Seven Summits Body – Fitness and Training

Author: Charles Miske

  • Spike and Run My Hoka One One Mafate WP

    Spiking the Mafate WP

    So I decided to spike my Hoka One One Mafate WP. First of all I posted on their Facebook wall, asking if it would be okay, since I have no clue what the internal structure is, and I didn’t want to run into any air pockets. They replied quickly and said it would be fine. I went to a few stores trying to find #6 x 3/8 hex head sheet metal screws. Finally at the Ace Hardware in Silverthorne, CO, I found a box and got it. I charged up my drill and went to work. First you clean and mark the sole. You want to put in about 8 total screws, maybe more, balanced around the ball of the foot, and some on the heel and outside heel area. I marked mine on the larger lugs, though I don’t know if it matters too much.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMaEC83m3Gw

    I used a 1/16″ drill bit chucked way in, so that only about 1/2″ was sticking out, and drilled on the marks. Then I switched to a 3/8″ hex bit and sunk the screws until they felt tight. I set the drill clutch to #3, but it never clicked, so I don’t know if it would just keep stripping out the hole if you kept going – be careful.

    Running Below Freezing pt 2

    Today (blogging time) I had a chance to test them on a road I usually run a bit in the winter, so I could get a feel for them. Keystone Gulch Road connects a side road from Mountain House Base to North Peak and Outback Base at Keystone Resort. Snowmobiles, logging trucks, snowcats use the road regularly for work and rescue, and a variety of runners, snowshoers, pole hikers, and skiers use the road for training. The surface varies from gravel/snow/slush mixed, to hard ice, chopped ice, and soft and firm packed snow.

    running along the keystone gulch road, overhead view
    Running below freezing along a snowy road

    Accuweather said it was 20 with a windchill of 10, and I figured I was pretty warm last time at 10, so I put on some Pearl Izumi windblocker tights, an Under Armour coldgear zip t-neck and boxer briefs, a Mountain Hardwear Superpower Hoodie, A TNF running beanie (discontinued model), and my First Ascent windpro gloves. On my feet I had the usual Injinji liners, and Smartwool PHD compression kneesocks. I decided to forego my TNF Better Than Naked wind jacket.

    I put the shoes on at the door, so I wouldn’t scratch my floors, and then went out and did a warmup walk while waiting for the Garmin 305 to get a satellite lock. The sound of clicking on the pavement was a bit odd (even over my Kittie playlist), and I purposefully walked on some slicker ice sections to test it out, and had really good connection to it. Felt stable. I started the Garmin at the mouth of Keystone Gulch Road, and ran uphill for 3.04 miles to the base of North Peak area at Keystone.

    looking down at feet in hoka one one mafate wp spiked running shoes
    Hoka One One Mafate WP – spiked for winter traction

    It was dang cold. I never really got warm. I kept the Superpower hood on almost the entire run. I was a bit slower than previously, but that might be because of my testing the modified Warrior Diet, or the altitude (9600′) getting me a bit more this trip, a bad night sleep – who knows? As far as dress goes, I did not get at all sweaty except for a few spots on my beanie, but then again, I did not ever feel warm. I think a windshell would be an absolute necessity this cold. The gloves were too cold, the Windpro was letting enough air in to keep me chilled. Perhaps something like Gore Windblocker would be better. I’ll dig around in my gloves to see what I have for next time.

    looking up Santiago Express - Keystone Resort
    North Peak Base – Santiago Express lift – Keystone Resort

    Except for the deep looser snow (I did roll my ankle once – something people who fear Hoka shoes mention on the net a lot), the shoes ran quite well. I was pretty happy with them. I think I might add a couple screws to the midfoot area, since the Mafate seems to have a bit of rocker there. If you like the Hoka, and like to run in the winter, and might encounter firm snow or ice, I highly recommend you consider this relatively cheap and quick solution.

    httpv://youtu.be/_bKa15kDKKk

    Video above is primarily to demonstrate the “clicking sound” on ice. 10:00 pace on very slippery hard packed snow.

  • Big Fat Mountain – Kilimanjaro and Obesity

    I ran into a listing on Kickstarter (a startup funding pool website) for Big Fat Mountain – a documentary by Kara Richardson Whitely about her journey past obesity by taking up hiking and eventually climbing Kilimanjaro (one of the Seven Summits Quest). I’ve done Kili, and it was a long hike, and I think it’s an awesome goal for someone trying to regain their youthful health and fitness.

    She also wrote a book about her ongoing transformation – Fat Woman on the Mountain: How I Lost Half of Myself and Found Happiness

    I haven’t read it yet, but think I’ll add it to my queue. This sounds like it could be a really cool story about how mountaineering and the Seven Summits Quest could be the best motivation some people need to truly transform not only their bodies, but their minds, hearts, and spirits.

