A Lesson In Pain - Burning Out

The mountains are brutally hard, beautifully brutal.  They are merely as hard as we make them, as each one has an easier route, or we have the luxury of choosing one that is closer.  The mountains reveal their true beauty as we step beyond the easy routes and ones that are closer to home.  By traveling faster, farther, in harder, bigger terrain, they reveal more to us.  And we experience them in a much deeper way.

(Photo Above:  James McSkimming, skiing the beautiful shoulder of Mt Matier's North Face)

Recently, in an epiphany, I had realized how much harder they can be.  I raced through mountains in Italy in a Teams Race in the 2011 World Championships, and gave everything I could give to moving through those mountains as fast as possible.  I gave more than what I could give, and borrowed all the energy I could to accomplish what I felt was most important at the time, I told myself nothing is more important that catching the racers at the front.  I drained everything, tasted blood for days after the race, sacrificed my body to that race, literally, and felt psychologically destroyed.  I learned in an epiphany that I had burnt out, a mere 1.5 years later, as I couldn't bring myself to the depth of suffering that I once enjoyed so much.  But now after that 1.5 years, ready to give my body back to the mountains, and not to a race course, I realized the importance and lessons of draining everything.

Racing on the Ski Mountaineering Team was amazing, and I may think about doing it again.  I trained hard, focusing all day on training, recovery, nutrition, hydration, each aspect every minute of every day.  I focused on it, telling myself it would pay off to get back into the mountains, and complete the goals I had in mind.  It did.  But what I didn't think of is the fact that it may take away from that as well, especially if I went to intensely.  My ego told me I could race and perform to maximum power in the mountains, I felt really strong, but with the mountains you are sometimes just waiting to get a real full dose of the truth.  I simply couldn't recover from it, hitting rock bottom, for an athlete.

(Photo Above:  Slovenian Competitor living inside the 'Pain Cave'.  2011 Vertical Race, WC Italy)

Recovering, after the burn out, was hard.  I still trained, did some racing, got out in the mountains, but couldn't go to the depths as I once could.  I wanted to, but both mind and body, held back.  And now finally recovered, like a light switch got flipped, I'm ready.  But have lost 1.5 years of growth to the recovery.  Now getting out training, looking towards routes I've dreamt of for years, and feeling mentally and physically ready to take on again I have started looking forward to that uncomfortable comfort of the pain cave.

What may hurt people to think, which I find has helped, is to tell yourself the truth (it hurts).  You are not special, you are not insanely strong or fast, you have merely put in a bit of time to make yourself slightly better, but realize this; overall, you are slow, you can always train and recover better, you can always do more, you are not dedicated enough, you are frail, and one day you will die.

(Photo Above:  Justin after a long day of being on the move, Whistler, BC.)

Now, ski-mountaineering with a friend, watching them be introduced to that at first seemingly horrible dark pain cave I can truly begin to start understanding the mentality behind the growing in the mountains.  It's not the acceptance of pain and fear, but welcoming it in, and keeping it close for long periods at a time.  The more time spent, in pain and fear, the deeper the experience.

Living inside the pain cave becomes a warm comfortable recess of the mountains in time.  Inside it our human frailty and softness are equally apparent and also easily left behind, the choice is ours in which way we choose to lead it.  We can accept the fact that our pain overwhelms our senses, but understand it is merely a reaction to growth, as we grow stronger with each step and movement forward.  Only when we've been inside the cave long enough, stripped away our ego, our thoughts of what or who we are, and spent the energy that is required to think of these distractions, that we can discover our true self and realize what needs to be done in order to continue on our path in the mountains.

"The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look."  -  Julius Caesar, 75 BC.

(Photo Above:  New lines to test out, requiring the mind to lead not the body.)

SkiMo Racing And Ski Mountaineering Training Tips
1.  Identify Weaknesses
What is your weakness?  Do you get scared on mixed rock and ice terrain?  Are you slow on boot packs?  Do you bonk after long periods skinning?  Whatever it is, identify your weakness, and seek out that weakness.  If you are afraid on mixed terrain, go find objectives with more mixed terrain, study gear and climbing techniques more.  Bonk on long skintracks?  Learn about nutrition, timing, and record your results in a training journal (what helped, what didn't, how you felt at the end of the day hours later.)
2.  Change the way you are training
The only way to continue to grow is to not stagnate.  Never do the same thing over and over again, change your long distance routes, interval inclines and technical courses, bootpack with different amounts of weight on your back, drag a tire, just do everything in your power to ensure your body does not get used to your training.
3.  Learn from your mistakes.

Recovery
1.  Sleep
8 Hours a day minimum.  Add 1 to 2 hours of sleep for added stress at work, life, or harder than usual effort.
2.  Nutrition
High quality proteins lean organic meat, chicken breast, eggs, cooked without fats or heavy sauces.  Good fats such as avocado's, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil (not heated), and lots of vegetables.
3.  Yoga
Yeah, so I'm saying yoga.  For a long time I've liked a bit of yoga, but have been reluctant to engage in it as many people refer to it as a true form of fitness, and the best way to be extremely strong.  I disagree, but as this is not a rant post about yoga, here's why I like it now.  Finding the right stretching classes have helped align my body better, keeping my body a bit better balanced, improving my recovery, and loosening up tight muscles that aren't so easy to stretch.  Supporting muscles used in climbing, and skiing, sit in better positions afterwards and I become far less likely to get an overuse injury.
4.  Mixing It Up
Possible the most important thing out there.  Skiing has been one of my most important focuses in life, but taking a step back, taking a break, and enjoying other activities have only helped it and my enjoyment of it.  Go biking, climb, just do something that is fun, requires your athletic skill and energy, without your only goal being skiing. 

