Reddit reviews Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers

Has anyone checked out Training for the Uphill Athlete? It's geared towards running and skiing, but I wondering if it's also useful enough tool for backpackers before I drop $20 on a copy.

I'd take what I say with a pinch of salt since I have no professional experience in this space. Could explain why you understood half of what I said. I may have only made half sense! ;)

Anyway, EB does give you reading material and a brief rational behind why he programs the week and quarters into the way he does. I don't think there is much on Zones. Well, he uses colours to denote intensities. So similar to a Zone based system. Zone intensity systems have mixed definitions. I was referring to the classic and popular 1-5 system. Where 1-2 you can still hold a conversation, 3 you are hitting your aerobic capacity limit, and 4-5 you are hitting your lactic threshold (anaerobic zones).

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As to books, this isn't crossfit and is heavily geared towards endurance based training but I am currently reading this and loving it as it breaks down a lot of what goes on internally when you start to slow down: "Training for the Uphill Athlete" - https://www.amazon.com/Training-Uphill-Athlete-Mountain-Mountaineers/dp/1938340841

Some suggestions for things you can do in Toronto to prepare:

• Buy the book Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills which will give you a basic understanding of the skills, gear, and systems used in the mountains, including a lot of the lingo you'll hear.
  
  
• Buy the book Training for the Uphill Athlete which will give you a good understanding of how to train for the mountains. They also have an older book Training for the New Alpinism, but it has a slight bias towards technical climbing. Both are very similar and both would teach you what you need to know. The stick figure version is do a LOT of very easy trail running (slow enough to converse in full sentences) and work on general strength (lots of core work). Gradually increase the amount you are doing and then start to mix in things like carrying a heavy pack up a steep hike or stairs in the months leading up to your climb. Their website uphillathlete.com has a lot of good info, and premade training plans if you just want to drop $50 and be told what to do.
  
  
• Train lots based on the above.
  
  
• Get really good at backpacking. You'll want to be very comfortable doing an overnight trip with minimal gear. This isn't strictly necessary since some routes can be done car-to-car, but many mountains will involve at least one night camping on the mountain so being good at overnight backpacking trips will really open up a lot more options.
  
  Once you are "mountain fit" and have the basic book learning done, there are a couple of ways to actually get on to a mountain. One way is to take a multi-day course offered by a guiding company that includes an ascent of a mountain. This will cost in the ball park of $1000 for the course itself, plus travel to get to the mountain. This teaches you many of the skills you need and gets you onto big routes quickly, but costs more.
  
  The other way to is learn the basic skills of crampon usage, self belay, self arrest, camping in the snow, etc. by finding people willing to show you. A common source of those people are climbing clubs (the Mountaineers in Seattle, Mountain Ascent Association in California, I'm sure there are plenty in Canada). This also gives you a way to meet people to climb mountains with in the future. You could also take a 1-2 day skills course from a guide company, these will generally be cheaper (~$200-400) but probably won't involve a summit climb and you'll still have to figure out how to find people to climb mountains with in the future. Then once you have those basic skills you start small and easy and build up your skillset yourself over multiple trips to the mountains. This takes way longer to get to big impressive mountains, but many people get more satisfaction out of climbing a mountain if they aren't relying on a guide to get them there safely. You could probably do a lot of this early learning in the Whites as mentioned elsewhere in this thread before moving on to the ranges with bigger routes.
  
  One thing I like to do is pick a goal mountain that you really want to do. I personally love climbing climbing the Cascade volcanos so my first goal mountain was Mt. Rainier. Lots of stuff in the Rockies, both in the US and Canada, the Sierra in California, Coastal range in Canada. Just find a mountain that inspires you. Hard to give recommendations since there are just so many options if you include all of the US and Canada and its largely personal preference of what you are looking for.
  
  If going with the first option of taking a mountaineering course, often you can find one that includes your goal mountain and you are done, move on to a bigger goal mountain. :)
  
  If going the second route, research the common/easiest route up that mountain and see what skills you need to climb it. Then find some routes that teach you the skills you need but don't have but are still within your comfort level and go climb them. Rinse and repeat. I think the hardest part here is finding people that are just a little more advanced than you are to do these routes with and learn from them. As you do more climbs your network of people to climb with will grow.

She'll want to be a good recoverer and come back stronger than ever. Get her this book, to ease in to as appropriate: https://www.amazon.com/Training-Uphill-Athlete-Mountain-Mountaineers/dp/1938340841

I’m not the FKT holder, I reposted this from r/ultralight. In the comments of the original thread, he does go into his training routine and mentions this book.

That said, I am embarking on my own E2E in a couple days so you can wish me luck!

You might really like this book Training for the Uphill Athlete. It really does a great job covering the physiology of endurance sports. It's a followup to New Alpinism and it's more targeted for running and skiing. It talks a lot about targeting aerobic adaptions, why you need to slow down to gain those improvements, heart rate training, and a lot more.

https://www.amazon.com/Training-Uphill-Athlete-Mountain-Mountaineers/dp/1938340841/