  • Too Scary for the Beginners

    Attitude can be a really big deal when you’re trying to make changes and set goals. Sometimes it’s one of the only things you can actually change in your world.

    You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations — Zig Ziglar

    You can approach life with a positive or negative outlook. A lot of people who are just beginning their road to better health and fitness have become burdened down by the negatives in their lives. Negative emotions, self-image, job, housing, health. Sometimes you can fix these things, sometimes not, but the one thing you can always fix is how you see these things and oftentimes how you react.

    Fat Pants fit January 2010
    Fat Pants – 20 lb ago I had a muffin-top in these

    When a person first begins, they start like a baby learning to walk. You have to do all the steps in the right order or it generally won’t have the best of results (in spite of the few oddball exceptions). Roll over, sit, scoot, pull, crawl, hobble, walk, run. Just like that. Most parents intuitively know this, and don’t go yelling “NO! Stay Down Where It’s Safe!”. Unfortunately, most outsiders aren’t all that supportive and utter blatantly negative statements.

    Don’t run, it’s bad for you.
    Here, eat, you look tired.
    Why are you exercising all the time?
    One won’t hurt you.
    Take a few days off – you earned it.

    Sometimes though, even very strong fit trained people will say something inadvertently negative, with far-reaching impact, and it never once occurs to us. How about a discussion like this:

    Trainer: You should eat more cruciferous vegetables, which have many cancer fighting properties as well.
    Client: Like what do you mean?
    Trainer: Things like kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts..
    Buff Friend>: Oooooh yucko! Brussels sprouts taste like nasty dishwater!
    Client: Oh, never mind then.

    For one thing, that’s only an opinion, probably based on a childhood experience. Many kids don’t like the stronger taste of cruciferous vegetables, but grow to like them as they age and their tastes mature. You have no idea what someone else will like or dislike. Also, the relative taste of the food in question has no bearing on the fact that you should eat more of it 😉

    Perhaps now this client will quit the whole program, assuming it will demand that they force down detestable food that no normal person could. This is a wild example only of how a brief negative utterance could seriously impact the future of someone who really did want to make a change.



    When you’re a beginner, you’re more sensitive to the world around you, the world you’re afraid you’re leaving behind, the world you’re still tied to in so many ways. You’re afraid of the future, and what it means, and you’ll jump at any excuse to bail on your “goal”. Look at all the New Year Resolutions falling by the wayside – gym attendance peaks in January and is back to normal by March.

    I like the approach of Shawn Phillips in his excellent book Strength for Life: The Fitness Plan for the Rest of Your Life wherein he lays out one possible approach to the fitness journey for a total beginner.

    When an activity ceases to be something you do and becomes a way of life, you begin to experience the pinnacle of freedom: Mastery … Your body is strong and vital not because you train; rather, you train to celebrate your strength and vitality. Training is a natural movement for you.

    I made the commitment some time ago to be less negative, to attempt not inadvertently halting a person’s progress – whenever I could. It has changed the way I Facebook, Tweet and blog. I avoid sensitive topics when possible, to avoid being responsible for someone quitting over something that has nothing to do with their training.

    Help me be positive, and help your brothers and sisters be positive, and commit to be positive yourself. Enjoy the ride to mastery and give a hand when you can. Thanks

  • Very Berry Protein Yogurt

    This is a total treat, right up there with ice cream, but way better for you.

    In a bowl stir together:
    1 cup fat-free plain yogurt
    1 scoop strawberry protein powder



    gently stir in:
    1/2 cup mixed frozen berries

    It’s great to start eating right away, as the berries seem to thaw as you stir and eat, leaving some ice crystals for chewy surprise texture.

  • Protein goes mainstream

    image

  • Waterbury Diet Testing – Fasting Phase

    I recently attended a personal trainer workshop with Chad Waterbury, trainer of UFC fighters and long-time contributor to T-Nation, a website devoted to many types of weight training and diet. On Saturday we were given the opportunity to learn about the “Waterbury Diet“, which is a variation of “The Warrior Diet”. This diet is based on intermittent fasting or periods of low and high calorie consumption to stimulate the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. These are known generically as (respectively) “Flight or Fight” and “Rest and Digest” systems. The theory is that if you tweak them just the right way, you’ll take advantage of the fat loss properties of the sympathetic, and the muscle building properties of the parasympathetic.

