Scott McMillan : Endurance Junky

First off I am not insane or crazy but sometimes I think I am being poisoned. I feel so weak, last year at this time I could bang off 2 hour+ runs in my sleep run 5-6 days a week plus bike commute. This year 4 days of running and bike commuting with no real speed/strength or long run training and I am spent. Maybe it’s not poison maybe it’s my diet? Maybe it’s because I am carrying 11+ extra pounds? Who knows but I need to get out of this rut.

Ultra Hardcore Training
You think you train hardcore? I always thought Ironman athletes trained hard but they have nothing on big wall climbers. On Saturday I went to the Vancouver International Film Festival and attended a talk before the films by Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell they are a wife/husband climbing team and are some of the top climbers in the world. Tommy made history climbing “the Nose” of El Capitan twice in 23 hours, for a total of 66 pitches of hard free climbing (over 6000ft). After a short film on this climb there was a Q&A session. During the session someone asked Tommy how he trained, he responded by saying he would do 10-14 hour of training days during the winter consisting of easy climbing followed by some bouldering then weights ending with a 3 hour bike ride or a run. His goal was to totally exhaust himself and teach himself how to suffer… Now that is hardcore, I guarantee Peter Reid never came close to that in his training.

Here is my training for the week not so hardcore.

Bike Commute
Wed - Fri
3.5 hours

Tues, Feb 13, 2007
Tempo run
Time: 0:46:24 (25 minutes at tempo HR)
AHR: 170
MHR: 190

Thurs, Feb 15, 2007
Run/Sprints
Time: 0:40:52
AHR:145
MHR: 181
Easy run ended with 4×100m sprints. I cannot believe I used to be a sprinter…

Sat, Feb 16, 2007
Easy Run
Time: 0:58:14
AHR: 151
MHR: 167

Sun, Feb 17, 2007
Easy Run
Time: 1:14
AHR: 146
MHR: 172
Legs felt heavy. It honestly feels like I may have lost all my endurance…