Book Club: Training For The Uphill Athlete

A lecture series that traverses chapter-by-chapter, the topics covered in the book Training For The Uphill Athlete.  Author Scott Johnston will personally lead each of these monthly sessions (last Sunday of each month at 7PM mountain time).  In each one-hour session he’ll try to cover a chapter in each meeting, but if there are sufficient questions and interest, the chapters may carry over more than one session.  Go down some rabbit holes with Scott as your guide. Explore more depth and nuance than is possible in a book. This is your opportunity to take part in a master class in training for all mountain endurance sports.  We’ll leave the last 10-15 minutes for questions and be willing to go longer if needed, so come prepared to learn.

If you can’t make the live sessions, we will be recording them for our YouTube channel, and you can find them just below

Please email coach@evokeendurance.com if you are interested in joining the book club and attending the next session.

Chapter 1 – The Physiology of Endurance

In this first installment, Scott Johnston lectures on the basic physiology of endurance training and the interactions of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism involved in short- and long-duration muscular work.

Chapter 2 – The Physiology of Endurance (continued)

In the second installment, Scott Johnston takes a deeper dive into the interactions between aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, the nervous system, and the potential pitfalls of relying on VO2 Max for informing your training intensity. The concepts discussed here provide the theoretical and practical framework for designing and implementing training programs for mountain sports.

Chapter 3 – The Methodology of Endurance

Scott covers Chapter 3 of Training for the Uphill Athlete in this lecture. Building off of the physiology lectures, this one covers concepts, terminology, and principles such as: The Training Effect, Capacity vs. Utilization Training, The Endurance Training Cascade, Intensity Zones, Continuity, Gradualness, and Modulation, and finally Specificity and Cross Training.  At the end, there are several very good questions from those in attendance.  We hope you enjoy and find this information helpful with your own training.

Chapter 4 – Monitoring Your Training

In this month’s discussion, we cover various ways to monitor for recovery, the central governor theory, fatigue in its various forms, keeping a training log, returning to training after a break, and maybe most importantly, over-training.

Chapter 5 – Application (Part 1) – Where Theory Meets Reality

Join Scott Johnston as he traverses the first part of Chapter 5 of his book, Training For The Uphill Athlete. This is a deep dive into considerations and nuances of how to structure your personal training plan and ways to apply training theory amidst the realities of life.

Chapter 5 – Application (Part 2) – Where Strength, Power, and Endurance Merge

Join Scott Johnston as he traverses the second part of the main topics of Chapter 5 of his book, Training For The Uphill Athlete. This is a deep dive into how strength, power, and endurance merge and are applied to the requirements of moving well in the mountains.

Chapter 5 – Application (Part 3) – High Intensity Training and VO2 Max

We wrap up Chapter 5 with more discussion of Zone 3 (tempo) intensity. We then move on to Zone 4 and begin with the history of the concept of maxVO2, its meaning, its relevance to performance, and some of the misunderstandings surrounding it.  We cover various ways to include higher-intensity training in a program, along with some of its pros and cons. Here is the link to the study cited: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000870/

Chapter 6 – Training Strength and Power

Scott Johnston traverses essential considerations of training strength and power for mountain athletes. Learn here how strength and power are utilized for the requirements of moving well in the mountains, and why traditional weight lifting programs often do not aid in long-term athletic development for mountain sports and activities.

Chapters 7 & 8 – General and Specific Strength; Assessment and Programming

Scott Johnston takes a deep dive into Chapters 7 and 8 of his book Training For The Uphill Athlete. Learn the differences between general and specific strength; how to do strength assessments; and methods for programming strength and power training into your long-term athletic development program.