Running As Training For Hiking And Backpacking

​In this episode, we explore a few ideas around how a hiker or backpacker can use running as a part of their training for the trail.

Running Workouts FOr Hikers And Backpackers
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Episode Transcript:

All right. Hello, hello guys. Today we are talking all about running as training for your hiking and your backpacking. Now, before we get into it all, I want to make one thing really, really clear before I get ahead of myself, and that is running is 100% not essential for a hiker or a backpacker in their training. And if you don't enjoy running, if running doesn't agree with your body, or you're just not running at the moment, that is absolutely no stress at all. And you can get fit, strong, resilient for absolutely any trail, any mountain in the world, without doing a minute of running, it is 100% possible. But this episode is more tailored towards the people who do enjoy running, who are regularly running already, who are using it as part of their training, and they're just thinking of different ways they can use their running to help their time on the trail.

Alternatively, this can also be beneficial for people who might have parallel running goals alongside their hiking. So not only do they like to get out hiking, not only, maybe they're training to complete a big hike or a big expedition, but they might be training for a particular run, maybe their first 5Ks, maybe 10Ks, maybe half marathon or full marathon, maybe a trail run event or whatever it may be, it doesn't matter. But this episode is really centered for the people who already enjoy running, and to give you a few ideas around that.

Now, when it comes to running as training for your hiking and your backpacking, there are lots and lots and lots of different ways of going about it, and there's lots and lots of uses you can use it for. You can use it for long duration, low intensity training, and replacing some of your hiking or longer walking sessions to help develop that long duration endurance. You can use it as higher intensity interval training, where you might be running for quick 3, 4, 5 minutes at a time, or whatever it may be, to help expose the body to some of those higher intensities. You might be using it as hill running, where you might be just trying to develop muscular endurance and really getting a serious burn on the legs. And there's a whole bunch of different other things you can use running for.

But essentially what I'm going to do today is just talk you through a few of my favorites that I quite like for my hikers, who are interested in running and a few of the particular workouts, so we may slip it into a week or to a training program if a hiker is interested in using running. So with that all being said, let's start off with the first and foremost, super, super simple one and that is long duration, low intensity running. Now this running, it literally involves choosing a distance or a time. It might be 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, whatever it may be, going out, having a run at a low intensity and just running constantly.

Now this could be great for helping develop aerobic capacity, which is absolutely amazing and super, super beneficial for hikers and it is one of the most important, if not the most important aspect of fitness a hiker can have. And it basically involves just doing long periods of low intensity exercise. Now this is super, super simple, most hikers or most people who are running will instinctively lean towards this, because it's the simplest form of running and that's literally all you do, choose a distance, choose a time and go for it.

Now, two important things here that you do want to consider as a hiker if you are doing this particular workout, is number one is you want to be thinking about progressive overload with this. You don't just want to do five kilometers every single day or whatever it may be. Yeah, that may be beneficial, but it's not ideal. Essentially with this, the best way to progress this is just each week you do it, or two out of three weeks, you do it slowly increase a little bit of distance or a little bit of time. Even if it's only five extra minutes, even if it's only an extra 500 meters or 200 meters or whatever it may be each time you go out, with some sort of rest weeks every once in a while, that will be really, really beneficial. It'll slowly, slowly, slowly increase things.

Now, the second thing you want to be keeping top of your mind here as well is this ideally is going to be a relatively low intensity workout. Now, if you're new to running or if you're not a natural runner, chances are you might be really, really struggling with your running and it would never be low intensity. And that's fine if that's you, don't stress too much. Do what you can to keep it slow, but if you're huffing and puffing the whole way through, that might just be you and as opposed to training directly as a runner to try and improve your running, that might be just something you have to deal with. But if you have been running for a while you do have a bit of control around your pace and control around your intensity, if you can try to maintain a lower intensity for these and don't use it as a race, but do it as a nice, slow, long duration thing, that's probably going to be more beneficial. So option number one, low intensity, long duration, just casual running for a set period or time.

Now, option number two, one way to sort of spice these workouts out a little bit and add a little bit extra intensity is doing something called running with pickups. So essentially this is really, really, really simple. You basically, again, choose a particular distance or time, and let's just use 60 minutes as an example. And then during that time, you maintain a low intensity as long as you can. And then within that period, you just add in some little, little periods of a little bit quicker speed and a little bit quicker intensity. And it doesn't have to be an all out sprint, it doesn't have to get you absolutely huffing and puffing, but it just gets your heart rate going a little bit harder, it just get you breathing a little bit quicker. And it just adds this little bit extra challenge into your workouts.

So essentially what this would typically look like for a hiker, the way I like to do it with a hiker is say, they'll go out and run for 60 minutes. Now through those 60 minutes, one week, they might do 10 pickups, so 10 periods of 10 seconds at a time where they pick up to a bit of a quicker pace. And they're free reeling, they're going quite quickly, it's not an all out sprint, but they're going quite quick, to go for 10 seconds, and then they go back to their normal pace. And they go their normal pace for two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it may be, and then they do another pickup. And over the 60 minutes, they might fit in 10 of those pickups. Then the next week they do it, they might fit in 11, the next week they do it they might fit in 12, then the next week they do it, instead of doing 10 seconds, they might do 15 seconds, and you can progress it like that.

