How I Train For The Mountains: My (Personal Only) Dos and Don'ts For Hiking and Mountaineering
- IndurTeam
- Mar 26, 2024
- 7 min read
A trip to the mountains is an incredibly rewarding experience but a good camera and the perfect clothes (look no further!) and gear are not all there is to this, even when the clothes are as good as ours 😊 …
Behind the scenes, getting physically and mentally ready for whichever degree of challenge you have decided to undertake will make a difference between a good experience and, potentially, a dangerous one.
In order to acquire the necessary technical skills and make it to the summit, the needed physical training will take weeks (or months) of your time, and it’s a “must” which cannot be skipped.
This, of course, is not intended as a detailed plan to fit everyone – although I do have one that is fairly detailed for my own goals! Your training does need to be customized to what you are trying to achieve, your personal experience and the fitness you have already built throughout your journey.
Before we start, here is a HUGE BIG DISCLAIMER: Please please seek personal training and medical advice if needed. I am not a personal trainer and what you are about to read is just my personal experience. Please, do not try to replicate it without professional advice.
So, without any further ado, here is what I do (and what I definitely do not) when I am training for the mountains…I hope you can find something here that will be interesting, and ask questions if you have any! You know where to find us…
1. How fit are you?
How are you feeling and what your medical history is, will very likely determine both your initial goal and the way you’ll go about your training. Fitness improves with training, so this is a very good way to go about things…
This might seem obvious, but please do not underestimate the importance of being both determined and realistic, and of obtaining a medical evaluation if and when required. You need, need, need to know beforehand which level of fitness is required to complete your next adventure. ‘By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail…’ – Extra point if you can tell us who said this!
2. What is your goal?
First things first: once I know where I am both physically and mentally, I decide what my goal is.
What am I trying to achieve, but also, why have I made the choice in the first place? How much time do I have to train for it? Once I have answered all these questions, I split my time into 3 different phases. Keep on reading…
3. Phase 1: A tight weekly routine
Build a good weekly routine which contains:
o 1x Lower Body Strength day – This is key in the lead-up to Phase 2 and helps with developing (and maintaining if you are already a bit of a pro!) strong joints/ligaments/tendons, which are regularly under stress when running and/or creating movement patterns relevant to the event. This in turn could mean you have a lesser chance of niggly injuries in the future.
o 1 x "Off your feet" aerobic conditioning day (such as biking).
o A series of knee, ankle and hip-focused days (mainly hit through single leg work) – I tend to complete 1 specific day on this and then factor my strength days around similar movements but include a heavier load with fewer repetitions.
o Upper Body Strength day - I complete 1 day of Upper Body Strength which consists of a horizontal and vertical press and pull motion but also includes 2 other exercises that are more focused on smaller muscle groups.
o Hypertrophy day (to gain size and strength) – My last day of the week! This is not my main focus and it won’t affect my hike/event too much. This is more of a “feel good” session which I know I will leave feeling “pumped” and less fatigued (than the other days…). We all need ‘feel-good’ days, right?
4. Phase 2: When things become more specific…
This is when I add an indoor intervals run day to my Lower Body Strength day – At the gym, on the treadmill, I can experience the conditions I’ll be expecting from the event, but the treadmill creates a less “dangerous” place where to begin running training, which is needed as this is the first run of the training block. All risks are lessened and I can be cautious to start with.
I do this to help replicate the spike in heart rate that occurs on the hill climb and then use the slower parts of the run to teach my body to recover faster and reduce heart rate faster. As I progress through my training, the incline of the treadmill is increased to make this more and more like the real deal in the mountains and to make sure the muscles I know I will need on the day are trained progressively.
I then continue with the same program but make the exercise slightly more specific... Ankle, hip and knee days now become more relevant to the situations that my hike/climb will throw at me.
The 2 upper body days in this block will remain and be used to…Well...Keep my sanity, quite frankly!
A robotic approach when training for the mountains can be tempting, but also very repetitive and, therefore, boring: Keeping 2 upper body sessions helps the mind remain focused on the goal whilst also letting the lower body recover over these 2 days.
5. Phase 3: Knee, ankle and hip strength and a ‘good run’ in between
During the third (and last) phase, I aim at a program which allows me to move all the knee, ankle and hip strength work into various sessions.
I’ll then turn my ‘spare day’ into a ‘long run’ day. The key here is working at a pace at which I can keep my heart rate in the aerobic working zone for the whole time.
If you are only just starting (and unless you love your research) you might not yet know that your aerobic heart rate zone is between 70-80% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). A great way to gauge this if you don’t have a watch is to consider that, whilst you’re working out, you should be able to have a conversation without having to catch your breath. This step is where I can achieve the most when it comes to developing my aerobic capacity.
I will now add 2km per week to my runs and build up to a certain distance per each event – for my May goal to take on the Welsh 3000s under 10 hours, for example, I will undergo this specific training for 16 weeks, but the runs will vary throughout, and build up to a “Halfway event” on week 8 (which, this time around, took the form of a marathon). The following week I will reduce the distance to 20km, then build back up so I then peak again after another 8 weeks. The week before the event my runs will be no more than 10km but I will be aiming to keep the same pace.
The interval days will then begin with some single leg strength work, followed by several continuous lunges to replicate the accent of the mountain/s and continue straight into intervals on the treadmill that will also be inclined. Each week the incline and speed will be manipulated to gain progressive overload.
My progression is planned based on how I feel, so each week I will score the training out of 10 and then adapt the training depending on the score. In the intervals, I expect to be working anywhere between 8-9. This also ends 1 week clear of the event, where I will complete lighter intervals but on a bike instead, to reduce impact on the joints leading up to ‘The Day’.
6. The importance of ‘Event Days’
I do feel I need to test my theory and mountaineering is an endurance event, so… During this last phase, I will plan for 2-3 "event days" where training is less intense but I replicate the conditions of the event itself (i.e. I will run the Yorkshire Three Peaks at the same pace I am planning to run the Welsh 3000s). This way, I can see where I am with my training…
I have to say I am also a believer in cold water to improve mental fitness: I replicate times when it’s tough going and it helps me remember that, if I just sit it out, the pain always comes to an end. Sounds harsh, but it’s key to believing I can complete these feats!
Altitude-Changes Prep:
Well, this is definitely one to consider when climbing the highest peaks. I personally don’t work much on this though, as my body deals with it well at the current heights I climb. Don’t forget to research though! It really can make a difference, depending on the adventure you are planning and your fitness level at the time of the event. No two people are the same.
My Typical Timeline:
This type of training usually happens (for me) over 24 weeks (x3 blocks of 8 weeks)
Recovery:
We all need breaks, and I take mine on Saturday (and Sunday if I have no time for a hike – sometimes…)
To conclude…Cardio workouts, interval sessions, strength and endurance and hiking days are all part of my personal way of training for the mountains (please do not forget the BIG HUGE DISCLAIMER at the beginning of this article! Seek professional advice before you start training). I would have to add Balance and Flexibility training, but, with a background in gymnastics, bad balance would be a bit tricky in my case…Why do I do this? Because I love the mountains, I love feeling ready to explore them and fit enough to take on harder challenges. It’s good for both my physical and mental health and, in a nutshell, it makes me HAPPY!
How do you train for the mountains? Let us know, send us a message, get in touch!
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