Training for The Uphill Athlete Scott Johnston New Hunting Podcast

[Truck24hr]

Another data point for the books: Yesterday's backcountry skiing mission turned into an absolute slog with a partner who relies on intervals/hiit. I estimated 2 hours up, but conditions and straggling partner turned this into 5+ hours. My partner went down hard about 1.5-2 hours in. We had no effective bailout option but to keep going as trying to bailout early would have been a far worse option. I tried to talk him though it, I tried to get him to slow down and take a "slow and steady" approach, but every time I put my head down and focused on maintaining my consistent zone 2 pace for a few minutes , I could hear him breathing super heavy and I was 100+ yards ahead of him. He had no sort of management or self regulation for a consistent conversational pace.

Make sure your partners are on board with this type of conditioning or you are going to run into problems.

After this, I'm curious, what were your buddies thoughts about his training vs your training?

 

[Poser]

After this, I'm curious, what were your buddies thoughts about his training vs your training?

Considering how bad he got his teeth got kicked in and even descended into the dreaded state of "shadow self" for a stretch of time where he was blaming anything and everything (exposure, conditions, equipment, lack of sleep, dehydration, the fact that nobody else was dumb enough to be where we were etc) and nothing was coming out of his mouth but negative self talk, I was just trying my best to be positive and encouraging. I resisted the temptation of the "FU break" by getting going as soon as he caught up and instead hung with him and just tried to objectify the situation, laugh at the misery and take it in stride. It wasn't the time and place for a lecture on zone 2 training, but on the drive back I tried to subtly mention how I hike up a certain hill in town multiple times a week and haven't done burpees in years.

That being said, I'm sure he thinks he just needs to up the intensity and frequency more and he'll be good. Most of us have drank the interval training Koolaid at some point -its a seductive mistress.