So instead of it being a super, super high intensity run for the entire duration, it's just those little periods. And that can often be enough just to spice things up, add a little extra challenge, and particularly if you have been doing those long duration, low intensity runs for a while, it can be a really, really good option.

Now, the next sort of workout as running that I quite like to use in different periods is, is using higher intensity intervals as running. Now in this podcast, have talked quite a bit about interval training for hikers and as a general overview, I quite like longer intervals. So not so much the really short, sharp things, but intervals that'll go for three minutes a time or four minutes a time, whatever it may be. And where you're sort of maintaining a quicker pace for a bit of a longer period of time.

Now, I personally find that so much more relevant to hiking, physiologically it's much more relevant to hiking, and I think it's a much better approach to your interval training and you can do this with your running. So you might do a few weeks of three minutes really quick running, 90 seconds walking and repeat that. Then you might go up to four minutes really quick and two minutes of walking, then five minutes, then six minutes and seven and eight and yada yada yada. And you can keep on building up like that for quite a while. And what you're doing here is you're really challenging the pace a little bit more. It doesn't have to be an all out sprint again, but it does get you quite huffed and puffed, and it's just giving you exposure to those higher intensities, which can be beneficial, if you do it in this longer interval way. So that's a really, really fantastic way of using your running.

Another option is if you are looking to develop muscular endurance, so the ability of your legs to produce  force again and again and again and again, particularly if you are going towards some elevation hiking and you do typically get burny legs, you can do hill runs or hill sprints. And essentially you find yourself a nice steep hill or a steep, steep set of stairs, and then you just run up and down it. And you'll try to aim for something that will take you maybe a minute or more, two minutes or more if possible, and just slowly chug up there. As you get comfortable with it, then you can go a bit quicker, a bit quicker, a bit quicker, you can add more repetitions and this can be a really, really good way of adding in a little bit extra elevation training and you can get a lot of work done in a short amount of time, so it's going to be really good fun.

Now for someone who is a very, very experienced runner, they might be quite happy running, quite happy running at higher speeds, you can even turn these into proper sprints. And you might sprint for 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds up a really steep hill, and then walk for two or three minutes or whatever it may be, and do that a number of times and that can be a really good workout in itself as well. But I'd only recommend that for someone who is experienced running and someone who's used to running at some quickest speeds, because just sprinting for the sake of it, as a hiker who may not be used to it, it's probably not an amazing idea.

And then the final thing I want to talk about today in regards to running as training for your hiking, is if you've been running for a while, maybe running around the neighborhood, you run around the local streets or whatever, it may be, a really cool way of applying this into your hiking is if you start doing a little bit of off road running and shifting towards the trail running side of things.

Now, the beautiful thing about the trail running is, number one, you're sort of out in these nice areas, like with your hiking, but if you are using it for training, you do get exposed to that sort of uneven, undulating and unpredictable trail that you do get when you're hiking, and it'll help the body adapt to that. It can be really good for building up ankle resilience, obviously, if you can do it in a safe and progressive way, it can be really good at getting you used to where the few more instable sections of the trail and proving your balance and it can be a really, really good addition. And if you have been running for awhile, can be a nice thing to step into.

Now, if you're in the situation where you're like, okay, I've been running around the streets for a while, but I don't think I'm quite ready to do a trail, a really simple way of going about this is, you can literally round your local streets instead of running on the footpath or on the road, you can just run to the side, on the grass. So you're going along the grass, the driveway, the grass, the driveway, go up and down and yada yada yada. And this can be a nice little middle ground between the two and give you that exposure to some more uneven terrain, and then give you the confidence you need to sort of step into the trails. And that can be a really, really good option. But saying that, there probably are another two dozen different things you can do, or probably even more than that, in regards to using running as training for your hiking. But for the way that I go about it with my runners or my hikers who enjoy running, I should say, they're some of my favorite workouts there.

Now, to wrap things up, I will absolutely say if you are training for hiking and backpacking, and you do enjoy running, absolutely include it, but please don't let that be at the expense of all the other things we do talk about on the podcast. Make sure you still are getting some hiking in, make sure you still are doing some loaded pack walking at some stage, make sure you are still doing your strength training, make sure you are just getting used to that type of movement as well, because running can be a great addition, but it really shouldn't be the whole program when it comes down to it.

So hopefully, that does give you a few decent ideas and a few interesting ideas around using your running as training for hiking. It doesn't all have to be the same thing, it doesn't all have to be just going out and doing 5Ks or whatever it may be, but there are lots of different things you can do to fit it into your training. Now, if you were looking for a few extra ideas around this, if you're wanting a few more other workouts or want to explore these a little bit more than I've been talking about, as I always say on this podcast, I would absolutely love if you come and find me on the Training for Hiking and Trekking pump Facebook group. Now inside that group, I'm always happy to expand on these ideas, I'm always happy to give extra workouts, give advice and whatever it may be. So if you were wanting a little extra ideas around this come and find it, the Training for Hiking and Trekking Facebook group, I'll leave a link in the show notes below.

But I really do hope you've enjoyed today's episode, I hope you have gotten a little bit out of it. And if you are a runner who's training for your hiking, hopefully this can give you a few good ideas. So thank you very much for listening and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

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