Posted In: Training for the Female Uphill Athlete
Myself and the Patagonia ambasssador team recently concluded a couple of years updating and upgrading the good old ascentionist clmbing packs. Lots of minor improvements, but the new fabric is the big upgrade (and the lighter weight) I personally feel these are the most refined climbing packs available for the sizes.
http://www.patagonia.com/product/ascensionist-pack-40-liters/48002.html
Hi Colin,
Here are some thoughts:
1) Never train on an injury. When you’re this acute there isn’t much you can do but rest, ice, anti-inflamatories. If there is an activity, swimming comes to mind in this case, that woudl completely not affect your area of injury, then you could try doing some of that. But I’d ease into it to test the waters, so to speak. Cycling could offer another possible option for shin splints.
2) ARC is something we use often in our coaching work with people who are working on rock/technical climb fitness as well. Yes, count the time the same.
3) Indeed, not all drink mixes are the same. Mixes with a lot of carbs are designed for performance during races, remember at the highest intensity even well trained athletes are burning a lot of carbs. So cyclists in racing scenarios will want to on-board a lot of carbs on a consistent basis. Of course with aid stations and aid-cars, a cyclists never has to worry about running out. You have to carry what you use which make fat adaptation more valuable to you. Remember the saying, train low (carb), race high (carb). Or to put it another way, on your long duration training use only water or a low-calorie drink tab and On the climbs that count, go all in on the carbs.
Hi ScottyP,
The short answer is: Mostly. You should stop eating carbs during low-intensity training. But not all training, not strength training or higher intensity efforts whether they be intervals, uphill water carries, etc. Those workouts should give you enough opportunity to test your tolerance to the GU and blocks.
Here is more info:
Or type ‘fat’ into the search box in the top right corner of the page.
Thanks for writing in.
Steve
I usually have something left over from whatever my most recent injury was. I understand these drugs can create a problem, but treat them responsibly so I forget that other may not. The fact is that if you suffer a serious injury, an opiod may allow you to self-rescue but ibu, etc, doesn’t put a dent in serious pain. Hope that makes sense.
I’m not in any way qualified to give advice here, but I can tell you what I do. The minimum I bring is good cloth tape (1000 purposes), steri-strips (light and effective), a few does of Naproxen (I prefer to ibuprofen and fewer tabs means less weight!) and a decent supply of the strongest pain killer I can get my hands on. On top of that I bring a emergency blanket (shock is very real) if I don’t have a sleeping bag. Benadryl is a good idea if there are known allergies or with people I don’t know. The rest is situational. Hope that helps. Hope you don’t need it!
Good luck and let us know how it goes @zswinston
Don’t worry, there are no stupid questions here, and enabling this sort of back and forth is exactly the reason Uphill Athlete exists.
This is a very common concern/question. For people with a 5-day-a-week job, which is most people, it can be impossible to do longer duration workouts mid-week.
Let’s look at a simple, yet typical, weekly training schedule during the beginning phase of the base period (no intensity work yet):
Monday: Rest
Tues: Aerobic Capacity #1 (20% of weekly volume)
Wed: Strength #1
Thursday: Aerobic Capacity #2 (15% of weekly volume)
Friday: Aerobic Capacity #3 (15% of weekly volume)
Saturday: Long Aerobic Capacity: (50% of weekly volume)
Sunday: Strength #2 and/or skill day (such as climbing)
So when you get to 10 hours per week, if we take out 2 hours for strength that leaves 8 hours for aerobic capacity. That translates to the following times for aerobic capacity workouts:
Tues:48 min
Thurs: 36 min
Friday: 36 min
Sat: 4 hours
So that keeps the schedule less lime-intensive mid-week and puts the long run on a weekend day when it’s easier to get out and get the long workout in. Hope that helps.
Steve
Thanks guys. We started hearing this last night. I’ll refer the problem to our tech master and see what they can do. I don’t have this problem, but as you say, I’m an admin. Thanks for the heads up. Steve
Hi,
The inspiration of the treadmill-hand walk was an exercise my high school PE teacher used, the wheelbarrow. Get in a push-up position, have someone grab your feet, and then walk on your hands with them supporting your feet. Exact same exercise, but it requires a partner.
Any dumbell exercise or series of exercises can be turned into a muscular endurance workout. Try this shoulder circuit:
Do each exercise for 1′ without rest
Rest 1′ between each exercise
Upright row
Lateral raises (standing flies)
Push press
Front raises
Bent over row
Reverse bent over flies
Rest 3-5′ and do it again. Start the first week with this and the second week add on another circuit.
This is just one off-the-top idea, you can design loads of other ME circuits with as few as two and as many as 10 (beyond that it might get silly) exercises.
For further inspiration check out pages 166-167 of Training for the New Alpinism.
Hi Filipe,
The sample workout of Mtn Tactical’s that you are referring to is an aerobic workout. While the workout in which we refer to the step ups and step downs are strength workouts. Our plans incorporate 2 gym based strength workouts per week and the protocols are periodized, which in a nutshell means that the reps/sets prescriptions change over time as you gain fitness. Our plans also incorporate 4 days of aerobic workouts per week, and you will be given options of how to perform those workouts. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, post away. Thanks,
Steve
Good questions which are more related to one another than one might think.
First up: Down suit. I have spent significant time in a down suit only once, and found it too hot for me. But I was on a lower (7,950m) peak in the Karakoram (summertime climbing season) and due to low altitude and summer-time it simply isn’t as cold there as it is in the Nepal or Tibetan Himalaya in pre/post-monsoon seasons. All times I’ve been near or above 8,000 meters I’ve been warm enough (never any frostbite) with my Patagonia DAS Parka and DS Pants serving as insulation. The exception is once on Makalu in autumn 2008. But I believe that was due to the constant wind more than especially low temperatures.
