Uphill Athlete Podcast

Training will never produce the desired results if you don't allow sufficient recovery between training bouts for the desired adaptations to occur. Uphill Athlete coach Scott Johnston discusses how to understand the feedback your body is giving you on your recovery status.  With the proliferation of devises that can easily overwhelm us with data many athletes over-rely on these metrics. Do they work as well what your own body is telling you?  Not if you pay attention.  Listen and learn to Scott's preferred tools for managing training load and recovery by tuning into your bodies subtle language.

Several years ago UA coach Scott Johnston helped Adrian Ballinger and his partner Cory Richards prepare for his successful ascent of Mt Everest's North Ridge without the use of supplemental bottled oxygen.  In this episode  the two of us discuss the training and preparation process for attempting big mountains, and having realistic expectations while on expedition.. Adrian is an IFMGA certified mountain guide and the owner of Alpenglow Expeditions. Adrian has lead over one-hundred fifty international climbing expeditions on six continents, and made seventeen successful summits of 8000 meter peaks.  In sharp contrast Scott as tried and failed to summit three 8000 meter peaks.  

A fascinating chat with three of our Female Uphill Athlete coaches. This time they dive into considerations for training with their reproductive cycle. The panel consists of three female  coaches each in their 20’s, 30’s, or 50’s.

In the mountain environment women often feel they are the odd-ones out. Here coaches Carolyn Parker, Maya Seckinger, and Karen Bockel openly share their own drives to not only do everything the men can do, but to do it better. Years of competitive sport, coaching, mountain guiding have given this remarkable group of coaches some wonderful wisdom and insights which they share here. Well worth a  listen for any Uphill Athlete, male or female.

David Goettler has been coached by Scott Johnston for more than 6 years.   Kilian Jornet  was the impetus for and co-authored with UA cofounders Steve House and Scott Johnston in the writing of Training for the Uphill Athlete.  David and Kilian recently returned from a failed attempt at an unassisted, oxygen-less speed ascent of Everest.  Scott Johnston unpacks their experiences of acclimatization, and training cycles at altitude; the unique situation of climbing big mountains post-lockdown; and the influences of social media on the projection and attainment of goals. 

For over a decade UA coach Scott Johnston was focused on the training of junior Cross Country skiers (with a side gig of advising Steve House on his training for alpinism).  During those years Scott had to tackle a myriad of issues from parents to high school distractions while learning to deal with the unique demands of coaching young athletes. In this episode, Scott is joined by fellow Uphill Athlete coach Maya Seckinger as they discuss training for juniors: how junior training differs from that of adults; tailoring training to the needs of kids; age-appropriate training for specific levels of development; and their personal experiences of training as juniors themselves.

When Art first approached UA for coaching he was woefully unprepared for an attempt on Mt Everest.  He not only didn't have the fitness needed he greatly underestimated the undertaking.  Despite warnings from his coach that he was not ready to tackle this huge objective  Art went anyway.  What ensured on the mountain nearly cost him his life.  Chastened, he returned to coaching with a realistic understanding of what it was going to take to succeed on the highest mountain  In May, at 75 years old,  Art summited Mt. Everest, making him the third-oldest person to have attained this feat. In this episode, Scott, Art, and his coach Seth Keena recap Art's experiences on the expedition, and the training process leading up to his summit bid, going back 2 plus years.  We captured this interview while are was still in Kathmandu, fresh off the climb with emotions still close to the surface.  

In this episode, Scott Johnston and Sam Naney discuss the subject of speed, an often overlooked element in endurance sports. 

In this episode Steve House is joined by Hillary Allen. Hillary endured a tragic accident while competing in Sky Running (an ultra distance technical ridge running race). She and Steve recap her experiences of this accident, the grief and unexpected loss of sense of self that  arose, and Hillary's path to recovery. Hillary documents this process in her book: Out and Back: A Runner's Story of Survival Against All Odds.

Scott Johnston is once again joined by Phil Maffetone as they discuss  over training — particularly the common misconceptions, and social factors that perpetuate this unfortunate phenomenon.