Running Based Training for the Alpine part 2 (some specifics)

In my last training post I talked about some of the basic concepts of training, like stress and recovery. I also talked about timing and patterns in training, like how long it takes to adapt to certain stresses. In this post I'm going to talk about how you can decide what to do on a day-to-day basis, i.e. what to focus on in each workout. I get pretty specific and while you are welcome to follow this word for word, I think it will be most useful to people as guidelines and ideas to add to what they already do. The important thing is consistency and specificity (doing stuff that specifically corresponds to your goal activity). While deciding what to take and leave from this post, remember: the best training program does the most with the least.

The Basic Idea:
1. Figure out what physiological systems you need to stress, then figure out the best workouts to create that stress.
2. Make a list of all these workouts and sort them so that similar workouts are not next to each other.
3. Every time you  have a non-mountain training day, and have some excess energy, do the next workout on the list.
4. If you feel too tired to provide a concentrated effort then do a short and easy run (or other aerobic exercise) and focus on stretching, eating well and going to sleep early.
5. Keep repeating the list as your body and other activities allow. Go a little faster or do a little more each time you repeat a workout.
6. Stay relaxed and flexible. Before and after a big trip/expedition/weekend/etc. just go easy. Take a day or two off if you need it.
7. Remember that consistency creates the most improvement. You will gain much much more from repeating the easy version of a workout five times than from doing a longer or more intense workout once or twice.

Ideas for your workout list (I like to think of these as "fast AND relaxed" but never hard):
1. Strength workouts: uphill bounds/sprints/stairs during your run, or alternate quick running with strength exercises (example: 400m in 80-90 seconds (10km race pace), 20 lunges, 10 burpies, 20 sit-ups, 10 hops each foot, repeat 4-6 times, no rests)
2. Speed workouts: run as fast as possible for 10 sec once every 3 minutes during your run, repeat 10 times (this will help your muscle efficiency and power, and is helpful even on a glacier walk-up).
2. VO2 max (maximum oxygen usage) workout: run fast for 1min (3km to 5km race pace), run easy for 1min, repeat until you have ran fast for at least 6 minutes, ideally 10-20 minutes of fast running. You can do 2min/2min, 3/3 or 4/4. I recommend starting with short intervals and building up.
3. Lactic acid processing workouts (super critical for recovering from hard work at altitude): 30 sec fast (relaxed sprint), followed by 3 min easy, repeat 4-8 times.
4. Lactic threshold workouts: run at a steady but fast pace, depending on what I'm doing this could be 10 miles at 6 minute mile pace or faster, or it could be running easy for 15 min and then turning around and coming home in 12-13 min. You can also just find a long sustained uphill 2-5 miles long and run this (better workout for the alpine).
*Easy run/workout: if you are feeling low energy and/or sore run at a relaxed pace for at least 20 min (if I'm doing ~60 min fast runs then I'll do ~40 min easy runs). Afterwards stretch for 15 min, holding each stretch for at least 30 sec (static stretch).

Warm-ups and cool-downs:
1. Always run for at least 10 min at an easy pace before doing anything on the workout list. In winter I like to do 20 min of easy running to make sure I'm really warmed up.
2. Do dynamic stretching and light strength work before the list workout but after easy running. Examples of dynamic stretching: leg swings, high knees, butt kicks, etc. Examples of warm-up strength work (body weight only) 10 push-ups, 5 pull-ups, 20 step-ups, 20 lunges.
3. Do some fast running (4x 10sec fast and relaxed) before your list workout or just ease into the first interval or fast section.
4. After your workout do any strength maintenance activities you want: core strength, balance and lower leg exercises, hip strength, single leg squats with a 50 lbs. pack, whatever, just make sure you balance opposing muscle groups and remember not to overdo it after your run.
5. Static stretch: after all activity is finished is the only time I hold a stretch. I'm not trying to improve flexibility per se, mainly I'm holding muscle fibers in an elongated position which forces them to relax, allowing increased blood flow and faster recovery. After stretching, massage and ice bathing can also relax muscles and increase blood flow (elevated feet is the lazy man's ice bath and helped me get through 4-race days during major track meets).

Approaching Matterhorn Peak in the Sierra Nevada less than one week before climbing Mt. Shasta.

Looking South from Matterhorn Peak into Yosemite National Park. I used lots of short easy runs to recover for Shasta.

On top of Matterhorn Peak. Car to car in less than 8 hours.

