CS2 | Nutrition & Conditioning
Classroom Sessions Logistics
Meeting Time: Jan 17, 7:00 PM
Location: Remote
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88487429979?pwd=YjdydUh6dUV3VUxCY3dzc3J6aXFKUT09
Meeting ID: 884 8742 9979
Passcode: 614893
Material Covered:
The second Classroom Session will discuss health and nutrition and conditioning for climbing and training. In addition, we will review the case studies/scenarios included below.
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to...
Identify how nutritional and caloric requirements differ in a climbing situation compared with day-to-day and regular hiking activities.
Describe the different macronutrient intake requirements during different phases of a high-exertion, long-duration activity such as climbing.
Assemble an appropriate meal plan for a high-exertion situation such as climbing.
Identify training/conditioning consideration specific to climbing.
Begin to assemble a personal training/conditioning plan, with specific goals in mind.
Homework:
Prior to this lecture, please review this entire course page and read/watch the content, including articles, etc. Please also:
Complete the "Identifying Alpine Climbs" homework linked here
LIVE CS 2 Case Studies.pdfCase Studies/Scenarios for group discussion at the beginning of this classroom session.
While you read these, think about...
1) What were some of the key issues/problems during these incidents?
2) What could the climbers have done differently to avoid or mitigate the situation?
3) How does this scenario relate to this evening's topics?
General Nutrition & Hydration Guidelines
DO NOT TRY NEW THINGS ON CLIMBS. When you go on a climb, you must only eat what you're used to eating and what you've had on other hikes, backpacking trips, climbs, etc. Test out your food in advance to see what works for you under extreme exertion, altitude, etc.
Carbs are your friend. Carbs are the easiest fuel source for your body to digest with endurance exercise and at altitude. Trail mix, beef jerky, and other, stereotypical hiker snacks that are high fat or high protein snacks do not work for many people's digestions on climbs.
Aim to drink 8-12 oz of water every 30 minutes. Small, consistent drinks of water hydrate your body better than infrequent, large drinks of water.
Aim to eat every 1-2 hours (this is highly variable and dependent on the person, of course).
YOU MUST EAT. You will likely not have an appetite at altitude and/or when you wake up in the middle of the night for an alpine start. You must eat anyway, preferable foods high in glucose/sugar/carbs that your body can easily digest and/or will be appetizing to you when you aren't hungry (i.e. candy, cookies, sandwiches, etc.)
Ingest caffeine with caution. Caffeine causes additional urination, which results in lost fluids that you'll need to make up with hydration.
Plan your daily calories. An easy way to ensure you aren't over or under packing food is to determine a rough ball park of how many calories you need to eat per day while mountaineering and pack enough food to match those calories, plus some extra for emergency. For reference, many alpine nutritionists recommend eating 200 calories per hour to avoid "bonking." If you are active for about 16 hours per day (a good ball park for many alpine climbs) you should plan to pack ~3,000 calories per day. This is a very rough guideline and will vary depending on your metabolism, appetite, and body composition. There are many calculators online that can help you determine your daily calorie requirements.
NO DIETING IN THE MOUNTAINS. You simply cannot restrict your calories or put yourself in a caloric deficit on mountaineering trips. It's dangerous to yourself and your teammates and puts your body under unnecessary stress when you are already putting enough stress on it.
Nutrition slideshows
Nutrition on a Climb
Calorie requirements for a day hike are quite a bit different than climbs in which you are gaining 3000-5000 feet in a day! Additionally, your body burns more fuel to keep itself warm when it is cold out. All that food can get expensive (and heavy!). Here are some resources:
Mountaineers Promotive (Expert Voice): Sign up for the Mountaineers team page to get solid discounts on a lot of brands, including Honey Stinger, ProBar, and others.
"A Week of Backpacking Meals": This meticulously-detailed photoblog goes through preparations for putting together a week's worth of nutrition for a moderately high-intensity backpacking trip. Calorie-dense and lightweight foods are important considerations that backpacking and climbing share.
"Moose Goo" and other high-calorie homemade treats, another resource from an ultralight backpacker.
Trader Joes's has a pretty strong selection of dried, packaged, calorie-dense, and other good choices.
Thrive Market has a good selection of snacks that you can filter by food allergies and preferences (i.e. vegan, paleo, gluten free, etc.)
Food Planning for Mountaineering
Alpine Ascents article (7-10 minutes)
Training For Mountaineering
Uphill Athlete article (15-20 minutes)
Cyclic Training for Women
Many great resources are out now to help women optimize their training and prevent injury by adjusting their training schedule with their cycle. We have included several resources to learn more, and below is a very basic, high level overview:
Menstrual Phase or Early Follicular Phase (Day 1 of period - end of period, 3-7 days): varies so it's best to listen to your body during this time. You may want to focus on lighter exercise like walking or yoga depending on any PMS symptoms. Otherwise, carry on as normal with training.
Follicular Phase (End of period-Ovulation, 7-10 days): Great time for zone 1 & 2 workouts and high rep/low weight strength training.
Ovulation or early luteal phase (3-5 days): Best time for high intensity and endurance workouts or larger volume training.
Luteal Phase (10-14 days): Often optimal for high weight/low rep weight training, and short sprint activities. Good rule of thumb to keep volume low, and is common for women to feel lower energy in their training during this time.
Of course, we can't always magically plan our climbs around our ovulation phase, so please take these considerations as useful feedback to you as you train and climb about how best to support your body during each of your phases. It's also important for athletes to realize that the majority of research done around training is done on men, and often the research done on women is performed during their ovulation phase (when women's hormones are more similar to men's). In other words, be wary of generic training plans or advice based around athletic training research. Bottom line: our hormones greatly impact our training and nutrition needs and women's hormones fluctuate throughout the month so listen to your body!
Additional Resources
Endurance Planet podcast interview with Dr. Stacy Sims on cyclic training specific to endurance athletes (Stacy is also a climber)
Inside Tracker Article: Optimizing Training Around Your Menstrual Cycle