Cadence Training - Secrets Kept

This year avalanches have very much made steep skiing lines a question mark of whether they will be really all that possible, with the exception of one random day later in the season, turning my attention back to some enchainments and speed traverses.  Last year, while skimo racing, my coach Jen Segger at Challenge By Choice and I came up with a very specific way of training to go faster.  Yes, this is, and has been a 'secret weapon'.  I didn't even want to reveal this, but for training and supporting the sport, here it is.

Cadence training, which has been mentioned on this blog numerous times, and getting your legs to turn over faster is vital and just as important as lung power in skimo racing.  If a racer takes more steps per minute than another (even if the other has a longer stride) the racer with the higher cadence wins.   Specific training, lightening each external limb's weight with lighter gear, all combine to make a racer faster.  (Photo Below:  Malene Haurcøy (NOR) firing up the Relay Boot Pack in Claut, Italy)

Gear wise, we speculated while racing in the World Cup that 100g could take a minute or so off time on an individual course, with the time increasing at a significant weight loss for racers who were just learning and getting into the sport on a recreational level.  Mind you, this is speculation, but times are minor at a higher level as most racers are within a couple hundred grams between each other.

So if the latest and greatest isn't an option as an upgrade, and more importantly, training sits up front as the most important and best way of getting faster (gear doesn't make you faster, training does).  As I had mentioned before training cadence can be done in a number of ways.  One, doing intervals on FLAT terrain on a groomed cat track, or pre-set skin track (not powder as this slows cadence down) allows the legs to turn over at a maximal pace for a specific amount of time.  This helps build a much faster cadence as it builds faster muscle fibers that allow the legs to increase their natural cadence while at race pace.  Training on the flats last year really helped.

But here's what really, really helped.  Cadence training uphill, with a specific cadence to maintain.  It started when I raced along with the likes of Florent Perrier (120 Steps Per Minute in video above) and Kilian Journet's pace in the Individual Race in the Andorra World Championships.  They maintained a high cadence, even on the steeper uphills, requiring fast leg turn over, muscle power, and lung power to match.  So, I averaged out how many strides per minute and if they shortened their stride (which stayed fairly consistent).  Taking the average of a few different top racers, over a few different courses, I had a number of paces to try out.  But to just count out specific pacing over an entire morning was near impossible, and to hard to work out when to stride.  The solution?  A metrenome.

I headed out to the music store in town and purchased a small adjustable metronome.  After that, I dialed in the pace of the top 3 and gave it a try on the regular route I would train.  Immediately destroyed, due to the higher angle of certain areas, I toned it down.  Jen and I set it up, so that I would train with the metrenome at a specific pace on certain days when I was out for awhile training, and be forced to maintain a pace even over fluctuating skin track grades/angles.  The pace was just slightly faster than my regular race pace, and we turned up the metronomes pace as the training schedule evolved throughout the season.  (Photo Below:  Javier Martin pumping up the cadence at the Vertical World Championships Race in Claut, Italy)

Overall, how did this work for a year's worth of training?  Great, I've continued using it, although funny to watch me skin by with a beat pounding out of the metronome, but the pace really improved and when the time came to push the pace, I was much more comfortable pushing to a faster cadence and maintaining it than I had before in final sprint sections.  Combining cadence with stride dynamics and quality training really goes a long way.  Cadence can be trained year round, and is part of your base work, race pace, and interval pacing and may be just as important as rest.

Any Thoughts?

Winter's Here

For most of us in the ski mountaineering world, racing, steep skiing, or otherwise, training is a means to get to our goal for the year.  It's the way we focus our energy, to accomplish what we desire, and is sometimes concentrated on so hard we forget that our end goal isn't nearly worth as much as the time spent working towards it.  Focus is key, but fun is essential to stay on point, in order to continue your motivation.  (Photo Below:  Stano Faban, taking a minute to scope out some of Arcalis, Andorra's insanely cool terrain during the 2010 Skimo World Championships)

The start of the season is here.  The snow is falling, training is ramping up more and more, it's time to get out there.  This year, explore more new terrain, go train places you've never trained before, don't train in the same spot each day, use different skis and boots, ski different conditions, and most importantly make a point to learn.  Ski Mountaineering is amazing, it's a lifestyle we live, and can take you anywhere you want if you give it the chance.  See you in the hills this season.

Inside The Pain Cave: Javier Martin

Ski Mountaineering Racing has always been a hard sport to get a large amount of training and racing information and/or advice.  For a long time ski mountaineering racers have been forced to look into other well documented sports to gain training insight, and draw conclusions as well as form new ideas to apply towards ski mountaineering racing.  Information has been closely guarded, as a way of keeping an 'edge' on the competition.  There will be always 'secrets', and different formulas, many similar.  However, to shed a bit of light on these secrets, I've contacted various coaches and athletes in the World Cup, to see how they've been training.  My focus has been to create an bigger picture of what is being done, and to help provide more skimo specific racing information, to build a more effective training schedule.  