In my last post I talked briefly about training or activity logs. It took a long time for me to become convinced of their usefulness. Many running stores sell pathetic little mileage log books that encourage you to log how many miles you run each day. I'm not a fan because for me mileage doesn't equal preparedness. I think that your running log should show what is important to you and this may change. For the sake of giving ideas on log keeping, but also to show how I apply my own ideas, I'm going to include some excerpts from my 2012 log...

In May I was in Indiana building a rock climbing wall, doing hard physical work 60-70 hrs/week:

Mon-Sun, May 7-13

7 work 7am-7pm, 12 hour day, lower leg strength, core, stretching

8 work 7am-7pm, 12 hour day, 10 min boulder traverse, pullups, pushups

9 work 7am-7pm, 12 hour day, 20 min run 3x 1min fast/1min easy, leg strength, stretch

10 work 7am-7pm, 12 hour day, lower leg strength, core, pushups, stretching

11 work 7am-6:30 pm, 11.5 hour day, 10 min boulder traverse, pullups, stretching

12 work 8am-6:30pm 10.5 hour day, bouldering, 31 min run w/ speed and tempo, lower legs, core, stretch

13 off work, 73 min run at Eagle Creek, skipping drills, stretch

In September I went from my cousin's wedding in Santa Fe, to trail running in Oregon, to alpine rock climbing in the Tetons in one week. I took easy days where possible and tried to relax and enjoy everything:

Sept 1-10

1 forearm strength and some stationary biking, core, stretching, Alexa's wedding! Lots of dancing!

2 fly back to Bend, throwing up and diarrhea (lack of sleep, alcohol, bumpy plane ride, stomach bug?)

3 walk to top of Overturf Butte with Caitlin, chill out and eat plain food and drink water

4 39 min run up river trail with Ghelfi, lower legs, core, pullups, stretch

5 drop off Ryan and Joe at Pole Creek at 4:45am for the Sister's Traverse, then ran South Sister (2:15 to summit and 3:30 round trip) to meet them

6 22 min walk, stretch, prep for Tetons

7 wake up at 3:30am, pick up Ian and drive to the Tetons

8 Grand Teton! wake up at 2:15 am, leave Lupine Meadows TH at 3:15am, reach start of Lower Exum at 10:30ish, lead p1 and 3-6, combine p3&4 and p5&6, reach Wall Street at 3ish, solo all of Upper Exum in approach shoes, Grand Teton summit at 5:30ish, two rappels to Upper Saddle, Lower Saddle at 8ish, hike back to car, arrive around 12:30am (21+ hrs round trip), sleep by 1:30am

9 off, big breakfast in Jackson at the Virginian, drive to Yellowstone, swim in Lewis River, walk around

10 off, drive back to Bend

In October I had a lot of time off and really got into training but had some nagging running injuries so did a lot of biking:
Oct 19-29

19 65 min bike out Cascade Lakes (change flat), 4 circuits at Harmon Park (crawl, lunges, hops, burpies, high knees), pullups, stretch

20 70 min bike w/ Mike and Chris, 20 min run w/ 4 sprints, leg strength, core, stretch, climbing at Meadow Camp w/ Chris and Caitlin (7 routes)

21 off

22 31 min run, leg strength, core, 20 min boulder traverse, 5 ea climbing drills, stretch

23 bike to rock gym, climb w/ Chris and Caitlin (TR, lead, boulder), pullups, bike home, L hip tight

24 47 min run w/ 4x 10sec sprint, strength repetitions (only 31 pullups), stretch+ (L hip still tight)

25 38 min bike, cfeet, core, stretch, 32 min bike to Metolius, bike to rock gym, 20 min laps, TR w/ Mike and Caitlin, bike home via supermarket

26 30 min tempo run, stretch, climb at Smith w/ Tess and Chris (Lower Gorge 3x 5.10s, try Pure Palm)

27 climb at Smith w/ Ian in mountaineering boots (2x 5.7, 2x 5.8, all knobby slabs)

28 climb at Smith w/ Mike/Caitlin/Chris, lead Cinnamon Slab (2ps), follow Karate Crack, started raining

29 60 min run, leg strength, core, stretch 

Approaching the Lower Exum on the Grand Teton.

Ian enjoying life on top of the Grand after 15+ hours on the move.

So that's it for now. I hope this is helpful to whoever reads it. Please feel free to post any questions or feedback below. Have fun running!

Running Based Training for the Alpine part 1 (some thoughts)

So let me start this by saying that although I am not very experienced or accomplished as a climber yet, I do move pretty fast in the mountains. I've spent plenty of time in the mountains, so that counts for something, but I think it mostly stems from 10+ years spent as a competitive distance runner. It's not that I'm in amazing shape, I'm actually not relative to five years ago, but I have lots of experience preparing my body to do something specific. I've read a lot on the subject of running training, I have an educational background in human biology and physiology, and I've experimented on myself for several years so I feel like I have some ideas worth sharing.

