Building an Adventure Racing Training Schedule

Among the first questions you will have as you pursue adventure racing is "How do I train for the sport?" Because adventure racing often involves four or more disciplines, the training can initially appear daunting. So let's look at a few considerations and see if we can't make the training process manageable.

Training Hours per Week	Race Type
5-10	Sprint
10-15	Stage
15-20	Weekender
20+	Expedition

• Navigation: You probably can not spend too much time learning land navigation. Start by reading some books, then look for some local instruction at an outdoor retail store or university. Finally hook up with the nearest orienteering club and compete in as many local events and R.O.G.A.I.N.E.s (Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance) as possible.
• Mountain Biking: If you've never ridden on dirt before, try some day-long clinics or books and videos that can provide some valuable insights and perhaps lessen your number of "endo's." Once you have the basics, the key is putting hours in the saddle and riding progressively more technical trails.
• Ropes: Most races have some sort of ropes and may include rappelling, traversing or ascending. If you have no experience, it will take you the better part of a day to become familiar with the equipment, figure out what type of setup you want to use and establish an initial comfort level. Ascending proficiency will take the most work and should be practiced at least three times before a race. Unfortunately for those who suffer from it, a fear of heights it will probably never go away, but if you practice consistently you will become more comfortable on ropes. It is recommend that you get local qualified instruction for your ropes training.
• Flat water and Ocean paddling: Most people can easily pick up canoe or kayak paddling. However, learning the finer points of paddling will add efficiency over the typically long distances covered in adventure racing. We recommend doing some reading and if available, get a half-day or so of instruction. Ocean kayaking can present unique challenges when moving through the surf zone and if especially if you are in big water. If you are not on a coast, you will want to get to an ocean and practice in big surf conditions. Again, a half day or so of professional instruction is recommended.
• Whitewater: The whitewater legs of races are fun, especially if you stay in the boat. Depending on the race, you may encounter whitewater in either a canoe, kayak or raft. Since whitewater training can be time consuming, we recommend allowing the race to dictate which discipline you get training in first. The nice thing is that the basic principles of whitewater do not change appreciably from craft to craft. Rafting is probably the easiest to get a handle on and a couple of weekends spent getting professional training will go a long way toward keeping you and your teammates safe while on the water.
• Horseback Riding: Horses always provide excitement in an adventure race because it introduces an animal component into the mix. The key is to spend as much time as it takes for you to get comfortable on a horse. While the finer nuances of riding can be worked on with instruction, if you do not feel comfortable on a horse, the horse will figure it out and give you a more exciting ride than you want. Our general recommendation is two to three hours of horseback riding before each race that has this discipline.

A great way to receive skill training in a packaged, adventure race specific format is to attend an adventure racing camp. We have a very complete list of camps from which you can choose. Regardless, skills training can take up to half your training schedule until you achieve a comfortable proficiency level.

Endurance Training

Your athletic background and fitness level will determine your start point for endurance training, but regardless of where you start, you will end up in great endurance shape. The backbone of your endurance regimen falls into three main categories: running/hiking, biking and paddling.

Running/Hiking: This is generally the easiest, most convenient and least equipment intensive way to build your endurance. We recommend getting away from concrete and hit the trails whenever possible. This is because most adventure races are in a wilderness setting and your joints and legs will take less abuse on trails. (See our article on trail running). Once you have a good base, you should start adding weight for selected runs and even load up a good size pack and do some long distance hiking. During those hikes you will want to practice using trekking poles as they will decrease leg fatigue.

Biking: Biking is another common element of adventure racing and spending a good deal of time in the saddle will enhance your adventure racing experience. To build a strong biking endurance base we recommend road riding. For technical training and a change of scenery, hit the dirt and get comfortable with the challenges of mountain biking. If you only have the resources to buy one bike, then go with as high a quality mountain bike as you can afford.

Paddling: Paddling is often the most inconvenient and equipment intensive of the three endurance activities, but is no less important than the biking and running. If you have the ocean out your door, then take advantage of it. Realistically though, because we don't typically have a canoe or kayak sitting in our garage and a river or lake in our backyard, paddling often gets short changed. With that in mind, plan your paddling carefully and maximize the time you spend in the boat per training session.

How do you put all these elements together in a comprhensive program? As a general rule of thumb, plan to spend about 40% of your time running, 40% biking and 20% of your time paddling. Plan on doing one "long day" on a weekly basis and perhaps some speed work once a week. The other four days should be moderate intensity and you should try to have one rest day per week, or one day in which you do low exertion skills training. The particulars of periodisation and more detailed training techniques will be discussed in other articles.

Now integrate your skills training with your endurance training by modifying the table used earlier and adding one more layer of detail:

Total Training Hours per week	Skills Training Hours per week	Endurance Training Hours per week	Race Type
5-10	2	2-4 Running 2-4 Biking 1-2 Paddling	Sprint
10-15	3	3-5 Running 3-5 Biking 2-4 Paddling	Stage
15-20	4	4-6 Running 4-6 Biking 3-5 Paddling	Weekender
20+	5	5-7 Running 5-7 Biking 4-6 Paddling	Expedition

Use these numbers as guidelines. Some weeks you may be weighted more toward one area. It is always a good idea to work most on your weak areas. Once the basic skills are learned, you can spend more time building your endurance. For those of you who are more mileage oriented, you can convert the time guidelines into miles according to your pace. The reason we delineate training by time is that you want to condition your body to doing an activity for long periods of time. When you do this, the mileage becomes irrelevant. Also it can be difficult to measure mileage on trails or on the water, so time measurement is more convenient for adventure racing.

As you can see, adventure racing is a time intensive endeavor. In future articles we will delve into more specific training techniques, but for now, get used to putting in the training hours. Once you achieve that objective, we can look at further refining your training efforts.

rations. The location of emergency team gear should be known by all team members.

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