Training For A 1700 Mile Solo Expedition

Last week I mentioned that British adventurer Ripley Davenport was getting ready for his Mongolia 2010 Expedition, in which he'll go solo and unsupported across 1700 miles of harsh terrain. When I posted that story, Ripley was being featured on Adventure World Magazine, and now he's back with the first of an ongoing feature about his training methods for the journey.

In this story, the intrepid explorer says that his physical training for next year's expedition actually began nearly a year ago in October of 2008. His approach to the training is to get outside, work hard in the elements and the natural conditions. As Ripley puts it, working out in a gym isn't very helpful when the conditions he'll be dealing with won't be comfortable and easy.

He also discusses the areas he is focusing his training on, such as muscular composition and flexibility. These are obviously important factors for anyone who will be challenging themselves physically. But Ripley also lists mental training as part of his preparation, and personally I think that is the area that separates those who are successful and those who are not.

This looks like it'll be a great ongoing series, and should prove to be very insightful. ASW has a winner here, and I think we'll all enjoy it.

The Ultrarunner's Diet

Ever wonder how those amazingly fit ultrarunners feed the machine? Want some tips on how to approach your own nutritional needs when training? Than check out today's entry on The Ultra Distance Athlete's Diet over at Matt Hart's Coaching Endurance blog.

Matt offers up some great tips on diet and eating habits, some of which you've probably heard before, but they can't be stressed enough. For instance, he reminds us to stay hydrated, drinking plenty of water. He also notes that you should be eating six small meals a day, having something every two to three hours. Even better yet, he does a great job in explaining why we should do these things to not only aid in performance, but also in recovery.

I've mentioned Matt's blog before, but if you haven't read it in the past, it's a great source of insight into training for endurance events and performing well in ultra distance races. Matt mixes in some of his own experiences, including his recent experience with a double hernia. Yeah. Double. Ouch!

Training For Mountaineering

The Fitness Q&A section over at Outside Online always has some good tips for training and improving your performance. After all, it is written by Chris Carmichael, who helped Lance Armstrong win a couple of bike races. Today's question was a good one focused on how to train for mountaineering, specifically for climbs like Rainier or Denali.

The person posing the question says he has 8 months to prepare, and is living at sea level, living in Boston. In a nutshell, Carmichael recommends interval training, and lots of it. He says that you have to build your body into a cardio machine, especially when training at lower altitudes. Long hikes with a heavy pack and gear are also recommend along with building lean muscle mass and a lean frame, but not too lean, as the extra pounds will do you good when you start loosing weight at altitude.

While not all that specific in it's recommendations, it's a nice, simple guide to begin training if you're looking to go on a climb in the near future. A lot of what Carmichael says makes sense, and obviously you'll need your cardiovascular system in top working order when you head up. It'll make the climb all that much more enjoyable in the long run.

Endurance Planet Podcast Returns!

When I first started posting on the different podcasts I listened to, Endurance Planet was one of the first I would mention. As the name implies, each episode focuses on endurance sports such as triathlons, ultra-marathons, and adventure racing. The format of the show centers around interviewing an athlete in a particular sport on their training methods, experience, race day preparations, and more. The podcasts are always insightful and helpful if you are training yourself or have an interest in endurance sports of any kind.

The show had an ambitious release schedule, putting up new episodes all the time, which I'm sure is a great deal of work. Then back in January it seemed to go on hiatus, and there were no new episodes for awhile. I checked my iTunes, and the website regularly watching for something new. Well, it seems they are back with a vengence, as there are a number of new episodes posted. Clearly they haven't been sitting on their laurels while waiting to return to the podcast business.

You'll find interviews with Triathlete Neal Henderson on "Training Epiphanies", Ironman competitor Brenda Bolding who received a lottery invite to Kona, and changed her life in the process, as well as cyclist Kevin Livingston who is hoping to grow the sport in the United States.

Welcome back guys! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us for the rest of the year!

Training For Everest

Have you ever wondered what goes into preparing for a climb like Everest? The physical regime you must go through so that your body is ready to function on far less oxygen than it is use to and acclimatize to the extremes of high altitude mountaineering.

Alan, whose personal website is quite the treasure trove of mountaineering knowlege and lore, has been kind enough to post his personal training schedule that has helped him to successfully climb high peaks all over the globe, including Everest.

