Hold your line!!!!

If you have ever been in a bike race you have most likely yelled this at someone or someone yelled it at you.  The last thing you need while riding a bike at top speed or in very technical terrain is another rider cutting you off.  Holding a line is a very important skill in bike riding, whether you are in a group or solo, but it is also important in other sports…

So you spent six to twelve months training for an epic event or race that you challenged yourself to participate in this summer.  After the pain subsides, and the post race blues clear you start to think and plan for next year.  Just don't forget to take a…

I recently worked with an avid cyclist that has ridden in the Copper triangle bike ride the past couple of years and has had some trouble with cramping up on the climb up Vail Pass.  After talking to him and getting some background information we started to look past the obvious dehydration cause of his cramping and on to other possible causes.  Other than dehydration cramps…

With two kids starting school, my wife starting a new job, cross country practice, soccer practice, and trying to work a little myself it has been a crazy week.  One thing that has been bothering me all week is the amount of trash on the Incline.  It has been about four weeks since I went up the Incline, with tapering for the Peak races and recovering, and I could not believe…

Now that Leadville and Pikes Peak races have passed I have had the question of how to feel better racing at altitude proposed to me a couple of times.  The easiest answer to this is to train a lot at high altitude, so if you are doing Pikes Peak train at over 12,500 as much as humanly possible.  For those trying to balance a family, job, house, etc. that is easier said than…

For many on this web page, some of my clients, and many friends it is almost race day.  For others race day or your big event is not far off.  I would like to wish the best of luck to all, no matter what your adventure is.  One of the things I like best about being a personal trainer and working with sports conditioning clients is that the people that tackle these type of…

So it's almost tapering time again....The days are getting shorter, you've been training for months, and the big local and statewide races are growing near.  Whether you are doing one, two or three of the Peak races, Leadville, Imogene, one or more of many road or mountain bike races, or some other competition, the racing season is hitting it's peak and starting to slow down soon.  One of the most important things to do to prepare for a race is to taper.  All that training you have done in…

A friend of mine was talking to me recently about coming down the Incline with his son and how he felt by the end of it, having not done the Incline in over a year.  He said his knees where killing him and toward the bottom where the Incline's grade decreases slightly and he could keep up a slow run he could feel every foot strike.  Now let me start by saying I do not condone…

Many people base their health and physical well being on their body mass index.  Although this measurement can help you to see if you are overweight, average or underweight and help you to track your progress towards a weight loss or fitness goal the B.M.I. can be misleading and inaccurate.  If you want a more accurate measurement, that is just as easy to obtain, if not easier, use your waist/hip ratio.  This measurement takes into account your body size and proportions, which have been…

Recently I had a client ask me about why she was having side cramps from running when she felt like she was in decent shape and was working on making sure her breathing was rhythmic and not erratic.  She is training to do the Pikes Peak Ascent and so she is mainly trail running and normally has the side aches when she is running downhill.  I explained to her that it could be…

Barefoot running, is it a new fad, a good idea, or just a way to get hurt really easily?  I read Born to Run, and thought that not only was it a good book, but many of the ideas and bio-mechanics behind barefoot running made sense.  So like many people I went out and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers, and after spending last summer training in them, short runs only nothing over six miles, I was hooked.  I could really tell a…

Due to a very hectic training and racing schedule my blog entry for this week will be to wish everyone the best of luck with their training, tapering, and racing endeavors.  May you hit your goals and compete injury free.

If you have any questions or comments please visit my website: www.elevationathletics.org

 I was recently on a field trip with my son in Denver, with about ten other schools from around the state.  While there I could not help but noticing how rampant the obesity epidemic is in this state, and the sad thing is we are the fittest state in the country.  The really unfortunate thing I noticed is the kids are following in the parents footsteps. ( I have to say that I did not notice this being as much of an issue for the kids or parents at my son's school.)  A few weeks ago I was up…

Hard days vs. easy days.  

 Recently I was working with a client and she mentioned that she was frustrated with her lack of progress on improving her speed up a really steep local abandoned incline railway.  I asked her how many times a week she was doing the illegal run and she replied she was trying to get up there five to six days a week.  Apparently a friend…

After over eighteen years of training for endurance events I finally had my first overtraining/repetitive motion injury this year.  It is plantar fasciitis and boy does it hurt, it feels as if you have knives stuck in the bottom of your feet and when you get out of bed in the morning you can hardly step for the first few minutes.  I have always incorporated a large amount of elevation gain in my weekly training regimine, but this year I also added teaching group fitness classes that utilize…

So I have been busy all week with my kids last week of school, my oldest son "graduating" from elementary school moving up to middle school, soccer parties, graduation parties, family in town, seeing clients, training for my races, getting ready for three straight weekends of races coming up, and life's normal day to day responsibilities.  So I am pretty well exhausted and…

As we get closer to the summer racing season (although the snow in mid-May makes one wonder) and I spend more time training on the trails around the Pikes Peak region I can not help but notice that a lot of trail runners could use some basic pointers on proper form.  Most injuries are a result of over training or improper training and are preventable, the obvious exception to this rule are a crash or contact related injury.  So whether you are training for a race or you are a fitness…

As an athlete do you want to be able to go faster, improve your results in a race, or see your performance go to the next level?  If so, you need to add speed-work to your training regimen.  Speed-work, interval training, or anaerobic energy system training are basically the same thing.  The idea behind these forms of training is to improve your body's physiological response…

I sat down to write my weekly training blog about speedwork, then my year and a half old computer shut down on me for no reason for the sixth(?) time in the last two weeks.  So after spending nearly two hours trying to figure out what was wrong, fixing the problem and completely reinstalling some programs I decided to write about something that I have been thinking about a lot lately, technology vs. the human body (hopefully I will be able to continue with my speedwork blog next time,…