Jun 2, 2009

"Over The Hil"

Objective: Climbing Stamina
As It Was Written So It Shall Be Done

Another Mountain Athlete Session, Another Blister

Notes: As a reward for a hectic, stressful, productive day of work in Denver, I went to Mountain Athlete in Boulder (I know I'm weird). I would call this a Stamina workout, repeated medium length submaximal efforts, not Power, short maximal effort.

I used the jugs for the first couple of minutes to warm-up and then stuck to the pockets/smaller holds on the system board for the remaining time. The HIT laps were hard but doable until Mr. Shaul switched things up. I had been not matching each rung, reducing the time under tension thus making the exercise easier. He suggested matching every other rung. I was barely able to finish and could not down climb the last couple of sets. Good stuff. That is why I need a coach.

The typical order of HIT strip lap is jug - mini-jug - pockets - pinches, strongest-to-weakest for me. In my own training, I train weakest to strongest grip. Rob reversed the order when he saw me struggling on the pinches. Hopefully that improvement becomes a permanent change in Mountain Athlete programming. After the session, I got to geek out about training with Rob. It was awesome.

I received another blister. I don't notice it until I was driving home. MA workouts are the best workouts I have found for power endurance or stamina. However, I can't commit to it because it destroys my skin.