In this episode, we talk about another one of the core features of our endurance training: unstructured adventures! Sub-topics include: different types of unstructured adventures; principles of adventures; why to do adventures; how to do adventures; and our favorite mountain adventures in New England. We also tell the storied tale of one of our most epic adventures yet: the New England Triple Crown, a self-made adventure that involved completing a single-day Presidential Traverse, a single-day Pemi Loop, and a single-day Katahdin ski/hike in one winter season in 2021. We also answer listener questions and highlight a few of our favorite winter adventure gear items.
Today’s podcast is on a topic that was number one on both our lists when we started this project. It’s near and dear to our hearts. And we hope after today, we will inspire you a bit more to think outside the traditional training box. Our topic today is: Adventures as Training.
In the last episode we talked through Katie’s high level training plan for Sea to Summit. We outlined a lot of the key swim/bike/run sessions and the monthly progression.
But we also mentioned some non-triathlon related training such as trail running, summer and winter hiking and adventure biking. Today, we are going to focus on those qualities. We are going to define adventure training, why to do it, when to do it and how to do it.
Jim history of playing in the Whites - hiked the New Hampshire 48 4,000 footers summits in two years in college, led outdoor trips, 700 miles on the Appalachian Trail and then worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club as a tent site caretaker, hut crew (croo!) and roving winter caretaker at Carter Lake, Tuckerman Ravine, Crawford Notch and Zealand hut. This predates my triathlon career but was my first entry into endurance sports. In 2015 returned to the East Coast from Alaska and began blending triathlon training with mountain sports.
Katie has a similar story of including a lot of summer and winter hiking into triathlon training as an undergraduate and continues today. There was a major progression from beginner to now having high confidence moving in the mountains in summer and winter.
Let’s break down our thoughts on adventuring so you can implement this in your own training/season planning.
What is an unstructured adventure?
Three types:
(Easy or relaxed) An activity that’s usually in the woods, forest, mountains and has loose time/pace/distance goals. An exploring trail run, a hike into the hills and local mountain, exploring trails and dirt roads on your mtn or gravel bike. Preferably with friends. These are low pressure while gently building base fitness. Good opportunity to focus on joy and community.
(Moderate) A moderate day in the mountains, something that pushes your boundaries and fitness but doesn’t necessarily wreck you physically and the danger element is fairly low. These provide a nice training stimulus as they incorporate more volume, elevation, eccentric loading, side to side motion, hopping, built in base/tempo/threshold effort and a fueling strategy to some degree. (Always bring a snack!) Hopefully you can do this with a friend(s) and incorporate fun and community.
(High) Something like a FKT (Fastest Known Time) or big mountain objective like the Prezi traverse, Pemi Loop, 14ers out west. You could be going for a specific time or just trying to survive it! You can think of these as substitutes for an official race that really challenges your fitness, pacing, fueling, smart decision making and gear choices.
A few principles of an unstructured adventure:
You don’t pay to do it.
You plan and create it.
You choose your goals, conditions and distances, and you keep your goals, conditions and distances flexible.
You can prepare, but you don’t necessarily follow a dedicated training plan; you simply use Big Fitness that you already have from an existing season.
On adventure day, no rules! You can incorporate any stops, snacks, or people you want. Blast music? Awesome. Take an hour break on a mountaintop? Do it. Stop for pie halfway through? Always.
Why do unstructured adventures?
They result from Big Fitness and build big fitness. Big Fitness is the ability to do big adventures anytime with a variety of athletes.
They can feature more factors that are in your control (i.e. optimizing for weather, conditions).
They are often just as gratifying and fun or more gratifying and fun than races -- without the same level of pre-race anxiety.
Stakes are lower because you can always go back and try again if the day isn’t going your way. (Try asking Ironman when you’re having a bad day for a redo at a different date!)
Often done with a friend or group - community aspect.
They are nicer on the wallet. Average cost of an Ironman race registration is over $750.
They can help you be a more well-rounded multisport athlete.
They offer a nice bout of mental recovery from high-pressure racing environments while giving you a big fitness boost.
They can give you unique skills that build confidence going into big races (pacing, nutrition/hydration, durability, grit, etc.). A moderate or high adventure in the mountains are essentially the same demands as a Half Ironman, Ironman or ultra-run.
How to implement unstructured adventures into your training and life:
Good choice for base building time when races are still relatively far out (for us, winter is a good choice -- and many cool adventures to do in the winter)
If you are able, optimize for factors like weather and low life stress particularly important for moderate/high adventures.
Find a crew to adventure with.
Plan, but stay open-minded to deviations from the plan. Safety first.
In the context of season planning: any year can have both hard racing and unstructured adventures. Keep them separate.
Some ideas for incorporating unstructured adventures in your life:
Maybe you are a beginner to hiking / trail running: easy trail run in your local park, pick a local hike and progress to further and higher as you gain experience.
Bike somewhere really cool.
Do a big day in the mountains.
Make it a multi-day adventure / stretch out an ultra.
We developed our own High Adventure during Covid and called it The New England Triple Crown (NETC). This is doing a Presidential Traverse, Pemi Loop and Katahdin all in the same calendar winter season. Katie: This remains one of the coolest things I have done (and that includes 5 Ironmans + 3x World Champs, etc.) with some of the most important lessons learned and fitness bumps
Favorite Hikes in New England (from easy to hard):
Northern Presidentials (Mt. Madison, Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson)
Grab bag of listener questions:
Should you do any type of single-sport racing leading up to a triathlon? Sure thing! An early season half marathon, for example, can lead to a focused run block before your last 12 weeks of specific race preparation. These are great opportunities to bump your fitness and skills in one particular sport.
Many athletes ask if it’s best practice to do a stand alone marathon before tackling an Ironman. The short answer is a hard no. They are two very different sports with the only commonality is both require you to go 26 miles on foot. Otherwise one is very goal focused often around time or Boston Qualification and other is often just surviving 26 miles after you have already been racing for 6 - 9 hours already!
How quickly do you lose zone 2 base? Not fast which is the good news. You need to sit around and do nothing for about three weeks to really lose your aerobic fitness. You tend lose speed faster and that’s why we do a lot of pickups in our Zone 2 runs, to keep in touch with speed i.e., connecting your feet to your brain.
How to avoid HR strap chafing. Lots of options to mitigate including using body glide or tri glide, choosing a comfy sports bra that allows strap to sit underneath band (we like Indura Athletic), and keeping the band clean. If you are new to chest straps, we recommend the Polar H10 or Garmin HRM-Pro.
Gear pick of the week:
Capilene Air Hoody (get it while you can! Available in limited quantities/sizes as of Jan 2024).