Walking on pavement is requisite, but it’s only a small piece of the training puzzle

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what the physical training looks like for what is known as the “toughest adventure race on Earth”, the Red Bull X-Alps. As it says on the X-Alps website:  It’s a bold claim – but one it surely deserves. It’s difficult to think of another race that demands such a high level of fitness and technical skill – or lasts so long. The combination of trekking and paragliding is one of the most exciting hybrids to emerge from the ongoing convergence of mountain sports.

The rules are simple. Athletes must race across the Alps, by foot or paraglider via set Turnpoints, usually a straight-line distance of over 1,000km. Over the years, the race has attracted and tested to the limit some of the world’s top adventurers. It demands not only expert paragliding skill but extreme endurance. Some athletes will hike over 100km and 1000’s of meters in altitude in a day.

So how do you prep for such a sufferfest? I have the same team going into the 2017 race as I did in 2015, Ben Abruzzo and Bruce Marks. Ben (the SnowGoat.com) handles all my physical training and runs my ground game during the race (Bruce Marks runs my air game). Every week he writes exactly what I’m supposed to do in a google docs sheet. My job is to do the work. His motto is “do more, talk less.” Every step I take and every heart beat is recorded with my Garmin Fenix watch and HR monitor, which is automatically uploaded to the Garmin Connect interface, which Ben monitors. In general each month is divided into three weeks of increasing intensity and then a “deload” week which allows the body to recover and heal. To be sure a “deload” week is still very intense, especially compared what most people are probably used to, but is considerably below the load of the previous three weeks.

1 of 9 stations that I call “my hell workout”

The serious training began October 1st, which gives us 9 months to fully prepare. At the beginning of every week I get an update from Ben on what the week will look like. This week here’s what Ben had to say (edited as he likes to call me nasty names!):

Next week is up. Was going to start an intensive 4-5 week interval phase but backed it off slightly to compensate for the fast (I’m doing a 72 hour fast as I write this compliments of Tim Ferriss’ recommendations is “Tools of Titans“- testing some Ketogenic diet methods).  At the tail end of the week is a bigger day on Durance (3,000 vertical foot mountain behind my house that is my go-to training hill for vertical).  Expect to start seeing those at least weekly and soon enough 2 times per week.  Next 4-5 weeks generally will be 2ish interval workouts preferably done on snow, 1 interval workout in the gym, 2 strength workouts, 1 shorter aerobic workout and 1 long ass day on skis.  In a few of those weeks I’ll cycle in the 2 long days and cut one of the interval workouts.  This is the intensity phase so make sure you apply proper gut busting effort. The work you have been doing in the gym is going to pay dividends and will be worth it.  

Every month gets harder than the last by a pretty considerable load until about the middle of June, when the taper starts before the race, which begins July 2nd. To hear more about all of this and Ben’s theories on why he makes me do what I do and when listen to this podcast, which we recorded after the race. In the 2015 race I did 12 1/2 marathons in 10 days and 4 hours  and climbed the height of Everest 5 times. These are pretty ludicrous numbers and depending on the flying weather, about what we can all expect.

Row row row. And then row some more.

Many people have asked “why a trainer?” It would be easy to think you can prepare for a race like the X-Alps on your own, and in fact most of the athletes do. The problem with doing it on your own is you don’t have any accountability. If you’re like me you will train too much/ do the wrong things and have a high risk of injury. Or you train too little/ do the wrong things and you won’t be ready. There are actually too many reasons to list, but take a look at this week I just had a couple paragraphs down. Don’t just glance at it- read it and it will become obvious. The X-Alps gets faster and faster every edition. The athletes and the teams are getting more and more professional. But in my opinion at least half of the field that will be on the starting line July 2nd will not be properly prepared. They might be able to run absurd distances, but the pack weight and vertical demands will eventually take their toll. The race has an 11% finish rate for a reason. The trick is to prepare correctly. The race is not an ultrathon, or even a series of ultras. If you go out and run absurd distances on a weekly basis and expect that to do the trick the race will break you. Jon Chambers’ book “Hanging in There” and his supporter Tom Payne (who raced in 2009) both document in the book how they screwed this up and how it hurt them in the race.

Every workout I do is preceded by a Romwod routine, which is typically 20-40 minutes. This is a paid subscription that basically takes you through a few very long hold stretches that helps athletes boost performance and optimize range of motion. We do it so I become more unbreakable. And then every workout is followed with a 10-15 minute mobilization session (5th column in the graph below) built from the teachings and practices of Kelly Starrett’s book “the Supple Leopard.” Mobilization greatly speeds recovery and keeps my tendons and ligaments be more supple- again to help make me more unbreakable, and better able to handle the next days workout. At least 4 days a week I do an immediate hot/cold regimen after the mobility session also taken from Tim Ferriss’ “Tools of Titans” (p. 43) to boost my immune system and increase the lactic acid dump. This is approximately 20 minutes in the sauna, followed by a 5-10 minute cold shower (or this time of year just standing outside until I’m shaking) and repeat at least twice.

Here was a recent week of training. Second column is the main workout, third column is additional, 5th column is that days mobility session and finally my comments on how it went. This week was about 16 hours of training (does not include romwod or mobilization). This will increase to 35-40 hours by April and May and early June.

So that’s a look at a week. And now it’s time to get back to the gym. The race is less than six months away, things are getting serious!

To read more about my nutrition plan (things like Cricket Protein!), using magnesium creams for BIG days, eating hormonally “correct” and a lot more, see my recent article here.