Skiing
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Deliberate Training Week Nine: Payoff
Photo: First tracks on Triple Direct, south of Teton Pass, WY, January 8, 2019. Photo credit Max Markusen. This is the ninth and final installment of my series Deliberate Training: Principles of Periodization. Whether you are alpine climbing, ice climbing or backcountry skiing, mental and physical fitness is your key to enjoying the moment and…
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Deliberate Training Week Five: Strength Part Two
Photo: Powder goatee, Vail Pass backcountry, 1984. Photo by David Bispham Deliberate Training Week Five: Strength Part Two I am glad Week Five is over. Last Friday at the climbing gym I was dead. Two hard weeks of building strength and now it is time to back off. After a week of recovery, we will…
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Deliberate Training: Week 3, Active Recovery
Photo: Waist deep in Eagle’s Nest, Alta, UT. Photo by Robert McCord, 2008. Achieving big athletic goals requires a capacity and affinity for hard work. Successful athletes train hard. As physical and mental stress increases, the need for rest and recovery accumulates. Continuously hard workouts reach a point of diminishing returns. When you hit that…
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Deliberate Training: Building a Base, Week One Workouts
Photo: The author approaching the base of the Eiger North Face, Grindelwald, Switzerland, by Hansueli Glossner, 2006 “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu. Each athlete and every sport is unique, subject to different physical, psychological, and environmental demands. I train to be a competitive cyclist and for outdoor sports: rock &…
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First Snowfall: Feeling the Itch
Snow on my car, it’s the first of the season in central Minnesota. It triggers an emotional response in the amygdala located deep within the temporal lobes of my brain. In the Teton Range, where I will be skiing in two months, they have received over four feet of snow. I started skiing when I…