So without further adieu Ski Theory presents, Inside The Pain Cave, a series of interviews with athletes and coaches starting with Coach and Athlete; Javier Martin.  Javier is a member of the Spanish Ski Mountaineering Team, and Coach of the Junior National Team, as well as Coach of a few other elite athletes.  He is a member of the Dynafit International Team, completed the fastest Symphony Traverse on skis, 2nd in the 2010 Patrouille Des Glaciers, and countless Top 5 and 10 finishes in World Cup Races.  Check out his racing history here.  (Photo Left:  Javier Martin racing, courtesay of skimo.org)

AW:  How long have you been racing and coaching?  Who are some of your top athletes?

JM:  I started racing in 1998, first with the team in my region, Madrid. I grew up racing with them,  until 2003, when I joined the National Team. By then I was already coaching some of the Madrid Team Juniors, but it was in 2006 when I got really into coaching.  I took over the physical preparation of the Junior National Team, and was also responsible for the whole Madrid team. The year after, I became the manager of the Junior National Team focusing most of my work on technical skills.

It´s hard to say who my top athletes are, because I really feel proud of all of them.  I've been working with Marc Pinsach for the past 5 years, who is one of our biggest exponents at the moment.  In 2007 Mireia Miró asked me to be her coach and since then we´ve been working hard to achieve our goals. Until last year I also coached Miguel Cabellero, a member of the Senior National Team and an active summer racer too.

Now I focus my work as a coach, on the quality, and not in the quantity of racers.  Some years I´ve coached up to 20 athletes, but it doesn´t make sense any more, this sport is becoming more and more professional and athletes need a lot of attention.  At the moment I coach Marc, Mireia, Álvaro, and junior racers from Madrid.

AW:  There are quite a few athletes with different backgrounds and builds out there.  We noticed in Andorra that some people had an impossibly fast cadence, where others had an enormous stride, both going approximately the same speed.  What are some of the attributes that makes a great ski mountaineering racer?

JM:  Ummmmm, not an easy question.

This is something that we are researching at the moment in the High performance sport center of Sierra Nevada.  During the last World Champs we recorded the vertical race and since spring we´ve been working on the results. This days we are digitizing all single movements on a stride cycle (see video below, from Spanish Skimo Team Training).

These races are becoming more and more flat, so gliding is becoming one of the most important attributes; therefore long strides seem to be positive but on the other hand when we face a steep slope we need a lot of cadence to be more efficient.  I grew up with the concept of cadence, and I try to transfer this concept to my athletes, but always in combination with a great gliding technique.  Our races are never on the same conditions like swimming or athletics so we must build our racers with as much versatility as possible.

AW:  What types of strength training do you think ski mountaineering racers benefit most from, and how do you incorporate it into the training schedule?  

JM:  Endurance athletes hate strength training and even more the outdoor ones. I struggle a lot with my athletes to give strength the relevance it deserves.

End of Summer and Fall is for me the perfect time to do strength work-outs.  After a long period of endurance training our levels of strength are lowered to the minimum, this is the time to prepare our body for the hard training loads that are coming in the future.  Reinforcing joints involved in technique and mostly the ones related to downhill.

I like to work as little as possible in the gym and try to do all the strength sport specific.  For example, using downhill skiing for improving our lower body strength, and by downhill skiing I don´t mean going skiing with friends. no sometimes we´ll have to do fast long turns without stopping, other times we´ll have to do 10x1' short turns etc.  For the upper body training we will use xc roller-skating or cross-country skiing.  Most of the strength work we do in the gym is mostly coordination work. 

AW:  Your athletes, and yourself, are without a doubt fast.  What training do you think has been the most beneficial to improving speed?

JM:  Sport specific training for sure.  Skiing fast, as much as possible, and trying to do it always on technical terrain.

I can´t imagine Lance Armstrong preparing for the Tour De France by running, so we must be ski-mountaineering as much as possible and be ski-mountaineers. 

AW:  In your opinion, do you think racers will benefit more from long duration intervals, or shorter faster intervals?  And at what intensity or level do you think they should be training?

JM:  This depends completely on your goals.  If you are preparing for the Individual World Champs you can´t have the same training as you would have for Pierra Menta.  It also depends on the timing of the season, we should be doing different intervals at the beginning of the season than on half of it. (Video Below:  Javier racing the Patrouille Des Glaciers)

AW:  When talking about skimo racing and training, we focus on uphill so much, do you think racers should be focusing equally on the downhill?  What can racers do to be more efficient on their downhill portion of the course, and what is your strategy for you and your athletes on the downhill?

JM:  In my opinion we must try to ski down as much as possible off-piste and do it fast, this is what will make us efficient.  Training downhill speed is also very important which will help us to control our fear for racing.  A ski mountaineering racer must be very coordinated and have a lot of technical skills to adapt to the type of downhill terrain the course has.  Most of the people can be fast on an open slope, but not everybody is fast in a forest or in a bumpy section. 

AW:  Ski Mountaineering is fairly low-impact, opposed to running, and also additively fun.  Because racers are able to train every day, how much rest do you think is needed to make the most significant gains, and do you think many racers are over training?

JM:  I don´t think that there are many racers over training because the level is growing year after year. Not long ago we have had professionals as the Italian army or Swiss border rangers that have full time for training and have to control much better the recovery. In my opinion recovery is the base for training.  (Photo Right:  Javier racing La Pyramide D'Oz, courtesy of skimo.org)

AW:  Talking about over-training, how many hours a week should an international level athlete should be training, and how many hours a week should someone interested in their first year of skimo racing be training?