The fitness program is three months in duration and covers weight lifting and cardio/aerobic conditioning with a nice mix of lifting for different muscle groups, and running for stamina and speed. This seems like a very well balanced workout and would make for a good general conditioning for mountaineers or anyone just looking to get in great shape.

Endurance Sport Nutrition

This is someting I struggle with all the time. What to eat before a run, and how long to wait before setting out. As I've taken more notice of what I eat before working out, I've also noticed that it can effect my performance in a variety of ways. Stellar Magazine has put together a great article on what you should be putting into your body, and when you should be doing it. The article also focuses on endurance athletes who can never seem to get enough calories, and are able to burn them off at a pretty high rate. There is some good information in there if you haven't thought about how food effects you when you're training or competing.

High Tech Training

Last week I gave you my thoughts on the Nike+iPod system and how it can help your training. This week Outside Online has posted an article on other high tech training methods for the the 21st Century. You'll find a list of great websites that can offer advice on how to train, cool new high tech gear that will aid your workout (including the Nike+iPod), and more. If you're looking to jump start your workout, then maybe there will be something here to help you as well. We can all use some advice in that area from time to time.

Endurance Training: Is Fatigue Just In Our Heads?

According to this article at National Geographic Adventure a new study seems to indicate that fatigue may all just be in our head. The study says that it is a side effect brought on by our neverous system in order to prevent us from overdoing it while we exercise. They even offer a few ways of fighting off fatigue and getting your body to go even further. Interesting study to say the least, but when I'm six miles into a run, on a very hot day, I'm not sure all that fatigue is in my head. :)

Carbs For Workouts

I saw this story while browsing the National Geographic Adventure site earlier. It's a short, but informative, article on how carbs impact your workouts, and how many carbs you should be taking in in order to efficiently workout and stay healthy.

I never got into the whole "carb craze" from a few years, back, but I had some friends who did, and lost quite a bit of weight, only to gain it all back when they had some carbs again. I workout enough, running and riding my bike in particular, that I need the carbs. I also think that any diet that cuts out everything from a food group is probably not a very good diet. So, I was happy to see that trend fade.

New Ultra- and Trail Running Blog

Mountain Zone has long been one of my favorite websites for new on the outdoor sports that interest me, including climbing, mountain biking, adventure racing, snowboarding, and more. But lately they've been adding a lot of blogs to their stable, and it's made them even better. Blogs are a sign of the times. They're popping up everywhere, and it seems everyone is writing one these days. Hell! Even I have a blog!! ;) Anyway, there is a new one over at Mountain Zone that caught my eye this afternoon. It's written by Krissy Moehl and promises to look into the world of ultramarathons and trail running, which happen to be two more of my favorite topics.

Krissy kicks of the new blog with a look at Primal Quest (What else?) and mentions some teams to keep an eye on. But she also lays out her schedule for the next few months as she heads out for a Summer of Adventure. Sure wish I could join her on a couple of those trips. Hopefully she'll be sharing some of the fun with us throughout the rest of the Summer.

Interview with Danelle Ballengee

Quintessential adventure racing site CheckPointZero.com has posted an excellent interview with Danelle Ballengee widly considered the best female adventure racer in the world, and certainly amongst the elite. Danelle talks about a lot of interesting things, such as training, how she got started in adventure racing, her new team, and why she left her old team. She use to race with the highly sucessful Team Nike, but said she felt like she was "mandatory equipment". Lots of interesting insights into one of the best adventure racers in the world.

The Trail Running Personality

Greatoutdoors.com has a lot of interesting articles on a range of topics, including a few very near and dear to my heart, such as climbing, hiking, and paddling. While browsing around their site, I found this really cool article on the personality and make-up of a trail runner. According to the article, a trail runner is someone who seeks out "adventure, variety, challenge, and excitement." They often prefer to be alone in their runs, and enjoy a scenic, long, backwoods trail, to a track, road, or sidewalk.

