Rainy Season Training - Buck Up Winters Around The Corner

Rainy season is here.  Cold, wet, and dark.  To most people this is a pretty dull time of year, most of time spent inside, safe and sound from the weather.  It is also an important time to stay motivated and keep training.  Winter is just around the corner!  Snow has already hit the ground, and things are getting real, as can be seen here in Whistler.

December 5th is the first race of the Canadian Skimo Circuit, and it's a double race, The Tiki Torch Dash.   First race is a Team Relay (500 ft), then a vertical race (approx 1500 ft), both will be lung busting for sure.  I can already envision anaerobic sprinting to a near puking finish!  Never the less, using this time wisely is important, even though it's pissing rain 24/7.  Lots of vertical is important to begin trying to be as sport specific as possible.

The summer's base training period, which is still in effect, was fairly easy (as it should be).  Lots of aerobic work, even at work guiding clients up and down mountains, climbing, and being up higher.  Work would be around 6-8 hours of constant LSD (Long Slow Distance) work, almost all of it uphill with a guides pack.  After work, would be time to workout at a specific HR (usually 150-160bpm to build VO2 Max as optimally as possible) most of it running.  A few longer days in the mountains alpine climbing and hammering around were great to keep the stoke up too!

I am still running, keeping a large portion of the training aerobic, as to not start being too intense with my training too soon.  I've been trail running around 13 miles (or more) on my running days, usually 3 times a week, as it does strain my knee.  Most of the runs, I've been trying to incorporate really large hills, or running purely uphill to mimic skimo racing as best as possible.  Now that it is dark and rainy, trail running has become a bit more challenging, especially on steep descents.

With the base training period nearly over, I am looking forward to starting to hammer, and do some great intervals!  Everyones training for the winter, are you?