JM:  As many as his or her motivation will allow. top athletes train up to 20h skiing but I guess the average is rounding 15h, and this includes only uphill aerobic training, but there's a lot of more things to train, technique, strength, downhill, and stretching.  I´ve never trained more than 10-12h a week, myself, because I have had to balance my training with university and work afterwords.

For a racer beginning to train for skimo racing, it will always depend on his or her training background.  If he or she comes from cross country racing I´m sure they can easily manage 12-15h weeks.  But for a real beginner, it´s hard to say, but 8h is a good starting point. 

AW:  This sport has so much emphasis and focus on gear, how much of a difference do you think the right gear will actually make, and what do you think is the heaviest amount of weight (per foot) a racer should have; should he or she want to be successful?

JM:  The best athletes always have the best gear.  When you´re competing on the top level you must have the best of the best.  However, on the other hand I think we may be giving the wrong message to our youngsters, who before purchasing the best gear, must improve many other skills that will benefit their performance much more such as the correct technique.

AW:  Speed traverses are still fairly new in the ski mountaineering world.  You have some great ones already on your resume, what do you think are some of worlds best traverses that have yet to be done, and why?

JM:  There are infinite traverses, but I´m sure Alaska and Yukon territory have som really interesting ones.

I think that now-a-days we are facing, not only long traverses, but traverses with very technical terrain and steep skiing.

One example would be Mount Cook in a day. with Dynafit we have also some nice projects that join alpine countries. and of course there are many more mountains to discover with skis.  (Photo Above:  Javier Martin, Chacellor Hut, NZ, courtesy of Javier's Blog)

AW:  What can racers do in the off-season to get ready for the winter best?

JM:  First of all relax and recover from the season. Then they could start thinking about doing lots of aerobic work, on the discipline they like most, running, cycling. but I´m sure that roller skiing will become more and more important during the off-season. 

If I had to give a tip to ski mountaineering racers I would say that while training, they must always remember:

• Goals: They must have very clear goals, long and short term.
• Quality: When training they should focus on the work-out and have a very clear idea of what the exercise goal is. This has to do a lot with the Goals I just named.  If my goal is to be top 10 in the World Champs, I must accept that I will have to sacrifice a lot of things, and that training will be hard.  If my goal is to be fit, and enjoy the races, then I can be more relaxed while training.
• Specialized Training:  We are ski mountaineers and we must ski as much as possible and we must train as much as possible with a specific pace.

Lots of ski touring for 2011!!!

Alpine Trail Run

Needing a long run for today's training, Tom Rourke and myself, headed out and up Singing Pass from Whistler village this at 7:45am this morning.  Our plan was to make our way up Singing Pass, which winds all the way from Whistler village to the top of Oboe summit, and then proceed to follow the Musical Bumps trail through the rest of the Fitzsimmons Range back to the Roundhouse on Whistler mountain.  Our estimated time was around 3 hours 30 mins, and wasting no time we kept the pace fairly quick, watching the Suunto T6d's pacing clock to make sure we didn't fall behind.  (Photo Above:  Tom Rourke running over Oboe's Summit, with Cowboy Ridge and Fissile behind.)

Strength And Training

There are some things to think about while training this summer.  Most of us are well into our schedule planned for the year, but sometimes a reminder of why some of these things are important is greatly needed, keeping the fire blazing.  I've looked much deeper into strength training this year, and have learned a huge amount, realizing more weaknesses and imbalances my previous years training have lacked.

As skimo athletes, we are not track and field sprinters, running on flat groomed terrain with zero external weight to carry.  Travelling primarily uphill, through rolling and/or steep terrain, our focus combines vertical take off with forward momentum (much like running, but with an external load to bear, and while travelling uphill).  The external weight we carry limits our bodies natural tendon recoiling ability to reposition our legs as easily as a runner (ie cadence), as the equipment forces more muscular energy to move it, and recoiling energy is dispated by the weight of our equipment.  This drastically reduces our cadence, and this must be addressed,  and if not we risk watching our peers disappear into the distance leaving us behind.  Therefore, in order for cadence to be as truly efficient and as fast as possible, we must train our bodies to move the equipment through a greater range of motion (ie, behind and below, to in front and above on the skintrack), and as fast as possible.  (Photo Left:  James Minifie and Stano Faban pre-running the Individual course, Andorra)

While you are skinning, and pushing off a stride, you are pushing up and forward.  This is the exact moment where vertical take off occurs.  During this point, the torso lines up with the leg delivering the power, pitching slightly forward, so that when the upward and forward momentum is delivered the racer gains half a second of rest while travelling a short distance with minimal weight on the skeletal system (gliding).  As soon as this split second of travel forward is up, the opposing leg moves forward, and moves into its glide phase which delivers more forward momentum.  (This movement can be seen below in a movie the Spanish Team has created to analyze their efficiency and technique). 

