Share a Workout #1

I thought a shot like this of Gloriana Pellissier might help us all stay inspired through the final weeks without snow.

A while back I asked racers to submit workouts so that we all might learn from one another. Taking the first steps toward taking ski mountaineering racing seriously is daunting. There is a lot to learn and a lot of training to be done. Worst of all, if you don’t have an experienced racing mentor to guide you, you’re essentially inventing the training on your own. Sort of fun, but probably not very effective.

Tucker and Molly of Reno, Nevada kindly submitted this workout to share. Tucker, Molly, I appreciate your sharing very much so I know other knowledge hungry racers out there thank you as well. Tucker and Molly were the first people I met through racing. I met them at my very first race back in March of 2006. It’s always good to be racing alongside Tucker and Molly. Even if I’m racing against them I feel like I’ve got some friends on my side.

The workout:

2 x 4 min level 3 intervals with 4 min rest and then 2 x 8 min intervals, the first 6 min of each level 3 and the last 2 min of each of these level 4 with 6 min rest. 6 x 10 sec plyos and hill bounding drills.

For reference the "levels" referred to above are based on percentages of your maximum heart rate. Level one 65%-75%, level two, 75%-85%, level three 85%-90%, level four 90-95% and level five 95-100%.

VO2 Max and Lactate Threshold

Some smart people told me I could get far more out of my training if I had some data on myself. Specifically, if I knew my maximum heart rate, my Lactate Threshold and my VO2 max I could tailor my workouts to train more effectively.

My town does not have a record store. My town has one bookstore. My town has one supermarket. My town does have at least one very educated Exercise Physiologist running state of the art equipment to test athletes’ VO2 max and Lactate Threshold. Definitely one of the few times I have gone in search of something and been able to say, "Oh, we have that right here in Mammoth."

Sue's friend Rita, the aforementioned Exercise Physiologist, does exactly this kind of testing at Sierra Park Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Therapy here in Mammoth Lakes. I made an appointment with Rita and we sat down for an hour and spoke about the demands and characteristics of ski mountaineering racing. Rita gave me some options and I elected to have two separate tests done; Lactate Threshold and VO2 max.

I did my Lactate Threshold test first. Lactate Threshold refers to the point at which an athlete can no longer clear out the lactate that it is produced in his muscles. The test was actually pretty tough. Rita had me warm up on a treadmill for ten minutes. Based on that warm up speed of my choosing Rita calculated a speed to begin the test at. It’s starts fairly comfortably and the increases in workload seemed rather civilized. But after a while on that treadmill it got pretty frickin hard.

Every four minutes my workload was increased by upping the pace or incline on the treadmill. At the end of four minutes I would put my feet to the side of the treadmill and Rita would prick my finger and take a blood sample. She would touch the small drop of blood on my finger to a stick which was inserted into a pocket size meter that looks just like the ones Diabetics use. This would measure the amount of lactate in my blood measured in millimoles per liter of blood. Then it’s back on the treadmill after about 30 seconds of a break for the finger prick. The welcome back comes in the form of an greater workload. This was repeated for over an hour! Initially my blood lactate content was going up .2 millimoles with each new workload. Rita continues increasing the workload until she sees blood lactate content go up 1.1 millimoles over the last measurement. By the time that came around I had been on the treadmill for nearly an hour and my legs were on fire (incidentally, Rita informed me that the burning sensation we feel in our muscles is not from lactate). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end. In order to assess how well my body clears out lactate Rita continued the test for several more workloads, thankfully at one workload level beneath highest one, the one that produced the blood lactate spike.

Though blood lactate levels and heart rate are not directly linked, heart rate can be a good indicator of where an athlete is at relative to his or her lactate threshold. I hope to do a full interview with Rita soon and she can clarify some of the specifics. The idea then, is that with a heart rate monitor an athlete can know how close he or she is to her own lactate threshold.
A week later I was back at S.P.O.R.T. for my VO2 max test. It was shorter by a long way, under 12 minutes in length. But it’s no more pleasant. This time I had to breathe through a tube shoved in my mouth with a clamp over my nose. I got to wear that really cool looking head gear. It's about as fun to wear as it looks. This test measures the volume of oxygen a person inspires per minute, per kilogram of body weight. After a short warm up I’m on the treadmill with the contraption on my head. Each minute the pace or the incline of the treadmill goes up. I think I survived 11 workloads before I couldn’t run anymore. Fortunately that marks the end of the test.

The biggest benefit for me was that included in the cost of the tests is an eight week training outline designed by Rita. The total cost of the two tests was $220. Are you kidding? I can’t imagine more bang for the buck. An athlete gains an awful lot of information for $220. And to have a personalized, optimized training plan constructed just for me is something I would have expected to pay twice as much for on its own. The training outline, by the way, is not vague. It describes exactly what I need to be doing each and every day. Every workout is broken down to exactly what my heart rate should be at any given point, what my perceived level of exertion should be, how long I need to be warming up and cooling down... I could go on. In summary, I’m stoked.

