The Cloudbase Mayhem podcast is where you will find fascinating and educational interviews with the best free-flight pilots in the world. If you fly a hanglider or paraglider, if you fly acro or cross country, the Cloudbase Mayhem podcast is where we glean how the great pilots of the world get there. Hosted by Red Bull X-Alps pilot, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and current holder of the North American foot launch record, Gavin McClurg. Follow me on Instagram @gavinmcclurg or on Facebook @ facebook.com/gavinnmcclurg or Twitter on @cloudbasemayhem.
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Episode 6, Ben Abruzzo and training for the 2015 X-Alps
Ben Abruzzo was the guy who turned me into a machine for the 2015 Red Bull X-Alps. My knees are a cartilage wasteland and I’d never done any endurance training or racing in my life. But when I approached Ben about doing the X-Alps he was all-in and had zero hesitation that he could get me there. This episode is kind of an “inbetween-cast” of the usual Cloudbase Mayhem in response to all the myriad of questions we’ve been receiving about how I prepared for what is billed as the hardest adventure race on Earth. In this episode we go deep on Ben’s approach and methodology and what came down to handling not only how to get me ready physically, but how he supported me in the actual race and helped keep my head together. My team, Ben Abruzzo and Bruce Marks laughed their way across the Alps and what should have been a total sufferfest was actually a total blast and was one of the greatest things all of us have ever participated in. Find out what we did right, where things went wrong, and how I became pain-free in my knees for the first time in twenty five years. Follow Ben’s work and find out about his training programs on his website thesnowgoat.com.
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Show Notes:
* Ben talks about his history in the Army and how he became interested in physical training
* Why Ben knew he could make my knees handle the task of the race
* Ben discusses his long-view approach to the training and the various stages we had to tick off on the way
* How most people train incorrectly
* How Ben trains people in the special forces, elite marathoners, and elite athletes
* Learning from mistakes and failure
* The value of having a coach, and why you can’t do it on your own
* The methodology and difference between training for “normal” hard-core adventure races vs the X-Alps
* The value of rest and recovery, and how we approached the taper
* The important of “having a frame”
* Some of the specific exercises we repeated and why
* The value of programming specific exercises for psychological gain