Without going into an obscene amount of detail on the movement and stride dynamics we're using, there are a few things to focus on during training to get the most out of our stride.  And that comes from our strength training.  First thing is first, our stride starts with pushing up and forwards.  Training using squats, weighted calf lifts, deadlifts, and lifting heavy improves our strength, which in turn allows us to deliver greater ground force while skinning.  It was found that elite sprinters all had approximately the same cadence, as it was nearly maxed out due to their tendon recoil only being able to move so quickly, and that their speed came from a stronger stride (greater ground force), which caused them to have more aerial forward distance gained between strides.  The same applies for skimo racing, except we don't utilize aerial forward gain, we gain a longer stride through our glide. This greater ground force not only propels us vertically, but increases our glide length, which translates as a longer stride or greater distance gained per step.  

The forward momentum and upwards momentum is a quick twitch of our muscles, and off we go.  So box jumps, skipping, burpees, and any explosive movements should be trained as well.  All this when combined with racing, intervals, and even your long slow distance or base workouts, will translate to large gains in speed.   But if you're still thinking sport specific, think again, everything is connected.  Train everything, your legs are connected to your core, as are your arms (which makes them connected to your legs).  This means that by you having a weaker "blank", you will be slowing down something else.  

Strength is important, but don't get carried away with becoming a beefcake.  As a skimo racer, is to have the best mass-specific force as possible.  For example, if a racer were to weight 200lbs and can put down 300lbs of power behind them, but the 160lbs racer who can put down the same amount of power as the 200lbs person will obviously be much faster and win in a race.  So this lifting should be heavy, building strength, not bulk.  To learn more about this check out this article on Gym Jones, and here, these guys know strength training!  Hopefully, this opens some new doors, or ideas on training for this sport where information is so limited.  But through constant study, testing, and time, a higher speed will be found.

Skimo Technique Training

One thing which can get overlooked in ski mountaineering racing is technique.  We focus on our technique with transitions, but less time on the real speed booster (and effort savings) our skinning technique.  Reading an article on cross country ski racing a few years ago, the author talked about how the best racers in the world weren't just great athletes, they were great skiers too.  This got me to thinking about skimo racing, how can we get faster, spend less energy, and catch our European competitors?  The answer was lying there right in front of me, Technique.

(Photo Above:  Ian Gale heading out for a light ski before competition, Andorra.  Note:  Very relaxed and efficient position)

To give you an idea of what I mean, have you ever tried skinning fast with no poles?  A difficult task to do without flailing or stepping out of the skin track while using large amounts of energy.  But finding that effeciency is not easy, and as with all training, there is no short cut.  The first thing to immediately address is core strength and balance.  A strong core will not only help every other aspect of your training, but if built over the summer and fall, even a few years, will drastically improve this poleless wobble.  Slacklining, or standing on a core ball, while in different positions, doing squats, and playing catch against a wall with a regular core ball (later upgrading to a medicine ball or other exercises) will help strengthen your core, and solidify your balance as seen in the video below.  Pardon the music and length, but you get the idea.

When old man winter does show his face, and sport specific training commences, and the off-season training will pay off.  You can begin your technique sessions by skinning on a flat surface to improve glide technique.  This will help your overall stride effeciency and technique even on steeper angles, by allowing your body to be more relaxed and focus on breathing.  Then after you begin to feel more and more comfortable, you can begin to add in skinning on an incline to improve power technique.  Your goal during both exercises will be to look and feel as stable as you would feel with poles.  When you introduce your poles back into the equation, they will just act as a power boost, allowing you to skin with a massive amount more efficiency.  The movie below shows the Spanish Skimo Team training technique on flats this way.

As Skimo Racers many of us put a huge amount of power behind each stride, which is what gives us a faster cadence and therefore speed, but it does come with a cost.  The harder we go the harder it is to maintain our balance.  Our core begins working hard again, correcting our path, in order to keep us in the skin track.  The downward spiral continues from there.  So the more practice and technique work Ski Mountaineering Racers can get, the faster they will go, by allowing the body to concentrate on breathing and not balancing.  

Skimo Cadence Training

After talking to the rest of the Canadian Skimo Team, individuals from the US, other countries, and trainers from all over, one very prodominent theme has come up.  Cadence.  Having an insanely fast cadence (foot turnover rate), is what seperates the ridiculously fast people out there and the rest of the pack.  If I take 10 strides per minute more than someone else, over a 2 hour course, thats a lot of ground that gets covered.  But it's one thing to be able to produce really fast cadence, but a whole other thing to maintain it, especially over steeper terrain where more muscles and systems are recruited to continue moving at this rate.  So how is one to train this cadence?  Here's what I've found so far.  (Photo Right:  Kilian Jornet the man with the fastest cadence, on the 2010 Relay World Championships course)

The first thing to begin with, after your base training period, is to start training your legs turnover rate or "cadence" on flat ground.  You aren't trying to do this over steeper terrain, purely flat, or a slight uphill.  Using intervals of 20 seconds, and extending these as you progress, to train is the first step.  By training on flat ground your body is learning how to turn each leg over faster, and by slowly increasing the amount of interval time, to maintain that faster cadence.  Flat ground also makes sure you are training this alone, and that other muscles and systems, are not being recruited which may hinder the quality of your workout.  On flat ground you are training your forward propulsion, whereas training on hills you are training your vertical propulsion.  You must train these separately.

(Photo Above:  Jeff Colvin brings vertical and forward momentum into one, 2010 WC Vertical Race)

Since you have to go up in ski mountaineering races, it would be silly to not train your uphill aerobic capacity, so continue doing so.  Easy as that.  This is your vertical propulsion training.  You will not notice an increase in speed right away, training takes time, and remember patience is a virtue.  Continuing with these two main training modalities, your cadence will naturally begin to increase, as the flatland training will begin to transfer over to the uphill training.

