Flatland Mountaineer-in-Training

Before the semester ended, I was sitting in the office of one of my professors at W&M. We got to talking about Rainier, and he asked me something along the lines of, "How on earth do you train for something like that here?" I looked out the window at the building across the street, as if looking at the familiar scene outside would suddenly reveal a beautiful 14,000 ft. peak (perhaps a range of snow-covered peaks) that I’d somehow missed these last two years. Nope, no luck—not in Williamsburg, Virginia! (Still trying to figure out how I can work fifes and drums, or maybe even a colonial cannon into the training plan…) But let me tell you- it is possible!

The real answer to that question would be lots of cardio at the gym, stairs, hiking with a weighted pack, strength stuff, and some other activities to vary it up a bit. (Side items included in the menu are soccer, swimming, biking, running late across campus, and rock climbing-- I work at the rock wall here on campus.) For the specific workout plan, see the alpine climbing training plan at the back of Clyde Soles’ excellent book, Climbing: Training for Peak Performance. Used an abbreviated version of the alpine training plan for Colorado last summer.

The workouts gradually become longer in duration, with more emphasis on sprinting and interval work. But overall, it strikes a nice balance between strength, aerobic, and climb endurance (A.K.A. hiking longer routes with a weighted pack). The biggest challenge so far hasn’t been the intensity of the workouts, but the duration. The gym has limited hours in the summer, and with two jobs on campus, I’ve been finding myself getting up a little earlier to try and fit a full workout session into each day! There are rest days in the plan as well, but a typical week looks like this:

• Sunday: 3.5 hrs. Aerobic Base (cross-play activities- biking, elliptical, swimming, soccer, etc… focus more on duration than intensity here, this is where I have room to vary it up a bit.)


• Monday: .75 hrs. Sprint/Lactate Tolerance (30 second-3 minute full-intensity bursts with a few minutes of rest in between— the closest one can come to violating the 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment- basically the personal philosophy of my middle school club soccer coach- we lived in the realm of the anaerobic-- thank you, Izzy.


• Tuesday: Strength (an hour or so of resistance work at the gym- I use the machines, focusing more on core and lower body than arms)


• Wednesday: 1.25 Aerobic Base/Climb Strength (combination of aerobic base and power endurance/power).


• Thursday: Strength


• Friday: 1.25 Lactate Threshold (4-6 intervals of moderate intensity with short cool down in between) Good place to tune into iTunes audiobooks on my iPod; if I may suggest such timeless works as the Aeneid... Thank you, Virgil.


• Saturday: Climb Endurance. (Soles terms it “active rest”. 1-4 hours on easier routes, i.e. hiking with a pack through Colonial Williamsburg, looking completely anachronistic, with “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” playing on my iPod [Beloved British marching tune on the Western Front in the First World War.])

Looking at hiking Greys and Torreys Peak in Colorado before Rainier. Any other 14er nominations are welcome!