Upgrade Your Training Hikes (2 Tips)

In the first of a 5-part mini-series, this episode covers two simple (but effective) tips to 'upgrade' your training hikes, to best help your hiking adventures.

This week, we are looking for hikers to join our signature program, The Online Summit Program.

If you have a big adventure in your sights this year, or you want to get on top of an ache or pain that is holding back your hiking, or you want to be in the best position for your regular hiking for 2025, I would love to chat with you.

To find out more, email [email protected] with the words "let's chat".

From there, we can find a time to hop on a call together, where we can get to know each other; we can chat about your goals and situation and see if and how one of our options may be right for you.

==

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So this week we are going to be doing something a little bit different. What I am planning over the next five days is I'm going to be releasing five very short episodes all around upgrading different areas of your training and different areas of your hiking. And each day I'm going to be sharing two simple tips that you can apply, which can upgrade an aspect of your preparations. And we'll be covering hiking, cardio, strength, recovery, and mindset over these next five days. So at the end of this week, you should have 10 simple tips, which if you apply can make a big, big, big difference. Now, these are going to be short and sharp episodes, but hopefully they'll be so digestible that you can put things into action right away and really get the best benefits from it.

[0:53] So today we are talking about upgrading your hiking and this is specifically talking about upgrading your training hikes which you can then apply when you're actually out on your adventures. I'm going to be sharing two simple tips. Now tip number one to upgrade your hiking is practice pacing. Now one thing that I realize a lot of hikers are really not so good at is varying their pace and controlling their pace and being aware of different speeds that they can sustain for different periods of time. And I know a lot of hikers out there tend to only have a couple of paces. They have slow and they have quick, whether that's on the flat, slow and quick, or on inclines, slow and quick. And they don't really have anything in between.

[1:39] One really, really, really simple thing you can do to help with your hiking is practice different levels of pacing. So you can get used to pulling back your pace in certain situations. You can get used to pushing your pace in certain situations and learn the different speeds you can actually apply on the trail. So the simplest place to start with this is practicing your slower pacing, both on the flat and also with ascents. Simple place to look at this is nose breathing breathing in and out through your nose can you sustain this on the flat you probably can can you sustain this on inclines a lot of people can't actually do this they don't have the particular pace necessary to really really sustain this so just learning the skill of pulling back your speed being a bit more gradual is very very very effective then on top of that then you can start thinking about okay what's the next level what else can I practice? The next level is getting yourself to a stage where you're a little bit out of breath, but you can kind of sustain it for a long period of time. So it's not a case of getting out of breath and it gets worse and worse and worse and worse, but getting a bit out of breath and being able to sustain that for three minutes or four minutes or five minutes. So again, you can practice this on the flat and also practice this on the inclines. On the flat, push the pace for maybe three minutes. Get to this stage where you're kind of getting a bit out of breath, but it's not really getting outrageous.

[3:03] On your inclines, practice this. Find a nice long incline. Practice pushing a little bit quicker to the stage where you can maintain this for three or four minutes that you don't have to stop and you feel like it's steady breathing, even if it's quicker breathing, but it's still steady.

[3:18] And then finally, practice just going really, really quick. Every once in a while, practice, okay, I've got to heal. See how quick I can go and get that feeling of, okay, if I really need to push this, what can I actually achieve.

[3:30] Simply just going through these different paces, getting this awareness of different speeds you can go, it's such a powerful thing. And I think it's such a simple thing you can apply in your training hikes,

[3:39] which can make a really quick difference. So that's tip number one, practice pacing. Now, tip number two is practice fueling. In the sense of so many hikers out there, they just under eat on the trail, they under fuel, and this impacts their energy and their fatigue levels. And yes, you can probably get through any hike you want eating the bare minimum. So many people do. But if you really want to look after your energy, if you really want to look after your fatigue levels, fueling is so, so, so important. Generally, what I recommend to hikers as a simple rule of thumb is try to have a bite or two of something every hour or so. It's not a full snack. It's not like you're having a full muesli bar or a full sandwich every hour, but just having a bite or two of something as you go along this in itself it is a practiced skill to remind yourself to do it to get in that habit of just grazing along and then in between when you actually sit down for your meals you can have something a bit more substantial, but one thing i really really recommend.

[4:38] Is practice this during your training hikes. Get in the habit of doing this and trying this out and remembering to do it. Learn what snacks kind of work for you, what's convenient to have in your hip belt, what doesn't work, what don't you enjoy snacking on after a long day of trail or whatever it may be, and practice it. So when you actually get out to your big adventures, when you get out to your big hikes, you will remember to do this. It'll be second nature. You will know what snacks work for you on all of this. So two super simple tips. They may sound very, very simple, but I promise you, if you put them into action, they can make a really, really big difference. Practice your pacing, practice those different levels of intensity on the trail and practice your fueling and getting that habit of doing it. And I promise you, it'll make a big, big, big difference.

[5:22] So that'll probably do that for today's episode. Last thing I will sort of say before I wrap things up, is this week you may see through my newsletter, through my videos, through a bunch of different areas, is I am doing a big promotion around our online personal training service, the Online Summit Program. Now, what I am doing is I am looking for people to come on board and specifically looking for hikers who want to get fit, strong, and resilient so they can get out and conquer every adventure. Now, if you're in a position right now at this time of year and you're like, you know what? I have a big trip coming up this year and I want a little bit of help. Or I've got an ache and pain, which I've been struggling with, it's been holding me back and I want to get on top of this or you know what, the hiking season's coming around.

[6:04] Summer's coming around or the snow's about to clear and I want to be in the best possible position to attack that and be in a really, really good spot, then I would love to chat with you about things. If you want to find out a little bit more about this program and see if it may be right for you, what I'd like you to do is send me an email to rowan at summitstrength.com.au that's r-o-w-a-n at summitstrength.com.au just send me the words let's chat from there we can find a time to hop on a call we can get to know each other we can have a thorough chat learn about you your situation your needs what you're going on and i can talk you through our training and how it all works and we can see if and how it may be right for you so if you want to find out more send me an email to rowan at summitstrength.com.au with the words let's chat and we can take it from there so with that being said thanks for listening to today's quick episode tomorrow we're going to be coming up with episode number two of this little mini series with another two tips you can apply to help with your training and your hiking.