Now there is a trump card that can factor into this, which may slow some peoples improvement down, and that one thing is powder.  Skiing in the backcountry as many of us do, in search of beautiful powder, and bottomless blower does actually limit our training.  Yes it does help build power, breaking trail is a lot of hard work, but slows our cadence down.  Your body is constantly learning, and breaking trail solely as an aerobic workout, won't stop you from progressing but will slow your progression.  The reason is you cannot swing and move your feet as quickly, as if they were in a skintrack.  Racing is done in a slightly more artificial ampitheater than backcountry skiing.  It is in the backcountry, but there is a skintrack and bootpack put in for you, and although you may find the odd skintrack in the backcountry you are primarily breaking trail.  But hey, we can't neglect powder now can we.

Gear is also a large factor when it comes to cadence.  Being able to turn your feet over quickly, and efficiently, is hard work.  The weight from your skis and boots, are limiting, so having the lightest weight setup as possible allows you to move your feet faster and with less energy.  (Photo Below Right:  Our room mates boot at Pierra Menta, trying to find more speed with less weight)

Now this is the simplest way you can look at cadence training.  There are so many different modalities to speed training, and not just flat.  Racing will improve your cadence, as training fast will help you to race fast.  A race pace training day is good to throw into the mix as it will sew all the pieces together.  Strength training, and cross training will be important as well.  Other cadence training workouts can be a 30-40 minute run, and classic cross country skiing.  I would recommend that while training with your rando race gear on the flats, that your skins are nicely waxed, so that your glide is trained at the same time.  Remember efficiency is the key, and your body is constantly learning, so repeating race day style strides while training will create fast race day strides. If you are turning your stride over faster, but aslo gliding 5 centimeters as well, that equates to a 300m elevation gain over 1000m.   

In the end, do what works for you, and monitor your training well.  Ski Mountaineering Race training is still developing, and finding new and better ways of training.  But to give you an idea on how fast some racers are, top World Cup athletes are climbing at approximately 114 steps per minute (measured from the first ascent of the 2010 WC Individual Course).  How many steps are you taking?  

Canillo 2010 Teams Course Pre-Run

With the last few days of our training left before resting and recovering for the Individual race, we decided to go scout the Teams Course, which James and Stano will be racing later in the week.  An epic trip, taking three buses, and hitchhiking the last 14km to Arcalis we didn't have the time to skin the entire course.  But we did get a great look at it, as well as got new information from the Andorran Team as to where a potential change in the course may happen.  A few racers from the Spanish Team were out exploring the course as well, and seemed really excited to hammer it.  (Photo Right:  James Minifie on the first climb up to Pereguils Peak)

The first climb winds up from La Coma (2230m), through some winding benches, and up some rocky ridges. The snow coverage here, is considerably better than Soldeu and Grau Roig, and terrain far more dramatic.  A potential change to the course will be a bootpack up a rocky rib to the top of Pereguils Peak, rather than the previously planned route skinning up and around the rib.  We'll just have to wait and see what the ISMF organizers decide on come race day.  (Photo Left:  Stano Faban topping out on the possible new bootpack)
After climbing Pereguils Peak, we dropped back down to La Coma, and decided to keep skiing.  We skinned up to a small peak across the valley, near Pic D'Arcalis.  A quick bootpack across the ridge, and we dropped into an alpine bowl skiing back down, to where we had stashed our shoes.  Refueling at the base of the hill, and a quick coffee, we began our bus finding epic back to Soldeu.  P.S it was way easier the second time!  (Photo Right:  Stano Faban checking out the valley below.  Photo Below:  Teams Race Course from Canillo2010)

Andorra - The First Post

Finally here in Andorra, after a long few days of traveling in an area where there is no information, and have taken almost every mode of transportation so far.  James Minifie, Stano Faban, and I flew out to Barcelona Spain a few days ago.  We stayed in Barcelona, a block away from the jail, but at least in a respectable hotel.  Then jumped on a series of buses to Soldeu, Andorra, where the Relay race is going to take place during the 2010 Skimo World Championships.  (Photo Left:  Flying Over The Andorran Pyrnees)

So after three days of travel, and situating ourselves, we finally get to ski!  Heading out, after scoring a free breakfast at our hotel, down the tiny Soldeu Streets to the base of the mountain we tossed our skins on checking out the massive lift network that is Gran Valira.  And in classic renegade style, we went up without a lift past, skinning from the base to the alpine.  With not nearly the same amount of snow we're used to in Canada, we had to chose our descent very wisely, as only the leeward sides were filled in enough to ski (at least the better steep terrain).  Snow depth put aside, we've been so stoked to be out skiing halfway around the world, and found the steeper lines in the resort right off the bat.  (Photo Right:  James Minifie heading though the tiny streets to get to the mountain)

On our second day of skiing, an interval training day, we headed up in our Canadian Colors to get a feel for the climate and to see if any changes needed to be made for race day.  James and myself hammered 3 10x10 intervals to the top, while Stano did 4 7x7's lower down.  Everyone's been feeling the jet lag, and isn't yet 100%, but know that we do have the time to recover.  Training smart is the big topic of the week.  Making sure we are well rested, fueled up, and recover well for the next week is incredibly important.  While training, we'll be heading over the Individual course tomorrow, and getting to know the fastest/slowest or easiest/hardest spots to make sure we race as best as possible.  Today's small interval session was a small reminder to the punishment in the coming days and weeks.  (Photo Left:  James Minifie, in classic renegade style skinning up the groomers, between the first 10x10 interval)

Training Block

Feeling the pinch of the World Championships and Pierra Menta coming up soon, I've been training lots of Long Slow Distance, back to back days, all long days.  I have to admit, great skiing as well.  Ty Petrusic, Jeff Van Driel, and myself have been skiing in Steep Creek and the Whistler Backcountry for the past few days.

