SKY and running: My philosophy

Running and moving fast in the mountains seems to the outsiders such a simple and unproductive way to spend our free time. The reality is that taking the decision to become a sky runner (a person who wants to move fast in all types of terrain and climate) is not only fascinating, but also can add a lot of meaning and joy to our lives.

If you are reading this, I assume you are a runner, mountaineer or just a curious person wanting to know more about how those apparently crazy, yet happy people find time and resources to become goats while living in almost flat cities.

Before I step into the how or even the why, I would like to share my own definition of sky running and what I put into this concept. As in road running, where there are many different fields, distances and courses, there is also into the concept of sky running.  Sky running is the most agile and light way to move into natural terrain, searching for challenging ways to arrive to the submit of a mountain or just a spot that is worth the effort. It differs from road running or trail running in the paces and type of terrain that we are practicing our sport, as the steepness and technicality of the routes may require some serious mountaineering and climbing skills. To put it in some numbers as a reference, many of the races in sky running have 1000+/- gain for every 10 km. That means that every 10 km you are going up and down 1000+. Sweet no? Believe that the views are always worth the hard times the sport can put on you.

The training for such sport is very diverse, and till now I was not able to find a proper guide to get prepare for that. As my background was mainly football and little running experience, I was totally lost, and there are not many training material nor professionals that have a valid framework for mortals.  That is why this post becomes relevant, as I think my learning may be useful or at least interesting to you.

I live in Nuremberg, a beautiful small city in Bavaria. Quite flat for a Catalonian like me, but still a place what I can have a lot of adventures and become the best sky runner I can possibly be. So please even if you live in a place like Nuremberg or in most of the German cities, bear with me : ) .

Before I go into training details and want to share the why of picking such a sport. In my case, it was a search for adventures with the minimum amount of logistic effort, as I am pretty lazy in organizing things. After some years of flat running and trail running, my next thing was on trying to be able to move fast even in the most inaccessible and remote places in the world. A sport that has a little bit of climbing, running, skiing, mountain biking… I was looking for a sport more rounded than normal running, where significant cross training was helpful for my development and where I can commit to a long-term injury free lifestyle. I learned through the years that unless you are very gifted, have little stress or small goals, you are very likely to get injured if you only run. Although I have a decent share of severe falls, I manage to avoid any overuse or stress injury during my years of “serious running and sky running”. To be fair though, a part of the credit should go to the professionals I regularly visit. I want to acknowledge the great job of physios and trainers can do for us.

Due to the fact that cutting minutes to my road marathon time did not appeal me after two attempts, I got bored, and I start looking new stimulus to my body and mind. Sky running was the perfect fit as the variety of training types and places to go is almost infinite. Just to give some example, a normal week for me could include days of climbing, speed training, mountain biking and a long trail runs. Other weeks will have a lot of hiking on the weekends, weightlifting sessions, rowing, yoga or skiing. Variety is key for progress and health, but specially to enjoy the process.  Nature changes a lot during the year, so the way we move on it has too.

So, if you are a nature lover that wants to bring your fitness or agility to the next level, or a runner that wants to be more adventurous or injury free, I think sky running and this diversity training may work for you.  Just keep in mind that is not going to get any easier, just more fun!

There is another critical part in the why that I want to share, which is the social aspect. Normally it gets hard to get people into our very specific training sessions, specially when our planning is very rigid, and we should aim for super specific efforts.  I am not sure if that is sustainable in the long term for amateur athletes, whose time is already quite constraint with work, commutting and other obligations. A training approach full of low intensity yet rich in variety activities will give a lot of space to friends and family to step in. That makes you journey to you athlete development much more easy and pleasant. Do not get me wrong, if you want to really get better, there must be a space for your weakness training and speed sessions. Those are so individual that it will be tricky to made it with other people, but good for you, they can only account for 10-15% of your training time. That means that it is up to you and your friends of how much the remaining time is social or time for you. Who said running was an individual game?

Sky running and mountain sports in general, are becoming more professional and there is a growing part of the players mainly focus on time and the competition aspect of it. I see the good part of setting up races on the calendar, as most of us are very goal driven, but believe me, this is just the cherry on top of the cake. Although most of us want to become better year after year, it is important to have the why in the joy of the process and the little adventures that happen between big goals, as we are 90% of the time building such blocks. No race result would define your long-term development, so it should get the right weight, a sweet spot that is hard to find. The focus should be in effort and the self-improvement, gathering great moments and seeing the evolution of you as an athlete, independent of the progress of your peers.  You should be getting out the door for your own reasons, and external drivers as friends or results should help but not based your drive for the sport.

In 2017 I got a pretty good year, being 3^rd in Ultra Barcelona, 8^th in Zugspitze Ultra Trail and finishing Transvulcania in 9hours among others. From there it got hard to compare me with the upcoming years. I am still getting consistently between top20-top10 is most of the races I am at, but I cannot expect the trend to become higher and higher. First the position is relative to the others, which is not in our control. Even if I would not have achieved any more of such results, I should be proud of my development as a climber and a skier (In both I had no background, and now I am becoming progressively confident), and manage to stay years injury free in the sport, making friends during the journey. You should ask yourself if you are happy with your routines, and how is your resilience, endurance, speed, health, social relationships evolving and not merely your race results. Do not miss the full picture, as you are much more than your competitions results!

There is a clear paradox in following your passion, as you are getting closer to your maximum potential in something it also your unbalance growing, to the extent that even your happiness is at risk. There is something in being an attempt of a goat that resonates in me in everything I do : 

“do few things, most of them greatly, but never aim to win at everything, as happiness is closer to the variety of a life full of different movements and challenges, than to a single narrow focus on a single game.”

(For those far from the sport, here is some nice pics of my last years in sky running)