    See update at bottom – 10 Apr 2014

    my intermittent fasting diet phase one
    Intermittent Fasting – phase one – low calorie

    The bottom line is to essentially fast, or consume few calories, for a period of between 12 and 20 hours (give or take a little), followed by a period of relatively “normal” eating for the remainder of the day. Since most people sleep between 6 to 10 hours every day, that’s considered your free fast – easy to not eat while sleeping. The page on Chad’s blog I linked to above is primarily directed for fat loss, but at the workshop Chad also presented a variation based on having a goal priority of gaining muscle. He briefly touched on variations used by his “elite endurance athletes” or fighters. I asked him to discuss that further, and based on the answers to my questions, I modified it slightly to better suit my needs.

    Since I do normally train for 3 or more hours in 2 or 3 split segments, I have to consider myself an elite endurance athlete. As well, while listening to Chad lecture, I realized that I had evolved into my own version of the plan, though a bit heavier on protein (I’ll have another article on that based on Chad’s muscle growth plan) and with more eating periods over the day (this was two years ago during my Elbrus Race training during which I lost 25 lb of fat and first hit < 14% bodyfat while gaining 5 lb of muscle).

    I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to make the minor adjustments and test this theory, and for the past three days I’ve given it my best shot at disproving it. The photo above represents the fasting period, which ends at my PM workout, chronologically from left to right.

    shaker bottles key to weight loss success
    Get a dozen or so of these to ensure success

    After my sleep (normally waking at 4:00 AM) I first take 15 ml of l-carnitine with CLA, ALA and CoQ10. I get my shoes on and check my email for emergencies, then consume a half-bottle of Labrada Supercharge and begin my training. In the morning I typically do only cardio or light bodyweight exercises. I sip the rest of the Supercharge, and at my break between machines I mix up BSN Cellmass and finish that over the rest of my training. This training period is normally about 90 – 120 minutes long, but could be as short as 72 on easy days or 180 on very hard days.

    As soon as possible after my training (generally about 7:30 AM) I blend up 1 overflowing scoop BSN Syntha-6 protein (overflowing so I get closer to 30gm protein – my favorite in this blend is strawberry or vanilla) with 5 mg creatine, 5 mg l-glutamine, 5 mg BCAA powder, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (shown in the glass measuring cup).

    A couple hours (about 10:00 AM) later I have a scoop of Amazing Grass GreenSuperfood Lemon Lime Energy in a shaker bottle. In preparation for my noonish skating session, I have 8 Labrada EFA Lean (fish oil) and another ALA. For skating I combine a half scoop each of Supercharge and Cellmass combined in a shaker bottle. Immediately after I finish skating I have another large scoop of Syntha-6 (prefer chocolate or chocolate mint for “lunch”). About 2:00 I have a scoop of Amazing Grass GreenSuperfood Berry in a shaker bottle. Then at home after work (about 4:30 PM) I have a handful of craisins for the insulin spike, since the evening workout is more intense for being shorter.

    shaker bottles of protein and electrolyte mix in skating bag
    Skate bag ready with during & after shaker bottles prepped

    That about covers my 20-ish hours of the fasting period. I have also had a couple shaker bottles of various herbal teas brewed, then poured into a shaker bottle with added water to fill. I’ll post an article about part 2 – the feeding phase in a day or two. I might put up a shopping list for those a little more OCD about it. I myself just squeezed Chad’s plan into my template and already had everything I needed.

    It’s been too short a period (only 3 days) for me to offer any solid advice, or make any statements regarding the effectiveness or perhaps most importantly the sustainability of this program. I’ll try it out for a while. I suspect that with my intensity and duration of workouts I will have to add in a bit more protein over the day, but I’m watching the scales and my fat level and will make that adjustment if it becomes obvious to me that I need to.

    More later …

    Update 10 Apr 2014

    After a few weeks I noticed that I was too week to train with such a strict regimen, and Chad himself had mentioned that his MMA clients regularly trained for several hours a day and with splits that did not work for them inside a strict Intermittent Fasting Program. He presented some ideas for modifications that he recommended to his clients. HERE is an article at EliteFTS about a few modifications to the plan they advocate, just for balance. From my own perspective, here's how I have ended up usually eating, in a nutshell:
    • 90 minutes previous to training 200 calorie low carb protein shake
    • 30 minutes after training 200 calorie low carb protein shake
    • If I'm doing a split then that's it until 30 minutes after my PM workout
    • Mid afternoon (or 30 minutes after PM workout) 200 calorie low carb protein shake
    • Late afternoon 3 eggs
    • Early Evening toast, almond butter, salmon, beans, rice, salsa, pasta, cheese, yogurt
    • Before bed 200 calorie low carb protein shake
    That has been my staple now for a few years. It works. I love it. I'm training in calorie depleted state, and since I'm primarily and endurance athlete that simulates the effects of doing a marathon on just a handful of gu packets. If you want more tips like this check out my Lose Weight Gain Muscle Free Weekly Newsletter [HERE] and get on board to start making real progress.