By Steve House
Training doesn’t have to be complex. In it’s most simple form, training is:
- Exertion
- Rest
- Repeat
Despite the appearances given by our book, Training for the New Alpinism, I often don’t train with a specific plan. It helps that I did so for over a decade, that I can feel what I need to do. So this is what it feels like to me.
Exert: I train at an exertion level where I can nose-breathe basically all the time. OK, if I get to a short hill I may have to mouth breathe for a bit, but I transition back to nose-breathing asap. I only do hard and fast aerobic work in the context of a real training plan. This needs to be carefully planned.
Rest: Eat 300 calories within 30 minutes. (I use the GU Recovery Brew product for simplicity.) Get to bed on time. Sleep 8 hours, minimum.
Repeat: I repeat, do another workout, when I feel my body is rested and stronger than it was the last time I trained. If I trained for my typical 60-90 minutes, I can easily train again the next day if I had adequate rest. If I trained for longer I usually need 1-2 days as a minimum.
Strength: I do strength train twice a week unless I’m doing a lot of hard (in terms of the grade) climbing. It is important to remember that it’s much easier to maintain what you have than gain (or re-gain) strength). Maintenance is important and, relatively, easy.
Photo by Marko Prezelj; Steve House approaching the Sphinx Wall, Triglav’s North Face, Slovenia. July 2015.