However, staying warm is only partially about dressing warm, it is also about fitness and fuel. Whenever I was high I was typically moving fairly quickly because I was well trained and very fat adapted. People who are highly sugar-adapted (this would mean most mountaineers I’ve seen, basically everyone who who hasn’t trained with a coach and/or didn’t come from an organized endurance sports background) becomes cold as soon as they run out of sugar-fuel.
So, since the key to staying warm is only partially what you wear, and to a very large part determined by what you eat, then start by reading,.
if you haven’t already, this this:
and
Here’s the simplified version, because the details can get complicated: The best way to achieve a fat adapted state is to spend months and months training, and incorporating fasted training into your low-intensity workouts, just one or two times per week at first, and then more and more until you’re doing all of your Aerobic Capacity workouts without ingesting calories of any kind at least four hours prior to your workouts.
Then, when you’re high on the peak, and especially on summit day, you eat what you can and (more or less) as much as you can. What foods and nutrients you consume up high is not determined by a nutrition strategy at extreme altitudes, but by a tolerance strategy. Nausea is almost a given at 8,000 meters, so ask yourself: What can you get down, and keep down?
Sugary tea? Hard candies? GU gels? Cake frosting? The only guideline is that due to the lack of available oxygen your gut won’t be able to do any real digestion, so stay away from fatty or protein-laden foods. Even nuts and nut-butters will be too much for most guts. Stick to simple foods.
My personal favorites? Barely cooked (still slightly crunchy) ramen noodles mixed with an instant chicken soup packet are one of my favorites, even for breakfast. After that I stick with GU gels because I like them and my stomach never has a problem with them (it surely helps if you drink a minimum 100-150ml of water with each packet.) And regular milk chocolate. Any kind, as long as it didn’t have kerosene spilled on it (that’s another story), also taste great and goes down easy.
One more important note, is what to eat in base camp. In short: A lot! First off, I make sure I eat 3-500 calories within 30 minutes of returning to base camp. I personally use the GU Energy Recovery shake. Then during the rest of the day I ingest about 20 grams of whey protein in a bowl of porridge or other food. Plus I take BCAA/leucine supplements, again I use the GU Energy product. These additional supplements and additions to your normal diet will help make sure your recover. The rest of the time in base camp, just eat/drink a lot. I take favorite drink mixes, hot chocolates, black licorice candy, chocolate, dried fruits, and other foods I know I love to BC so I can eat more or less all the time. This keeps your glycogen stores topped up and you’ll be as fueled and as ready, nutritionally, as you can be when you head up again.
I hope that is useful. Happy hunting!
Steve
Mike,
I agree with the sediments expressed above. But motivation is a strong thing. Scott Backes, one of my oldest climbing partners, has lived his whole life in Minneapolis, not exactly a climbing-hub. But he was able to become a good climber. I think establishing a climbing-skills/movement-base with regular (as possible) rock climbing is your best bet. Once you have those skills, you’ll have them for life. So climbing gym? Yes! Any and all forms of climbing available to you? Yes!
And then, there is always the climbing trip. I don’t know your work/life situation of course, but one way you can turn your disadvantage into an advantage is to travel to as many differently places to climb as possible. I think diversity in experience makes for a good alpinist, and is something many climbers overlook in their personal development. Of course this is time/budget limited. A good alpinist, as I like to say, is like a good decathlete, you have to be able to do everything fairly well, but specialize in nothing. You need to climb limestone, granite, gneiss, trad, sport, ice, mixed, snow, ridges, faces, forecast weather on the go, and be able to pick a safe route to climb on any given day. Travel and exposure to many different places, and many different ways to see and climb in the mountains, will hurry you along your path to becoming an alpinist.
Consider that it may be cheaper to fly to Geneva and spend a week camped up above Chamonix than it would be to drive to Yosemite. For a lot of climbers on the East coast the Alps are a much better/cheaper/faster climbing destination than the western US or Canada.
Lastly, Scott S.’s point above, finding community, is an important one.
Hope that helps. Keep up the fitness and I’ll look for you in the hills
#weareuphillathletes
Steve
I do personally love my Garmin Fenix3 with the HR strap for training. The gps is actually pretty useful for training (tracking distance, etc), though not for navigating. I splurged for the one with the Sapphire screen and am glad I did.
Hi Maria,
I think Scott S may be correct; you’re overall stress level is simply too high. With climbers at your stage, I recommend taking things in blocks. Since it is spring, with summer around the corner, I would suggest dedicating the next few months to learning (and going) climbing. Then plan on starting a training plan in say, October, when you won’t be able to go climbing as often and the weather will be bad anyways. In short: don’t try to do it all at once. Make sense?
Topper,
Also remember that David was on routes, given his abilities, that if at any time he felt like he was getting AMS, HAPE, or HACE, he could turn and virtually run down to lower altitude. Remember the 3 cures for altitude illness? Descent. Descent. Descent. This same approach, done on a technical route with a difficult descent, like Denali’s Cassin Ridge, would be much riskier.
When I climbed Cho Oyu in 2001 via the normal route I went from the summit to ABC in something like 5 or 6 hours, a descent of 2,400 meters or so (going off memory here). So it’s possible to loose altitude very very quickly.
But this is all predicated on fitness. Thanks for posting!
Steve
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