Training Archives | Blog - MatthewDThornton

Speed Flying Through The Storm

Posted on: 13/06/2018 /

Categories: Speed Riding and Paragliding, Training

The end of winter 2017-18 presented the perfect opportunity to fly some incredibly marginal and storm conditions with the 11m speed wing. On the world’s highest mountains, the conditions for flying are rarely perfect, so in training for the Riding Giants expedition we took to the stormy skies via the path rarely travelled. I say

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Why I Really Love To Run

Posted on: 15/05/2018 /

Categories: Training

I love sequels. I really love writing them. I haven’t yet found any reason to write a sequel to my book, but I definitely want to write a sequel to my last blog: Why I Love to Run. It was, well, a blog about running, why I love it and how simple it is to

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Why I Love to Run

Posted on: 30/04/2018 /

Categories: General, Training

If you had asked me a two years ago whether I liked to run, I would have probably remarked that running is the activity you only do when you’re being chased. I did adventure running for two years in the build up to climbing Everest in 2012, but I still retain the ‘being chased’ quip.

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Flying Bannerdale Crags

Posted on: 24/04/2018 /

Categories: Microadventures, Speed Riding and Paragliding, Training

Waking up early on a crisp April morning, we headed to Mungrisdale. The weather was calm, the wind was good. There were 4 Wainwrights to tick off and a flight of Bannerdale Crags’ easterly ridge, awaiting us through the unusual calm of a crisp spring morning. But would the weather hold for the 4 hour

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RidingGiants

Posted on: 05/03/2018 /

Categories: Expeditions, General, Speed Riding and Paragliding, Sponsorship, Training

Almost six years ago, I stood on the lofty shoulders of the worlds tallest giant. That giant is Everest, which unlike your average run of the mill giant, offers no gentle lift to the top. As anyone who followed that expedition will recall, things for the most part went without a hitch. I had a micro-disaster

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Controversial Big Mountain Acclimatisation Method

Posted on: 07/03/2017 /

Categories: Everest, General, Sports Science, Training

As a trained physiologist specialising in the effects of low oxygen and cold environments, a very recent article published by Bloomberg focusing on a relatively modern technique to dramatically cut down time spent on big mountains piqued my interest: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-01/alpenglow-expeditions-controversial-mountain-climbing-method The hypothesis is simple; pre-acclimatise in an altitude tent/chamber at home, allowing you to partake

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Scotland is Windy

Posted on: 14/07/2015 /

Categories: General, Speed Riding and Paragliding, Training

Over the past few months, I have been busy working on a project which is essentially the follow up to my Everest expedition back in 2012. I’ve been making progress in a number of areas, but I wanted to share a story of one area (the leading concept of my project) which has suffered a

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Mental Coping

Posted on: 12/04/2015 /

Categories: Sports Science, Training

Techniques and Strategies for Mental Coping. There are many areas of PST (Psychological Skills Training) used by psychologists in both medical and clinical settings, however my area of focus for this article is in Mental Coping. I’m sure everyone has heard of and can relate to the term ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. You

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Training For High Altitude

Posted on: 25/03/2015 /

Categories: Sports Science, Training

As a Climber I’m often asked “What is the Best Training for High Altitude?” Regardless of the intended extremity of the altitude, whether it is Mera Peak (6,476m) or Everest (8,848m), people are always surprised by my response that to train for high altitude, swimming is the key. Initially, this doesn’t seem like an intuitive

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How To Climb Mount Everest

Posted on: 19/02/2013 /

Categories: Everest, Expeditions, Sponsorship, Sports Science, Training

So, you want to climb Mount Everest. Chomolungma or Sagarmatha as they say in Tibet and Nepal. Standing at 8,848m above sea level, Mount Everest is the highest mountain on earth and hence it is on the to-do list of many high altitude climbers including those aiming for the seven summits or even the 14

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