Despite the fact that all human powered alpine sports are primarily limited by how fast and far you can go, especially uphill, it seems like few participants take time to get fit for this. I hear a lot of climbers, mountaineers and backcountry skiers talking about running for this purpose, but I see few of them following through. It makes sense that if you want to ________(insert sport here) you spend all your free time doing that sport and not running, but unless you are a total dirtbag you can't get out in the mountains every day. In this post I'm not going to give you some generic 10 week program that you have to do everyday. Instead I'm going to try and give you a basic framework, rules of thumb if you will. This way, on those days when you are too busy to go somewhere cool, you can still do something that prepares you to do more on your next day (or week) out in the mountains.

 Some Myth Busters:
1. Your workout doesn't need to be painful or even hard (in fact, it probably shouldn't be) to have a big benefit. A good athletic performance is when the muscles you need work maximally, while the ones you don't stay totally relaxed... in other words, grimacing and straining just waste energy.
2. Your workout doesn't need to be long to help you (even a 30 minute run can be effective training stimulus). If you are spending a full day or two out in the mountains every week then you are getting plenty of endurance. Trying to do long runs (90+ min) too is just going to make you tired and train you to move slowly.

Celebrating after crushing the round trip time on the Mirador Las Torres in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia. This was fairly easy for me after a 6 month season of collegiate cross-country training.

Some Key Concepts:
1. Recovery is the most important part of training. If you don't recover then everything you did only took away from your ability to perform. This doesn't just mean sleeping and eating, an easy aerobic workout followed by stretching is one of the most important things you can do to recover.
2. Everyone is different. Besides having different strengths and weaknesses, you will respond differently to different workouts and recover at different rates than other people. Listen to your body!
3. Everyone knows that they need to practice and train to get better. The hard part is figuring out what your weaknesses are and figuring out how to fix them.
4. Conversely, know your strengths and exploit them. This will help you optimize your performance, whether its deciding how to break up lead blocks or where to take rests.

Setting out to run to the Mirador Las Torres beneath the Torres del Paine in Patagonia.

Mirador Las Torres, 12+ miles round trip and 4,000+ ft net elevation gain in 1:38.

In our sport we don't always know when we are going and what we are going to do. It could dump powder tomorrow and you could be trying to ski as many lines as possible Saturday morning, or the weather could suddenly clear and you could be cragging all weekend. You need to be flexible: always fit but never too tired. This is a hard balance to strike and luckily the seasons provide a little predictability. If you know you aren't going to be doing a big trip or trying major objectives on the weekend then you can push a little harder on your non-mountain training days. Ideally you have a good fitness base so that when your season arrives or that big trip comes up you can back off on the day-to-day training and have a big energy reserve.

Facts and Figures:
1. It takes 10-14 days for your body to generate improvements from an intense workout, so don't hammer your workout 5 days before you try the hardest route of your life. As you approach a big trip don't be afraid to keep going down the list but keep the overall stress level low and leave plenty of easy days.
2. It takes 3-4 weeks for your body to adapt to a constant stress. If you have ran a lot previously you will notice it gets easier after week 1 as your brain rediscovers neurological pathways and you become more efficient. Avoid the temptation to step it up. By the end of week 2 you will feel tired, even if you were doing other training before starting a new program. If you listen to your body and keep running then by the end of week 4 you should feel good (if you don't you over trained). Now its time to kick it up a notch.
3. It takes 6 weeks to create actual muscle changes. If you are doing a strength program, or mixing strength and running, keep the strength stress consistent for 6 weeks before upping the ante or moving on to a different focus. I like to mix strength with running as part of my warm-up or cool-down but it is hard to do both at a high level. You need to pick a focus.

Eating cheese baguets while traversing a dry glacier during a 47km/8hr off trail hike outside of Chalten, Patagonia. I had 2 days in Chalten followed by 2 days on a bus so I pushed myself hard while I could.

Remember you are a unique organism, not a machine! Don't force your body to perform until you know how it will respond. Start an activity log and write a brief summary of what you did and how you felt each day. You will start to see patterns and this will help you to understand how your body responds to training. Personally, I can hammer myself 2-3 days in a row before needing at least 2 easy days, anymore and my body is too trashed to keep up consistent training. Other people will see different patterns.

I wanted to do one post on running and training but it turned into a freaking text book, so I'm breaking it up into two parts. In my next post I'll provide some more specifics on what you can focus on during each running based workout.