How Mark Overcame Ankle Pain While Hiking And Posted A Fastest Known Time

Learn how he used the Online Summit Program to overcome knee and ankle pain while hiking, and successfully post a Fastest Known Time on a 130 mile hiking trail.

Training For A Speed Hiking Challenge

Mark approached Summit Strength with a big hiking goal. He wanted to post a 'Fastest Known Time' on a 130-mile hiking trail. Initially, he wanted to hike 26 miles a day (equivalent to a marathon a day), entirely unsupported for five days.

But in preparing for this, he knew he needed to overcome recurring ankle and knee pain while hiking, work on his balance and improve his overall endurance to hike longer days.

Initially, in his Ready To Trek Assessment, there were a few areas identified which we needed to work on:

• He had very tight ankles and calves
• He had some room to improve on when it came to single leg quadriceps strength
• He had a slight deficiency in single leg proprioception (balance)

During the training process, we utilised a number of different workouts and methods to best prepare Mark for this adventure:

• We tailored specific home strength workouts to work on his weaknesses (when he didn't have access to a gym)
  
• We helped structure the stair workouts he was doing, and progressed them to loaded hill intervals over time
  
• We exposed his body (and ankle) to progressively heavier loads with regular loaded pack walking around his neighbourhood
• We ensured his joints were moving happily and freely, with some very targeted mobility and stretching work

During the process, there were a few ups and downs. Occasionally Mark would report that an exercise was not 100% comfortable on his ankle, or he was not sure he was doing it right. So during those times we stayed adaptable, and substituted other alternative exercises which suited him better.

Another area we put some big focus in, was ensuring he was getting enough, and the right nutrition during his hiking. Early on in the process Mark reported he was feeling quite fatigued on his longer hiking days. But when we looked into what he was eating, we realised it was no where near enough! So we tailored some nutrition recommendations to ensure he had enough fuel to not only survive, but perform at his best throughout a long and challenging day of hiking.

In the end, Mark accomplished his goal in a total of 3d 18h 53m 34s. This was an entire day faster than his initial goal of 5 days, and ended up totally over 30 miles a day! And he officially now holds the Fasted Known Time for the Dam To Dam hike, in the unsupported category.

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