(Photo Left:  Ty Petrusic Skiing Off Russet Ridge)

We've had great snow conditions, stability being fair, but cold deep snow.  These conditions making long days of training easy to concentrate on, without getting bored of skiing up and down the same areas while solo.

My training block that I am using is based on Pierra Menta style events, which is designed to teach my body to recover and repair itself after a big day, and be ready for the next few consecutive days.  I've thrown in two sessions of Intervals and/or Race Pace training throughout this block.  With all of these days I've also had the opportunity to begin easing into a more restricted nutrition plan, and test a few fueling regimes.  With every day of training motivating me more to train more, as well as this interview that Stano Faban had with Peter Svatojansky, the preparation for Europe is getting more exciting.

(Photo Right:  Ty Petrusic skinning up to ski Chute 56 in the dark)

Long Slow Distance really is the base and structure that holds all of ski mountaineering training up.  It creates speed, as they say you have to go slow to go fast, with some (not too much) speed work.  There is no such thing as a free lunch,  as Mark Twight would say, and he makes a strong point.  So for everyone stoked on Interval training, take it easy, go for the entire day and ski more.  You know you're doing something right if your coming out of the mountains with a headlamp!

Pierra Menta Is Coming

March 11-14, 2010, the most prestigious and unbelievable race in the world celebrates it's 25 year anniversary, Pierra Menta.  With 10,000 meters of elevation gain and loss, over four days, and through some of Europe's most rugged terrain is what makes it so legendary.   The key to this race is training long, and with consecutive days, in order for the body to get used to recovering for multiple big days at higher intensities. 

Stephen Brosse, 2006 Pierra Menta Champion, has built a specific training regime specifically for this race.  Here it is below:
Monday         -  Strength and recovery
Tuesday         -  Ski Intensity (90% of AT) 1 hour
Wednesday    -  LSD 4 hours
Thursday        -  Ski Intensity (90% of AT) 1 hour
Friday            -  LSD or recovery 1 hour
Saturday        -  LSD 4 hours
Sunday          -  LSD 4-6 hours

Keep in mind everything comes into play, nutrition, recovery, hydration, training, gear, teamwork, sleep, pacing, etc.  When all of these are perfected you are ready for anything.  Are you ready for Pierra Menta?

Training And Racing In The Cold

The past few days, here in Whistler, have been pretty darn cold.  The coastal humid air just made the cold feel even colder, however the temperatures are rising, and training is getting more comfortable.  I set out just like any other day, skinning up from the valley, and out into the alpine.  Doing intervals at just below my LT, which helped warm me up, I started thinking about how the body works in the cold.  And to make things harder, it was night time.

When your training in cold conditions, it's important to be warm, even going up.  If your warm, but not overheating, your less likely to burn off glycogen stores as quickly and go longer.  In the cold, if you begin shivering that can empty your glycogen stores 5-6 times faster than usual.  That being said, although your not usually shivering when skinning uphill, if you under dress this will cause a faster emptying of your glycogen stores.  To add to this, while in cold weather you may have an increase in epinephrine (adrenalin) levels in your blood stream, a hormone which will stimulate glycogen breakdown.

Now although your glycogen stores may be depleting at a faster rate, the body balances this with a higher rate of fat metabolism, using fat as fuel.  Higher epinephrine levels in the blood may also enhance fat metabolism.  There is some evidence that, during the winter and training in the cold, the body has lower insulin levels which could motivate fat breakdown.  The cold will also raise your resting metabolic rate, which will help improve body composition, and make you faster for racing.   With all this fat burning the big plus of training in the cold, you may begin to burn deeper internal fat which can be dangerous to your health.   This deep internal fat, is the fat that can be clinging to your organs, or be in your blood stream.  These bad fats are the fats which are noted to raise the risk of coronary artery disease.  The less these fats are in your blood stream, and body, the faster you will be (and healthier).

Studies have shown that at 5 degree Celsius marathon runners ran their best time, opposed to the 1.7% drop of when racing at around 1 degree Celsius, and a times dropping off even more in the heat.  So controlling your body temperature, and ensuring that you are wearing the right layering under your race suit or training clothing, you will be performing at an optimum level.  Racing, and training, with warm clothing but not enough to overheat will yield the best results.  On speed traverses, or multi-day tours, where you have to sleep out it is important to be light, but not overly light as you will shiver and deplete the next days glycogen stores.  If this happens you will start your next day in an energy debt, causing a massive drop in performance.  (photo above: Ty Petrusic prepares for a cold night after hammering all day)

The verdict?  Train and race with warm enough clothing that won't make you overheat.  Watch your calorie intake, to make sure you don't go into negative energy balance, while you may be burning more fat than usual.  Hydrate properly, your body will need more liquid during cooler temps.  And last but not least, don't let the cold stop you from training, as it may help you in the end.

