Different Muscles...WTF?!

Thought I would go off on a little rant here regarding a topic that has bugged me for years. The final straw was drawn following my one climbing outing this summer. Although I now consider myself a full-time recreational bike racer, it was not long ago that I was a climber, Exum guide, all that stuff. I gave that up to maximize my performance in cycling. However, I have a couple of nephews that are kind of crazy about climbing, enthusiasm I am guilty, at least in part, of fostering. These two teenaged go-getters wanted uncle Brian to take them up the Grand Teton this summer. Timing and scheduling issues lead to a two-day window of opportunity two weeks before LOTOJA. I knew I was going to be seriously wrecked after walking downhill for 7,000 vertical feet but I could not resist the pleasure of getting those two guys up on top of the Grand. I figured I could recover in time for the big race.

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Back to Base(ics)

A couple of days ago I came across a post on Mountain Athlete's website where a reader was asking Rob Shaul advice regarding training for endurance sports. Although Rob would never claim to be a true endurance athlete, he does dabble in longer efforts in the mountains and is surrounded by athletes he trains who are true competitive endurance types.

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Paying the Price

Many people feel that big rewards come with a hefty price tag.  When it comes to the 24 Hours of Sunlight event held last weekend, my wife, Dina's, reward was pretty big.  She succeeded in setting the women's record for skiing the most vertical, up and down, in 24 hours (34,500 feet one way).  The price?  Well, initially, what you'd expect...exhaustion.  Not too expensive, really.  The next morning, however, the ante went up with some coffee ground emesis.  That's the technical term for barfing up blood that's been sitting in your stomach juices long enough to change from bright red to black and coagulated.  Hmmmm, not good.  Next up was, pardon the graphic description, black shit.  Now, from a medical standpoint, there are only a couple of common things that give humans black stools.  Pepto Bismol will do it.  Blueberries, a lot of them, will get close.  But the most likely culprit in a healthy person who knows what they've been stuffing down their pie hole recently is upper gastrointestinal bleeding.  By the time blood from, say, a bleeding ulcer gets to the exit, it turns your shit black.  Lovely.  Now things are getting expensive.  Certainly figuratively and, perhaps, literally.

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