Most colleges and universities offer such testing. Or perhaps your local hospital has a Rita and all the technology just like my tiny town does.

My Horrible Friend

About this time last year I spotted these switchbacks on the northern aspect of McGee Mountain. I knew as soon as I laid eyes on that road that it was exactly the training terrain I had been looking for: maximum vertical over the least linear distance. Obviously one could take "most vertical gain over least distance" to its end, which would be a sheer face. But I was looking for the steepest trail that could be run. I haven’t yet found something that equals these switchbacks. 2,200 vertical feet in under 3 miles.

Last year I trained here nearly everyday. Not having any formal education in workout theory I reasoned that since I was training for a sport that took place moving uphill I should only train going uphill. That idea certainly made me tough, but all the smart folks I talk to say that I wasn’t getting the most out of my workouts.

I had only been back to the road up McGee Mountain once this year. Going back to ski walk there this morning felt good. It was like visiting an old friend. Last year that horrible road and I became very close. I trained there no less than three times a week from the beginning of September to the end of December. I ran on that thing in the blaring sunshine, in 40 mile per hour winds, in the rain and in the snow. I visited him to suffer and in return he gave me strength. Even though I will see him less this year he will always be my favorite place to train.

Today’s workout designed by Sue Burak for my cardiac pleasure was a series of four 7 minute intervals at 75 - 85% max heart rate. The intervals were done moving uphill and the one minute rests in between were done walking downhill.

Having a hill like this is the ideal terrain to prepare for ski mountaineering races. Learn from my mistakes, don’t use such a hill everyday. But certainly make use of the hill you find, it will be the best terrain to run your intervals on and it will provide the best dry land simulation of our sport.

Train hard, but smart. The first races are 16 weeks away.

Rollerskiing! Spandex!

It was a long week at the store I work at. It was busy with the holiday weekend and on my "Friday" I went home completely drained. I wasn't able to workout three days this week so I was amped for some training.

Today Sue was kind enough to let me borrow her rollerskis and boots yet again. I'm still acquiring my own rollerski set up, but I'm not far from finally owning my own rig. Rollerskiing seems to me the ultimate summer time sport for rando racers. Plus you can get away with wearing spandex! Everyone knows we can't get enough skintight clothing.

I had worked fairly hard over the previous two days, running some hill intervals and doing some ski walking intervals on a fairly steep trail, so today was supposed to be an easy to moderate roll.

As per usual it was an easy jaunt for Sue and an absolute beatdown for me. I'd like to say it's because she's on the faster roller skis. On the bright side we got some pictures of ourselves to evaluate form.

We worked on double pole technique today. If you're unfamiliar it's a technique where your legs remain motionless and you use your poles to roll yourself along. It works nearly every muscle in the upper body, but focuses especially on the abs and triceps. Dynafit has stated that racers often produce 50% of their uphill force with their poles. Obviously double pole workouts will be a boon to poling power.

As far as technique, here are the key points. Keep your head up and your body in a forward fall. Your torso can move up a bit, but should not become upright. As you pole think about locking your torso to your arms. Compress your upper body toward the ground, but not so far that it becomes parallel to the ground. Arms should be close by your sides to keep the poles pushing straight back. My upper body looks fairly good in this photo.

My leg positioning could use some work. Hips should be over the ankles and knees should be over the toes. My knees need to come forward a smidge and my hips need to come forward quite a bit. As for the photo up top... yikes. Those knock knees are downright grotesque. The other glaring error is that my arms need to be in next to my body.

Sue could also move her knees and hips forward in this photo. If you haven't taken rapid fire continuous photos or video of yourself skiing, you're missing out. The first few times I saw myself on video I dropped my jaw. "I ski like that!?" The things that need to change about our technique never seem to feel significant until we see images of ourselves. Images of ourselves seem to make a special connection. Suddenly we begin to work on improving our habits. If you're not up for seeing photos of yourself looking like a gaper, don't worry- I'm a master at it. And I put my photos on the internet.

The Darkness of Ignorance

With so few people participating in ski mountaineering competitions in the US, there is essentially no published information on training for the sport. Last year I asked Steve Romeo, publisher of TetonAT.com and one of the best randonee racers in the US, if he had any training suggestions for rando racing.

His answer was fairly simple. In summary: let your recreational backcountry skiing be your over-distance training and do some intervals for speed. I asked if he did any resistance training. Steve said, "only in the very early season." And the only exercise he did was to put on a pack full of weight and step up onto a stair.

Steve was kind enough to publicly ask on his blog for me if anyone had any workout suggestions for a knowledge hungry racer like myself. The responses were comically useless. It's safe to say that people suggesting massive amounts of push-ups have no experience with ski mountaineering racing. There were a few people that seemed to be selling their own copyrighted workout programs. One told me that if I did his program I would become "ripped in no time." Referring to his program, another ordered me to, "Learn it. Live it. Love it." For real.

