Training

Planning an expedition like this is all very well, and takes one hell of a lot of time however the biggest time input for an expedition has to be the training taken to get ourselves into a state of physical and mental prowess to complete the objective.

When on expeditions you hear many stories of team members coming back having lost one hell of a lot of weight. Now its all very well saying that eating properly is the cure to this, however even with our specially prepared diet we are doing a lightweight expedition and therefore cannot have all the dependencies of some expeditions. The other factor that comes into play is altitude and cold. Altitude and the cold effects the body (Alek will explain how?- Alek says: "Wikipedia I chose you!") and leaves it in a state where it does not recover as quickly as you would down on a nice warm beach in America- or anywhere else (why didn't we decide to go sports climbing instead- maybe because glaciers are cooler?). So this slower state of recovery plus a limited diet could lead to muscle loss through the expedition. Now muscle loss is not what we are wanting when we are doing an activity such as this, which relies on so much muscle power so the only way to lessen the affect is to bulk up before embarking.

Both mine and Alek's training plans will be different due to situation, however we will both need to complete them to the maximum, and above, to see the greatest results.

What should an expedition training plan include?

So calling this expedition a climbing expedition is a bit perverse- though if we go there and sit at the bottom of the face it would be even more so. Why is this? Well we have 100km walking just to get in and out to base camp, followed by scouting the area, also involving walking, followed by the walk up to the face, and back once off the mountain. So technically, if we end up just completing the one route say, that's about 2km of climbing that's about 2/120km of the whole expedition, also known as less than 2%. So technically it's just a walking expedition (with a huge face in the middle). Ok, so I might have gone off on a bit of a tangent there, but basically it shows you that the most important thing to be good at on an expedition is hiking and load carrying...

Below is a simple list of what to train/train for:

• Hiking (general all round strength in legs)
• Load carrying (might seem an odd one, however when you have a 30kg rucksack you will be glad)
• Flexibility (well more the ability to make high steps and bridging moves)
• Swinging strength (the ability to just keep on swinging the axes)
• Calves (1000m later the calves will have had a bit of a work out, make sure they wont let you down)
• Arm strength (pole use and axe use, you don't want your arms to get too ridiculously pumped)
• Use of big boots (they are different to walk in)

How will we design a training program to fit around work?

So the best training for an expedition is an expedition

Bradley's solution:

This is a hard one, my work as an outdoor instructor basically will contribute one hell of a lot towards my training program, leading big walks on Scottish mountains and carrying heavy loads wild camping. This, as well as paddling will build up a good basic level of strength however I will need to use my own time to focus on specifics of the training. These can include personal climbing to develop arm strength and flexibility further, carrying heavy loads and swinging ice axes (I will be looking for some drytooling possibilities). Another training method while working on the hills is walking up them on the balls of the feet only to train calves.

Alek's Solution:

Since I have a more sedentary occupation, and will be using most of my holiday days for the expedition, I'm going to have to be a little bit more creative here. There are two real aspects to the training- endurance (and cardiovascular fitness) for work at altitude and mixed climbing ability. Since for various reasons I probably won't get any mixed in till the summer (fingers crossed), the best I can do on that front is a little, drytooling and a lot of axe-pull ups (for all the good it does without the proper technique...). 

Thus, this leaves the endurance training aspect of the expedition. Also known as "Plan get ridiculously fit". So the best form of training would be, as noted above, to walk up mountains as fast as you can with a heavy load, for a couple of hours each day (with rest days and variation in distance and load). Sadly I do not have a seizable mountain in my back yard and will have to settle for the next best thing- running*. Luckily, Olomouc is very amenable to cross country. I will be using a schedule (similar to a lot that can be found on the web) the basic pattern of, towards the end, distances will not be increased due to finite time, however weight will be added to pack (5kg/10g/15kg) in August, September and October:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
Axes/Wall	10km	15/20 km	10km	Axes/Wall	20/27km	27km+
Forearm pump time!	1km 'Sprint'-1km jog	Cross Country yay	1km 'Sprint'-1km jog	Forearm pump time!	Two nice circuits here.	Hill day?

Now all I have to do is get over my latest cold, off this blog and onto the trails...

*Rowing and swimming by the way are great for cardio, but not quite as specific to the goal- though interesting, swimming, due to the problem of breathing, has an interesting aspect to of hypoxia that you find in high altitude adventures, so is actually, in a way, more specific, than running at sea level, but I'll leave the physiology to wikipedia.