Training for mountain sports

The Basics of Basic Training Principles

To maximize performance, an athlete needs to do some anaerobic training. But to optimize the anaerobic benefits, an athlete needs to have an aerobic foundation. The bigger the base, the bigger the benefit. The bigger the benefit, the better the performance.

What is aerobic evolution?

Many athletes get suckered into believing that physical potential is a genetic lottery. That's only partially true.

Does more fatigue mean more fitness?

Training causes fatigue and fitness to appear in sequence. Then athletes confuse the degree of fatigue with future fitness. Sometimes, it’s the opposite. I’ve had a

The best thing I learned from climbing

Climbers feel fear but cannot act on it. Practicing forced restraint widens the gap between stimulus and response. What was a tunnel becomes a decision tree. — “If I

To perform or protect? Which is better?

Most mornings, I make pour-over coffee. I weigh and hand-grind 20 grams of whole beans. I pre-rinse a filtered V60 cone. Then I put the grounds in the cone on

Genetic potential? Excuses matter more.

“Uh oh, you’re not going to like that,” my wife said. We were in a bookstore, and I had picked up a copy of The Sports

"When can I stop easy training?"

When I introduced an allowance to our oldest son, I used three jars: Spend, Give, and Save. The three jars represented three big-picture elements of managing money. After describing the

What is the most important intensity?

Performance in an endurance event comes from the highest average speed. Training determines what the highest average speed–“race pace”–will be. The higher the race

A review of my 2018/2019 skimo training

The 2018/2019 skimo season was my best ever. I finished the season sixth in Canada and went to the World Championships in Switzerland. A lot of factors contributed to

Six drills to make ARC training more effective

After a ten-year hiatus, I’ve started rock climbing again. I “remember” how to move–thank God for engrams–but I started with zero climbing

How bored can you be?

“I’m bored,” my son often says. He uses it as a justification for distraction. Boredom is bad, he thinks, so something external should be sought so

VO2 Max: A 14-year retrospective

In 2005, I went with three friends to get our first VO2 max tests. I didn’t know what the results meant. But fourteen years later, that first test

Is 5.11 the junk zone of rock climbing?

Between 2005 and 2010, I focused on sport climbing. I redpointed 13c and flashed 12c. A key part of my progress was avoiding 5.11. When I was sport climbing,

How to calibrate a treadmill

I recently discovered that my treadmill doesn’t report its actual speed. At first, I was disappointed. Then I calibrated the machine and found that it under-reports its speed. Phew! The other day at the gym, I warmed up on a treadmill that

Principles

Don't fill the bowl

When I “fill the bowl”, life is too jam-packed. Everything in the bowl competes for space. When the unexpected happens, the important things suffer. The solution? Don’

Should Whoop change its name to Whoops?

Last month, I started using a Whoop. I hoped that it would guide me toward better recovery. Unfortunately, the Whoop's activity tracking is too inaccurate and imprecise to be of much use. I sent it back for a refund.

Lactate Test #5: Progress

On September 18th, I did my fifth lactate test for the season. As with previous tests, I did both the aerobic and anaerobic portions on the same day with a

Comparing Data: Whoop vs. Garmin Fenix 2

This morning was my second workout with a Whoop on my wrist. In both cases, Whoop’s data is inaccurate and grossly overstates the intensity of the workouts. I

Lactate Test #4: Stupid is as stupid does

Over a month ago, I did my fourth lactate capacity test of the season. I did both the aerobic and anaerobic portions on the same day, albeit with a break and some food between them. Since my last test in early July, I’

Training on a treadmill: Accuracy versus precision

In early 2018, I bought a treadmill. Training on a treadmill sounds horrible to most–and for long, steady sessions it is–but for high-intensity training, it’s perfect. Yesterday, I wrote about the big impact that gradient has on climb

Gradient: Small changes in angle, big differences in climb rate

When using climb rates as benchmarks, make sure that the grade of the terrain during tests is consistent. Small variations in gradient will create big differences in climb rates and misleading results between tests. I often use a treadmill as part of my warm-up

Slow & steady is boring. Is it really necessary?

I loved The Matrix. In my favorite scene, Neo straps himself to an archaic dentist’s chair. He’s learning martial arts by “downloading” them into his brain. Once installed,

Lactate Test #3: Moving in the right direction

Last week, I did my third lactate test of the season. As planned after my second test, I wanted to minimize glycogen depletion in the anaerobic portion, so I split the test into two parts. I did the aerobic part on July 2nd and

Planning a training season

The chance of any plan going according to plan is zero. But the chance of arriving at an unknown destination without a map is also zero. Reality unfolds somewhere in the middle. For the 2018/2019 season, I did an analysis of where I&

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