Team Canada Training Camp - Day 1 & 2

After work on Thursday I jumped in my car and drove all night to the Canadian Ski Mountaineering Teams Training Camp in Revelstoke and Rogers Pass, BC.  The goal of the weekend was to get tons of long slow distance training in, and lucky as we are, we've been skiing powder.  (Photo Left:  Ian Gale and Billie Velisek)

The first day, we skinned up Balu Pass, to ski down the backside to go skin and climb up Mt Catamount.  Everyone was stoked to ski, and with hero snow, we were in for a great day.  The Catamount ridge was a bit win hammered, but was good training for sketchy terrain, and worked courses.  Topping out we had perfect weather, little wind, and great views.  The downhill was really good, skiing off the shoulder down the steeper face, and to the valley was a good leg blast.  Andrew McNab, tore up the the top section of the mountain so hard, everyone was worried if he bailed we'd be dragging him out on a rescue sled!  As usual, he didn't, and made it look easy.

We toured out over the headwall at Balu, noticing a large 2.5-3.0 crown line on Mt Cheops, and kept the track nice and mellow avoiding the problematic terrain features.  Perfectly timed, we skied out in the fading light, with a fantastic sunset behind us.  Regrouping in the parking lot, we drove back into town for an awesome dinner at Jeff Colvin and Julie Matteau's place.     

More Day 1 photos from Ian Gale here.

And Day 2 here.

 (photo above:  Mel Bernier and Julie Matteau)

(Photo Above:  Andrew McNab and Rob on Catamount Pk)

 (Photo Above:  Andrew McNab ripping it)

The second day needs little description.  It snowed, and with the unreal snow conditions, and blower powder, no photo's were taken.  We skied McGill shoulder, blasting three wicked laps, and finished off with a hairball descent down the barely covered summer trail.  Time for a bit of sleep, more good food, and more skiing tomorrow!

First Day Elevation Gain:  2266m
Second Day Elevation Gain:  2150m

(Photo Above:  Andrew McNab, Billie Velisek, Mel Bernier)

Training The Core

For the past few years I have been constantly reminded of how important it is to have a strong core.  Today's training, while skinning up the hill, I began thinking about my arms and how they were getting tired from pushing to gain more speed.  As the elevation gain kept stacking up, and my arms got more worked, I noticed a few things that began to happen:

1. When my arms began to fatigue, muscles connected to them became more active, and were working harder to support them.  Including my diaphragm.
   
2. The less I concentrated on my balance, and used my poles to aid a good balanced skinning form, the more I engaged my arms.  If I was balanced over my skis, looking forward, there was less strain on my arms bringing my heart rate down.

The general definition of the Core, is the bodies muscles minus the legs and arms (the belly area, mid and lower back, as well as secondary muscles like the hips, shoulders and neck).  My physio hit the nail on the head, by describing the core as the internal muscles which connect the external muscles (e.g abdominal muscles) to the spine.  By strengthening the Core, one will be able to control, and activate these muscles better.  The better the activation of these muscles, the harder and faster you can go, enduring longer.
(photo:  Dave Booth on the summit ridge of Mt Matier)
My idea has been to build a strong core as usual, but concentrate my efforts to training muscles while forcing my core to balance itself, which will also help eliminate muscular imbalances.  For example, I have been constantly on my core ball, doing squats, isometric work, sit ups, and kettleball exercises to get the most out of them.  By concentrating on these muscles, I hope to see less strain on peripheral muscles which will allow my body to better concentrate on the task at hand, and to be better balanced which will relax muscles in use which will keep my oxygen uptake efficiency optimal.  Not only that, I should see less strain on my diaphragm after my shoulders tire, which will keep my aerobic performance high.

With ski mountaineering races, it is easy to concentrate on just aerobic and anaerobic training.  But to be fast we need to look at everything together, in order to truly have an edge of the competition.

Dawn Patrol

My ski pass hasn't kicked in yet, not until Nov 26th, so I don't have any skiing luxuries such as lifts, gondola's, and such.  All the better, training is what I want, I can get lazy taking the lifts another day.  With the first race of the season coming up soon, I need to get my legs used to doing the large amounts of elevation gain I couldn't get cross training.

Ty, and I, met up 6:00am to get some vertical before work.  It has been snowing, hard, for the past week or so.  We already have a 100cm base, and with 150cm coming by Thursday, things are looking pretty good.  Keep in mind although skiing powder is great, take it easy as with the large amounts of snow we're getting combined with big winds and rising freezing levels, we'll be sure to see some larger avalanche activity in the near future.  That being said, after all this crazy weather this week, Whistler should have a pretty well set up base.

Skinning up, the coverage was great being on skins, but I wouldn't want to ski down lower than 1000m as creeks and rocks were still poking through in some spots.  Breaking trail, sometimes boot top deep, was good work.  We moved slower than usual, due to the lack of grooming on anything in our path.  Skinning till the wind got too burly, we skied back down, and off to work!

I also tested out Heidi's energy bites, which are 100% raw, and all organic ingredients.  I'm stoked to test different foods for long days in the mountains.  I've been an energy gel guy for so long, and during long days it's important to also get solid food, so I will bring a different bar (store bought or home made) every training session to weed out the ones that don't work and the ones that do.  If you eat garbage, you'll perform like garbage, I want to be fast.

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?