This summer, Brendan and I will be completing over 1,200km / 750mi to hike the top 8 multi-day hikes in Europe. We’ll be doing this as part of our 2024 Trail Updates program, as well as launching new hikes onto The Hiking Club platform. Sounds exciting, right? But, if I’m honest, also a little daunting. When it’s not hiking season in the Alps, I live at sea level and don’t have mountains on my doorstep. Not the best environment to get my body mountain fit!
Luckily, we have Stacey Hardin in our corner. Stacey is the Founder of Pique to Peak, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and Athletic Trainer. We worked with Stacey to develop our 3-month training plan. A training plan that helps people like us, build the endurance and strength to complete a multi-day hike in the Alps.
The aim of this training diary is to keep us accountable, share our progress and hopefully motivate you to start or continue training for your next epic hiking journey. We’ll be using the 3-month training template to develop our own training plan based on improving our performance through a combination of step endurance, cardio, and strength activities. Enjoy!
Oh, and if you’re interested in which 8 legendary hikes we’ll be doing (while keeping The Hiking Club propelling forward), here they are: Tour du Mont Blanc, Alta Via 1 Dolomites, Walker’s Haute Route, Bernese Oberland Traverse, Tour of Monte Rosa, and a few we’ll keep on the downlow :P
susan’s WEEK 1: creating my training plan
(Sunday 18 February > Saturday 24 February)
The first hike that I’ll be tackling is the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites. The trail is 120km / 75mi, 7,400m / 24,00ft in elevation gain, and I’m hoping to complete it in 5 days.
One of the first pieces of information the training template needs to calculate how long it will take me to prepare for this trail distance is my current weekly step count. Luckily, I wear my Apple Watch everyday so I can easily check last week’s count - 85,000 steps.
Based on the above information, it shows it will take me 12 weeks to work my step count to the hike distance of 120km / 75 mi. (See how the right column turns green at week 12 when my step gap to readiness goal is met).
Based on last week’s step count and the trail stats for Alta Via 1 Dolomites, the training plan shows it will take me 12 weeks to build up the endurance to complete the trail in 5 days.
The next step is creating my week 1 training plan. This week is a little bit different from normal as I have an aquathon race on Friday so I’ll plan my week around that. I’ve decided to start the week strong with a rest day (the key to every good training plan!) and then attempt 3x runs, 2x swims, yoga and a strength session. A good mix of strength, cardio and step endurance.
Here’s what my week 1 plan looks like:
My week 1 training plan using the training template from the 3 Month Training Program.
I’ll report back on progress over the next few months. Wish me luck!