Planning Training Hikes [For A Big Trip]

Today, I want to share a simple (but very effective!) method of planning training hikes when leading into a big adventure.​

Which, if applied, can be hugely beneficial for reducing the risk of aches and pains creeping up during your training and ensuring you feel confident before you start your adventure.

This post was inspired by a question in the Training For Hiking And Trekking Group, which was asking something along the lines of:

"I have a big hiking trip coming up in 12 weeks. Any recommendations on frequency, elevation gains, hikes length working up to being ready in 12 weeks' time?"

And the answer I gave might be relevant to many hikers out there - so I have decided to share it with you today.

"A lot of the specifics are really going to come down to your individual circumstances.  

(And hiking plans will change dramatically from person to person based on their current fitness, injury history,  confidence, current weather and time availability).  

But to give you a rough guide on how you might figure this out for yourself, this is a process I typically recommend:  

Step One:

To start with, you need to figure out these things:  

• How long in hours is your longest day on the trail going to be?
  
  
• What is the heaviest weight your pack will be on the adventure?
  
  
• Between now and your fly-out date - how often do you think you will be able to hike? (Pencil these dates in a calendar)  
  
  
• *An optional 4th (if you want to add another metric into the equation) is 'What is the biggest elevation gain you expect to do in one day?  
  
  

Step Two:

Two weeks before you fly out, you want to pencil in a hike that hits the equivalent of your longest day in hours + your heaviest pack weight (if you are using elevation targets, you want to factor that in here, too)

Step Three:

Once you have the longest day planned out, you want to work backwards in your calendar (of the dates you pencilled in, you can hike) and schedule in hikes, ensuring a slow build-up in time and pack weight  

In the perfect world, we want to come up with a plan which:  

• Starts at a time + pack weight that you are confident in doing right now (which won't get you exhausted)
  
  
• Have a slow and steady build over the weeks with no dramatic jump up distances in hiking time and pack weight.
  
  
• Ideally, each time you hike, ensure you are only increasing either hiking time or pack weight (not both) - this isn't always possible, but it is ideal.  
  
  

It can take a bit of trial and error to figure this out, and these plans will usually change over the weeks due to weather/scheduling/sickness, etc., but taking the time to structure things out like this can go a long way toward ensuring your fitness is ready before you go AND reducing the risk of pain and injury (which is all too common when we ramp up our hiking targets too quickly)."

==

The process described above is not the only way of planning your training hikes.

But I have found it a simple and effective method that has enough flexibility to work around most people's individual circumstances (e.g. time availability, access to hiking trails, etc.).

So, if you have a big trip and still need to plan your training hikes, give this a go!

And if you need extra help with your preparations, you can check out the Online Summit Program here:

https://www.summitstrength.com.au/online.html

Yours in trekking,  ​

Rowan