Mt. Elbert

 A few posts ago I talked about General Physical Preparation (GPP) which is the basic training principle that you prepare yourself physically for any task that could be thrown at you, and handle it with some relative ease and comfort.  Yesterday I realized that hiking a mountain is great for GPP, because of all of the physical and mental demands placed upon you. There are times when you must make short sprint-like bursts, there are long periods of time where you must test your endurance, and because of the length and altitude you must rest--you must also know how much rest to take and when. There is also vital lessons in preparation and nutrition that are also learned.

Well, yesterday Coach Neale, my long-long-long time friend Justin, and I set out to tackle Mount Elbert. This Mountain is near Leadville, is the highest mountain in Colorado, and is the second highest mountain in the lower 48 states. It is 14,433 feet high. The hike starts at somewhere around 10,000 feet, so over the span of the ~5 mile (~10 mile, round trip) hike you gain >4000ft in elevation.

This was not my first 14er, and I found it to be my easiest yet, but the demands of this kind of hike are unlike any other kind of conditioning you can do at lower altitudes--sometimes 10 steps up there can feel like the hardest 200m you've ever ran. Mount Elbert was Coach Neale's first attempt at a 14er, which he handled very well, but still left him very surprised at just how difficult it was. Here are some pics:

 Left: Neale looking as fulfilled as ever after his conquest of Mt Elbert

Right: Coach Neale, mid sandwich, at the top of Mt Elbert after a 3.5hr ascent

So, in conclusion, I recommend athletes take on a trip like this during the offseason (during good weather, of course, because it is great fun, it gets us outside, it is mentally challenging, and it is always a greater physical challenge than one might expect. More Pics to finish it off.

 Left: the aforementioned Justin enjoying a sandwich as you can see--the sturdy mountain goat of the group.

Right: As always, Coach Nack, sickened by myself for breaking my rule of taking my own picture.

Nack

PS.  Yes, I did this hike in my Five-Fingers. It felt great on the way up, but neither pair of shoes I had could handle the way down--I have some very sensitive skin on the underside of my tootsies as I'm sure you've always wanted to know. Blister City, baby.

GPP = General Physical Preparedness

 Decathletes: geniuses of GPP

Off season athletes (of any sport) should do training that is non-specific to the sport they play. The training should be more generalized, other wise stated, the workouts you do should prepare you for any athletic event set before you. So your training should be such that you could run a 5k if someone asked in a decent time, or you could run a 100m in a decent time. You could do a horizontal athletic movement (front to back), or do a lateral athletic movement (side to side) just as well. Basically you are looking to do well at any number of events, and you will not run record times, throw record throws, or jump record height/distances.


Great sites that help with GPP are below. I'm sure there are many many more, and if anyone has any please put them in the comments.
www.crossfit.com
www.crossfitfootball.com
www.gymjones.com
www.crossfitendurance.com/
http://coachrut.blogspot.com/
http://www.cathletics.com

Most of these are Crossfit based. I am a big fan of Crossfit for GPP (not so much for specific training), although there are many other ways to achieve GPP. I would speak to a qualified trainer for more GPP training, or simply do a Google search for "General Physical Preparedness" and see what you come up with. Also, many of the sites above serve specific purposes, so I would recommend a mish mash of them--do one workout from one, the next day choose another (the first three choices on the list already do a nice job of mixing activities, so you could stick to the workouts posted on those sites).

Nack