Thank you to MPF Athlete Julian Vicente for leading today's hike in Norvin Green State Forest! It was great to spend some trail time with a couple of new faces. We started 8am sharp and covered about 11 miles of fun, rocky trail with a lots of up and down. 

Temps started out at about 40º and rose steadily through the morning. Trails were slushy, some had ice and a little snow cover, others were wet but traction was surprisingly fine at times. Looks like some cold weather is in the forecast and more rain on the way tonight, microspikes may be in order. Lets hope for some snow this coming Tuesday!

After several of the locals, mostly Ryan Welts and Adam Wilcox, had suggested that I would really enjoy the Tripyramid loop, I found some time to head up on August 10th...I’m finally getting around to posting some runs from this past summer! 

Foam Rolling can be done before a workout, during a workout, after a workout or throughout the day. There are a few key things to remember when foam rolling at these specific times. This article includes video tutorials for each area of the body. 

The team headed out with some friends this past Sunday. We hiked the fun Seven Hills Trail in Southern Harriman State Park. The trail is about 6.5 miles point to point, and has roughly 1,500 feet of elevation gain.

Date: November 2nd, 2014
Location: Breakneck Ridge, Northern Hudson Area of New York
Adventure: 12.5 miles, 5,500 feet elevation gain

I thought I might be done with winning Escarpment.  I had lost the past two years, was approaching 40, and the competition certainly wasn’t getting any easier.  For this year, I was in the UK the week before the race to attend a conference and I ran the Snowdon mountain race the weekend prior to Escarpment.

These are great exercises to include in your training, whether an athlete or someone looking for general health in the hips, knees and foot & ankle. 

Wahoo Fitness is a company that focuses on using the devices you already own, such as your iPhone or Android Device, to track and record all of your training data. With the powerful phones we have today, the Wahoo Fitness App is able to record your GPS track, distance, heart rate, elevation profile, wattage, cadence and much more.

Each year we look forward to November because of the changes that it brings. Cold weather slowly moves in with the winds, trees become barer by the day and the chance of snow increases each week.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Snowdon race, it is the biggest mountain race in the UK.  Snowdon Mountain is the highest peak in Wales at 3,560 feet.  That is not that high, but it certainly feels higher when you are up top.

After I posted the photos from this hike, Joe asked me to write something about the trip to give an example of what you can do with your kids in terms of hiking.  Both Steph (my wife) and I are obviously big fans of getting outside with the kids as much as possible...

I heard about the Vermont 50 back in the spring from several of my Mountain Peak Fitness / Campmor teammates. Joe Azze was doing the 50 mile bike and Jules Moore the 50 mile run. I had not run a 50 mile race in 2 years so I wanted to give it a go. My obstacle though was my new baby daughter.

The first time I participated in this race was in 2011 on my mountain bike with Philip my fiancées uncle. That Vermont year blew my mind of how though this course was and the challenge of mountain biking.  Despite my lack of experience and getting my ass kicked with a steel toe boot, I had a blast!

Race entry and lottery season is an exciting time of year on the Mountain Peak Fitness trail running team. This year I was the only one selected to run the Wasatch Front “100 miles of heaven and hell” Endurance Run. Luckily 4 of my teammates had experienced the 2013 Wasatch 100, giving me a good network of people to lean-on for advice during the months leading up to race day.

My EPIC weekend (yes it qualifies) started on Saturday night as I left my house for Vermont at around 7:45 pm.  I rolled up to the hotel at around midnight.  I “slept” till around 4 am and then headed for the race.

It all started back in March of this year during a trip to Colorado to see fellow teammates Phil Germakian and Adam Mayer. We got a chance to see the film on Scott Jaime’s FKT of the Colorado Trail. The short movie was absolutely exhilarating and gave me encouragement to even begin thinking about signing up for the Run Rabbit Run 100.

With the off season fast approaching for many, the most important thing an athlete can do at this time of year is re-evaluate their rest & recovery (R&R). Look back and reflect on your achievements as well as the races or workouts that didn't exactly go as planned. Ask yourself, could you have done better with your rest & preparation?

In 1958, Chris Goetze broke the 31 year-old record for the Mahoosuc Traverse by over two hours, running the rugged 29 mile route with over 10k of climb in 8:06:30.  Late last week, Ryan Welts emailed a few of us to see if anyone was interested in joining him for a hard run over the traverse.  

Your Threshold is simply the hardest possible effort you can sustain for 60 minutes straight. Your average heart rate, power and pace for this effort is your threshold. To do a 60 minute all out effort is extremely challenging and is not necessary. A shorter 20 minute test can be done to establish your threshold.