Reaching a Sub 40 min Grouse Grind with Nutritional Strategies

For the past 18 years, Grouse Mountain has hosted the BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run (R)  in September. 2009 is no exception. It is the culmination of the summer’s hard-work and repetitive, yet addictive, climbs up the Grind.

Since July 12th, 2009, I have been training for the run diligently and differently. I tried various intervals, plyometrics , running with parachutes and climbing strategies — all with the goal of challenging myself, but also because I wanted to be able to give guidance to fellow Grouse Grind enthusiasts. In this time, my personal record has come down by almost 15 minutes.

I reached my mini peak goal of 39:56min on my 33rd birthday last week. This was achieved by implementing nutritional strategies a couple of days prior to September 10th. Today, after encouraging a friend to push himself to a level of discomfort he rarely goes to on his own, it is time to taper and fuel for Sunday’s race.

“Training is 90% physical and 10 % mental; and competing is 10% physical and 90% mental”.-Edmund Burke. Yes, there is nothing quite like a race, except a race. However, by making your training harder than the competition, the competition becomes easier. Edmund Burke summarizes it quite well, but neglects the nutritional component of a 30-minute to a 1:30-hour event which primarily uses carbohydrates (CHO) as fuel.