Cavemen would've made great adventure racers. This thought came to me on my run this morning (yes, my feet have recovered to the point where running isn't painful . . . now if only my GI tract would get past all the unfiltered water I drank down in Tierra del Fuego . . .). Here's a photo from the scene of the crime: Grant scooping water directly from a lake (essentially a big stagnant body of water):
Cavemen, at least in my stereotypical view, lived every day like an adventure race -- they were trying to move a little more quickly, get a bit more energy from their food, and travel as light as possible but not sacrificing the absolute necessities. Cavemen had to figure things out on their own and get past that mountain range, around that river, or through that forest no matter what. Their lives, literally, depended on it. Cavemen were active and tough, much tougher than we are today. That darn agrarian revolution has made us soft! I'll spare you the Deep Ecology talk -- just go out and read Guns, Germs, and Steel -- and I'll cut straight to the adventure race stuff . . .
My physical training for the race in Patagonia was pretty good, in hindsight, but I should've taken some more cues from the Cavemen. In the months before the race, my general training week might look as follows:
- -Monday: 3-4 hour hike with heavy pack, lots of hills
- -Tuesday: 3-4 hour bike with heavy pack
- -Wednesday: 2-hour paddle and 2-hours at the climbing gym
- -Thursday: 3-4 hour hike with heavy pack
- -Friday: 3-4 hour bike with heavy pack, lots of hills
- -Sat: 90 minute track interval workout
- -Sun: 90 minute hill repeats on the bike
When I say "heavy pack," I'm not kidding around. I would carry 5 or 6 liters of water in my pack sometimes, just to top the weight out. My toes would be bruised from the impact and my traps would ache sometimes, but it was good training; I couldn't do it every day and my knees would sometimes ache, but it didn't kill me and so made me stronger. This "not kidding heavy pack" weighed more than my pack did during the real race, which was the whole point, and I was glad for the lighter load during the actual event. That being said, I was still real sore from lugging my pack around by day 3 of the race; it's impossible to train for all the hardships of multiday racing.
That last sentence, "it's impossible to train for all the hardships of multiday racing," is really the crux of what I want to get across with this post. Instead of living your life and having training time as something you do for a portion of your day, you need to weave the training into the fabric of what you do so that you blur the line between "training" and "living your life." This is why Cavemen would be great adventure racers: their full time occupation is just surviving.
It will be different for each person, but the ways that I found to blur that training/living line were:
- -Not owning a car (we sold them when we moved to Zurich and haven't had one since); we have about a 1/2 mile walk to the train station and that's how we get anywhere other than our little town. I also rode my bike a lot as a means of getting around; for example, instead of a 30 minute train ride to the climbing gym, I could ride my bike for an hour and get two workouts for the price of one!
- -Carrying a big heavy pack around a lot of the time. When I'd walk the dog . . . I was wearing my weighted backpack. On a trip to the train station . . . put on the weighted backpack. Running an errand in town . . . might as well wear the backpack. You get the point. I'm probably known around town as that crazy American who always wears
that orange backpack, but it was a good investment in my race fitness.
- -Finding ways to train that were close to home. This goes along with the not owning a car thing, but any time spent driving to your training destination is time lost. You're better off finding trails or activities near by so that you can spend more time being active and less time in transit to your activity. I know: easy for the guy in Switzerland to say, but it's true.
- -By training heavy on weekdays, for 3-4 hours, I was building a core of fitness for the long haul. My focus was on Monday through Friday for 3-4 hours every day. It became part of my routine and something I adapted to. My metabolism was sky high, let me tell you! I know some who will do heavy weekend training and very little during the week, and that might work for them, but I prefer spreading the effort across more days and I think it suited me better. I really didn't hit it for long durations on Sat or Sun because weekends are the prime time for traveling around Switzerland with Jill and our dog; I intentionally limited my weekend training.
From a physical fitness perspective, I reached the starting line in Patagonia in the best condition of my life. I'd lost 15 pounds or more, was climbing on the bike better than ever, and had great cardio fitness. Sherry sweet talked a bystander to take our photo at the start of the race . . .
Great fitness at the start of the race isn't enough, though. The race we competed in was won by experience (15 years of expedition racing experience since their captain had been doing Raids since 1993 or something!); all the inexperienced teams at this race bowed out during the 75 mile trekking leg, ourselves included. In case you forgot, here's some additional pics from that mega trekking leg where the only "trails" were the ones blazed by the guanacos:
When training for my next race like this, I'll know better. I'll try to be even more Caveman in my preparations and encourage my teammates to do the same. I should mix the following into my training:
- -Bushwhack days. Instead of hiking on trails for 3-4 hours, I need to find an area off-trail to work through. The hours and hours of dense vegetation in Patagonia was something I wasn't prepared for mentally as well as physically.
- -River opportunities. Instead of taking the nice bridge across that river, I should just cross through the darn thing or maybe even trek in the river. I'm not talking about anything physically risky here, just the fact that I need more practice having soaking shoes and clothing and unstable footing and continuing on.
- -Feet management. This will be a big one for me, and I'll probably just do another post on this topic, but it involves either lots of tape or lots of lubricant and I just need to determine which brand and how often.
- -Overnights. I'm not talking about training through the night, but actually trying to sleep outside with your race gear. Maybe plan a 4 hour hike, a few hours of sleep, and then a return to home. I'll have a post dedicated to sleeping bag and tent thoughts, but it's good to have this here so you experience it before the race.
Even with all the above, there's no substitute for race experience. A race that's measured in days instead of hours is going to put us non-Cavemen outside our comfort zone in ways you wouldn't expect. The Patagonia air, with the cold arid winds, was very dry and my skin wasn't used to the harshness. My finger tips dried out, I got bloody noses that were tough to stop, chapped lips, and that's even with my copious supply of lip balm! Next time I'll bring a blood vessel constrictor like Afrin as part of my gear (for bloody noses and just to moisturize); I'll bring some kind of cream for dry hands and face. It sounds silly: but keeping your skin in good working condition is nothing to be taken lightly when you're racing for so long a time.
I mentioned before about antibiotics and how I got an infection on my right hand; you have to anticipate things that most people never think of during their regular life.
I think it's due to stomach acid, but we got these sores on the insides of our mouths that made eating uncomfortable -- especially those spicy cashews I brought! We used mouthwash and brushed our teeth (twice a day even, honest!), but at least Sherry and I didn't do it enough or use strong enough products; I was running low by the time Day 6 came around, so next time I'll need to plan for more and better oral hygiene products.
Oh yeah, 2 little words: toenail clippers: it shocking how quick those little nails can grow and using my medical clippers just didnt do it. You can also get your fingernails with the toenail clipper.
Another hygiene item: hand sanitizer. I thought I had plenty but it turns out I was wrong. Probably those individually wrapped "moist toilettes" would be perfect, but you need a few each day and I burned through mine quick -- especially once things started getting muddy and we had to start cleaning blister spots, cuts, water bottle spiggots, etc.
I'll stop here, before this turns into an ad for Walgreens or you start to think I'm a hypochondriac. The fact is, you must take care of yourself in these races because the daily things we take for granted are not going to be there. You could start the race in peak physical condition but you're doomed to failure if you don't manage your body through whatever the wilderness throws at you.