Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Mountain Athlete

I'm considering doing the Big Mountain Training Program from Mountain Athlete to get ready for Rainier in May. The routines look extremely intense - to the point of nausea . Any thoughts or personal experience using this program?

Looks like the gym is in Jackson, Wyoming - your avatar is Palmdale, CA. What am I missing?

Hmmmm, looks like a gym, but I didn't last any more than one minute into the video. I did read the info though.

Quote from MA: Many an elite mountain athlete has come through the doors, been humbled, left whipped and sore, to never return.

When I was young, I remember thinking I could run pretty well as I had an 8 to 5 job on my feet all day, hanging wallpaper, and would then run from 5 to 12 miles in the hills of the San Fernando Valley nearly every day after work. I was also running mini triathalons. Then I met a real athelete, Randy Shields, a professional boxer who beat Sugar Ray Leonard as an Amateur to win the Olympic spot (which he turned down to go pro.) He asked me to go "running" one day, not knowing he meant RUNNING!!! After about 3 to 4 miles, he was running backwards watching me. Now that's being humbled :-)

BUT, I did return. And actually got into the boxing ring. Lessons learned, Pro Athletes are super human. Those three minutes in a ring are the longest you will ever feel.
Wear a mouthpiece in the ring, getting punched sucks.

Any more humbling stories?

The lanterne rouge in the TdF will bust your butt - and all but the best 200 or so riders on the planet.

"Celebrating the last-place rider in the General Classification...
because you couldn't hang on his wheel for thirty seconds."

Sorry for the ambiguity. You're correct about it being an actual gym but they also offer the programs (in the "shop" section) that detail the entire program start to finish. They also other programs directed towards other endevors such as rock climbing. I've heard this program mentioned briefly on Summit Post but no details or reviews good or bad. Just wondering if anyone had used or know someone who did.

Testosterone toxicity is a frequent sub-theme on Summit Post. One of these days someone will write a piece of software which will index the toxicity level of a given post, in much the same manner as is done to measure grade-level. Maybe express it in jockstraps, as in "this one measures 7.4 jockstraps, but that one is only a 3.9". But, toxicity affects some females as well, so it should probably be a unisex symbol.

That's a big reason why I don't post there (or even have an account) because of the way in which threads can get out of control. The tons of useful information is why I lurk frequently but the potential of being flamed or some troll busting out a totally off topic comment and stirs everyone up, well it's not my cup of tea.

John, I've taken a look, and it seems like a reasonable thing for the $50 they are asking, if you need that sort of direction.

Ultimately, all such programs consist of "do 30 min of this, do 30 of that, lift 20 of these 10 times, type of things", which if you don't have the time, inclination or knowledge to put together, works out pretty well.

Of course, you have to do the work.

12 weeks seems like a minimum, but is a good starting point. It is far harder to enhance one's fitness, than to maintain that level.