As someone who loves trail running, I found this to be a fun little article that discusses the differences between a road runner and trail runner in a straight forward fashion. It captured the essence of why I enjoy trail running. Personally, I love to get outside, and away from it all, and have some time on the trail to myself. I also enjoy the challenge of trail running, and the views along the way as well. Unfortunately, I find it hard to get onto a trail on a regular basis during the week, as it is often dark by the time I get to run, so I save my trail runs for weekend experiences. Of course, we're only a few weeks from daylight savings time kicking in, so I'm hoping that will help my weekday runs more. Well, that and getting over this nasty case of shin splints I'm battling through. Ouch!

Mountain Zone Quickies

A couple of quick, but interesting articles, over at Mountain Zone today.

First up, we have another installment of Matt Hart's blog, which I talked about last week, in which he discusses the recently run Chuckanut 50 km ultra-marathon. Matt was a volunteer at the event, and has some interesting things to say about the race.

The second article of interest is from the Gear Junkie Blog, and offers up some advice and information on adventure bikes. For anyone who hasn't seen and adventure bike yet, it's kind of like a mountain bike on steroids. They have huge tires and are designed for serious off road racing, including through sand and other surfaces.

New Trail Running Site Opens

Team La Sportiva/GoLite, an adventure racing and mountain running team, has opened up an excellent new website with lots of information for trail runners, marathoners, ultra-marathoners, and aspiring newbie runners alike. The site, mountainrunningteam.com, contains information about the team, but also news about upcoming events, feature stories on races and training methods, and news from the running world, specifically from trail running.

As someone who is an avid trail runner, the new site looks nice, and I'll be looking forward to what they have to offer. Unfortunately, I've been hampered by severe shin splints over the past few months, and finally had to scale back my training dramatically in order to recover. I think I'm finally on the mend though, and hope to shift my training back the other direction starting this week. Anyone who has ever suffered shin splints will empathize with the pain from each step.

Matt Hart: Tales of Endurance Blog

Matt Hart is an endurance athlete and member of the DART adventure racing team. He is an experienced mountain biker, climber, and ultra-marathon runner as well, who recently left his job at Microsoft to pursue racing full time. Since then, he has opened his own blog that offers insights into his training, thoughts on adventure racing at more. At the moment, there aren't a ton of entries, but it should be fun to read as it develops over time. Good luck Matt!

Performance in Adventure Races

Checkpoint Zero has a really interesting article about what are the most important elements to consider when preparing for an Adventure Race. Basically, the article suggests that we focus too much on the conditioning aspects of preparing for a race, and forget about some other elements that are very crucial to successfully completing a race. For instance, navigation skills, working with a teammate, and general AR experience are all critical ingredients that can make or break a race.

I found this to be a thought provoking article. A racer can train and prepare all he or she wants, but we all know you can't survive in an expedition length race (or even 24-48 hour races) without your teammates, and having the skills necessary to paddle, peddle, or navigate your way through the course. Conditioning is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to making it to the finish line, but it's still a very important piece of that puzzle.

When training for an Adventure Race, you need to think about your conditioning while building those skills. You can have a great training session on the mountain bike, which not only provides a good cardio workout, but teaches you how to ride faster and more securely over rugged terrain. You can spend hours in the kayak and gain both much needed paddling skills, and endurance on the water. We don't often think about those things going hand in hand, but they do, and perhaps if we are more cognizant of that while we are training, we'll see how the elements mesh more.

Learning to navigate and work well with your team are two things that can only come through experience. If at all possible, train with your team whenever you can. You'll build a rapport, and soon find out if you are compatible or not. Head out to the woods for a navigation exercise in which all teammates participate, and learn to work together, find out who is a strong navigator, and who is better in other areas, and more importantly learn to trust one another. It'll save you a lot of headaches in the field later on, and will make for a more pleasureable racing experience for everyone involved.

Which brings me to the next point the article makes, experience. There is only one way to get experience in adventure racing, and this is by adventure racing. Do a few races. Start with the shorter sprints. Work your way up to the 24 hour, or longer, races. If things feel good, and you find yourself on a team that you get along well with, and one that consistently finishes these shorter races, then perhaps you are ready for a longer, expedition length race, such as Primal Quest.

It seems like this is the first of a series of articles aimed at preparing for a longer race, that will be coming over the next few weeks. I look forward to what the future installments will add, as this piece was thought provoking and insightful. With 2006 here, and a new Primal Quest coming in a few months, it's never to early to start preparing.