Part of the purpose of this blog is to document what I'm doing to train and share what works and what doesn't. I want to accumulate a body of workouts for people to reference and to collect the wisdom that racers have collected with their successes and triumphs. Hopefully we'll find some Europeans to share. They certainly have training programs entirely specified for randonee racing.

For now, lets see if any Americans will share with us. If you have ever finished in the top ten at the National Championships in Jackson, Wyoming, these questions are directed at you. What sports do you borrow workout programs from? By programs I mean pre-season and season-long outlines for training. Marathoning and nordic skiing seem to be the most logical. What are the benefits and drawbacks from taking workout programs from these sports? Most racers that I've informally asked about training have told me that they like trail running and scrambling up peaks in the autumn to get ready to race. That's what I had been doing, but the most educated people I've met in sports science have told me that those things will only benefit a rando racer if done sparingly.

Successful racers, help pull the rest of us out of the darkness of ignorance.

Sweating in the Desert

It's hard not laugh at yourself poling along in the sagebrush in an effort to get fit for skiing. When I think of ski mountaineering I think of alpine terrain, above tree line, cold air and clean snow. Today I dodged cactus and sunk my feet into sand. I was dripping sweat in the near 80 degree air.

Sue took me to a trail that climbs about 1,500 ft in around two miles. We ski walked it at race pace. Sue logged a personal best on this course she uses as a "time trial," sort of a benchmark to assess her training. She came in at 34:15. I stunned myself and finished only four minutes behind her at 38:19. I think I did well because it felt so much like rando racing.

My favorite part of the workout came after our warmup and before the ski walking time trial. Sue and I did some sprints (just running, no ski poles), 10 seconds at about 80% max and then into 10 seconds at 95% of maximum speed. It was my favorite because it was the first time I beat Sue at anything in five or six workouts. I can probably beat Sue at anything that doesn't require any skill or technique.

Okay, technique... I have questions for the randonee racers out there. I noticed Sue and myself breaking with the nordic diagnol poling technique of poling with each step. When the terrain on the trail became too rocky or narrow we would move our poles independently of our legs. Our poles would come too far forward, breaking with another nordic technique rule. I've noticed myself doing this in competition on snow. I'm wondering whether this is simply a fact of working with uneven terrain which isn't encountered in nordic racing. Anyone else move two steps for each pole plant? Should this be avoided at all costs? Embraced? Used only when necessary?

Train in August, Win in January?

I gave myself the months of June, July and August as a mental break. I stayed active, mostly rock climbing, but never structured a workout. As of August 14th training is back.

I was making plans to go climbing with my friend Sue. I mentioned that I'd rather do some alpine climbing rather than sport cragging as it would be better training for randonee racing. She asked a lot of questions about racing and seemed really interested. Then she said maybe we ought to do a workout together and explained that she essentially lives for nordic racing. Turns out that she is a world class competitor at the masters level. She trains six days a week- often multiple times a day. We both realized on the phone that there was going to be a partnership formed here.

We blew off climbing and decided to go roller skiing. I was pretty sure I was going to be awesome at it in no time. I was the opposite of awesome. I looked like a new-born giraffe learning to walk. I fell when there was no reason to fall. I'm surprised Sue was willing to roller ski with me a second time. Teaching me to roller ski is a task requiring so much patience that it should be reserved for people with no employment, no friends or personal commitments and mastery of advanced meditative practices. I'll write more about our roller skiing workouts, nay- adventures soon.

I've been doing some light intensity trail runs to ease myself back into cardio workouts. I like them long and slow. And scenic. Without me telling Sue this she said to me, "You'll never get fast trail running." Hmm. That's disappointing because that's what I like. That's what I did last summer and fall to train for racing. That's what I planned to do this year as well. Trying to win some points for my program I told Sue about my big, long days spent running and scrambling up peaks. She informed me that those workouts lasted so far over what my races take that most of those long days were detrimental to my race performances.

So today I realized I'll probably be doing a lot of shorter, higher intensity workouts and I'm not really psyched about it. All modern sports science supports what Sue says so I'll be following her advice, but I don't plan on liking it. What I do plan is a lot of long trail runs on days where Sue's schedule doesn't line up with mine.

Today Sue showed me some ski walking techniques. She showed me a trail that she likes to use for ski walking workouts as it has a nice moderate pitch to work against. I thought I would be better at ski walking than roller skiing because last year I spent a lot of time power hiking and trail running with nordic poles. I was wrong. I suck at ski walking too. Here's Sue doing it correctly.

To better understand what I'm doing wrong I took some video and still shots of Sue ski walking and asked her to take video and stills of me. It's an awesome tool. I haven't even sat down with Sue to have her point things out and already I see a lot of things I can correct. Here's me ski walking like a goober.

We have a time set tomorrow for her to kick my ass on a ski walking "time trial." Sue said it takes her between 34 and 43 minutes. Hopefully I'll keep it under an hour.