Observations On Threshold

Ben Parsons givin' er at Jackson - photo: Mark GockeIntervals. The very thought of the word makes my pulse rise. From my first exposure to them as a 14 year old swimmer to my weekly date with them now, intervals inspire varying degrees of pain and satisfaction while preparing me to perform at my best. If you want to go fast in an endurance event, there is no substitute for regular exposure to high intensity training.

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Skimo Programming and Non-Training Stress

photo: Mark GockeAs I have asserted many times in these pages, it takes about 15 hours a week to bring out the best performances in a recreational endurance athlete. Professionals typically train 20-30 hours but lack the other stressors in their lives like real jobs that add to the total physiologic and psychologic stress load. This "non training stress" (NTS) is something the majority of recreational athletes fail to recognize and consider when developing training programs. Any advising coach who fails in this regard is doing a huge disservice to their clients.

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Feathering the Throttle

25 Short, Turkey Chute, Maverick tour profile, GTNPI am a self-confessed reluctant adopter of performance monitoring technology. I even wrote a piece on my "anti-technology" feelings here. But I will admit, now that I've been using my Suunto T6 for awhile, I really enjoy poking around the data. For someone who blogs about this stuff, using these devices gives me stuff to talk about.

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Time to Get Fit

Hill bounding hurtsHere in Jackson we're having one of the best autumns in recent memory. Week after week of splitter blue skies and warm temps nearly make me forget that the ski season is almost upon us. But changing colors and cool mornings lately are reminding me that early season preparation needs to begin in order to be ready to skimo race in January.

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Power of Four Performance Data

The Power of Four Ski Mountaineering Race in Aspen, Colorado a couple of weeks ago was an adventure into the physiologic unknown for me. Sure, I've done plenty of exercise of that duration and longer. I've also gone just as hard for periods of time. But I've never really combined that kind of duration with that kind of focused effort. There just aren't competitive events of that length happening that often. I think endurance mountain bike racing will be the venue for similar efforts as that sport continues its growth but since I don't own a mountain bike right now, those races pass me by.

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