes, whole milk is great. I’m also struck by the fact that 90% of high protein yogurts at grocery stores are fat-free. This seems sad, like they are stuck on the false pretense that fat is bad for you.
ParticipantIf you are doing your larger training days, for example “long z1-2 day” or muscular endurance or other challenging workout, like Scott S said, the most important part is recovery. So why not throw IF out the window for the big days and the following day(or two days or however long it takes) for recovery. Eat all normal meals those days and make sure to get plenty of carbohydrates. But if you are mid-cycle just running 45 mins some day, it makes sense to me to do it fasted at lunchtime, then eat between 1pm and 8pm.
ParticipantColin Simon on February 24, 2018 at 9:08 am · in reply to: Ways to build a climbing base without a rope #8240The struggle is real. One of the gyms near me has a bunch of autobelay devices that allow you to run laps. When ARCing started catching on, they had too many people (myself included) starting to do 20-30minute sessions which frequently means 10+ laps. That really ticked off a lot of “normal” gym members, and now that gym has a policy of 2 laps maximum per autobelay.
Ultimately, it seems like the best do it outside. Between Eldo and Red Rocks, Brad Gobright soloed thousands of pitches of 5.9 and under in just a few years before setting his crazy Nose record.
One expensive option is to get a treadwall if you can’t find access to one.
If all of those fail, it seems like your best bet is to double-down on skin care(the Anderson brothers book has quite a bit on that) and really execute the morning easy traversing sessions.
ParticipantShouldn’t Seth’s crossover point be much lower than 181 bpm?
The visual crossover point in the graph it is(roughly) .3g of fat versus 2.2g of carbohydrate.
If fat contains more energy than carbohydrates, we should multiply the fat by 9/4 to get an apples-to-apples energy consumption; so it’s comparing 0.675 fat versus 2.2 carbs. Shouldn’t it be 1:1?
So they aren’t equal at all, and the CU-lab test resizes the y-axis to make the curves visually cross.
I’ve taken the lab test there twice, and my y-axis are both “resized” so the curves visually cross. And both are different from Seth’s. Shouldn’t they stay the same, or am I missing something?
ParticipantColin Simon on February 2, 2018 at 11:31 am · in reply to: Mobility, myofacial release, imbalances / restrictions / injury #7930I used to visit a recovery lab with a whole bunch of toys including an ice bath set to 54 degrees F, which makes sense with recommendations I’ve seen…generally not to go lower than 54F, and that the ideal time is somewhere between 5-10 minutes. Then I bought a $4 thermometer and found out the water in my bathtub at home usually comes out around 56f, so no reason to pay for some expensive facilities.
That recovery lab does have Normatec Recovery Boots, which seem to be like foam rolling on crack, for your entire legs minus the butt. If you have that “one muscle” that is very tight, a foam roller or lacrosse ball may be better, but if your legs just feel stiff overall or across large muscles(e.g. quads) it hits a large area pretty well. My experience with them has been excellent, but perhaps Scott has some more thorough information.
ParticipantDo the snazzy Garmin or Suunto lines accurately capture irregular intensity so common to our sports?
I’m still using a (relatively)cheap Polar that doesn’t have GPS or any of that; great for maintaining pace/intensity and not-so-great for evaluating overall stress.
ParticipantSeth,
I’m unqualified to answer many of those questions, but I have gotten up stuff in AK. Happy to get out for a jaunt up green mountain if you’re around Boulder.ParticipantColin Simon on June 19, 2017 at 10:46 pm · in reply to: Max Strength and Core Routine with wrist injury #5216Why not do pistol squats, and focus on the wall-facing squats? For the core you can include the “hollow hold” progression which doesn’t use your wrists at all.
ParticipantScott,
Did you measure Cory Richards’ CTL before he tagged Everest in 2016?
ParticipantColin Simon on May 9, 2017 at 8:15 pm · in reply to: Denali climbing questions. Pace and Gear. #4765Don’t worry, you didn’t sound douchey at all. Perfectly reasonable questions. And in general if it’s your first big trip to a place like that, better to err on the side of asking too many questions than to show up without any good options.
High on Denali(above 14k) it’s cold enough that the snow tends to be less wet. I find you mainly get wet from sweating or from sitting around in the snow day after day. The Houdini is nice because it blocks the wind and snow, and layering on top of it works nicely. And it’s about as breathable as you can get unless someone starts making garments out of actual tissue paper. On the other hand if it snows a lot down low (7000ft, late spring) you could want a hard shell.
Don’t forget to cover your face up high! And you will breathe hard through a balaclava. I cut a mouth hole in one, some people use multiple Buffs.
ParticipantColin Simon on May 8, 2017 at 7:14 pm · in reply to: Denali climbing questions. Pace and Gear. #4748Scott,
the Sun Shade hoodie is nice because it is so loose-fitting, it allows air to pass around you and keep you cool. The hood droops over your baseball hat and keeps out the sun(don’t forget the baseball hat!). On the lower glacier it can be very hot, but you want to stay covered since the rays are so intense. It’s a bit like having desert robes – the R1 hoodie does too good a job of keeping you warm.
I found just the softshell pant to be enough. I think it’s a lot nicer to layer puffy pants over most softshells than most hardshells.
Don’t be surprised when your breathing ramps up to a high rate despite going slowly up high! Relax and be patient.
ParticipantParticipantColin Simon on March 24, 2017 at 11:07 am · in reply to: Alternative training for skimo-racing #4355bjornson,
I asked a very similar question a while back. I was curious how much cycling I could do to train for alpine climbing. The answer is pretty much the same.
And yes, without local hills you are in a tough spot for running. The site authors also recently made an article/training plan for urban-dwellers looking for training.
ParticipantColin Simon on March 3, 2017 at 1:31 pm · in reply to: lactate test results and nose breathing #4178Problem is, more I read on the subject, less it seems lactate testing in the lab is a good way to determine training zones
Got any links to that?