TRAIN TO TREK IN THE ALPS
WHY TRAIN FOR A WALKING HOLIDAY?
It’s just a long walk, right? Not a race! So why train?
Alpine walking holidays offer unbeatable views and memories but it for should not be under
estimated as to how challenging it can be on the body.
The fitter you are the more likely you’ll enjoy every step of your holiday, and it's more likely you
are to complete each day in good time with ease. The aim of adding some training in before your
trip to the Alps is it will ensure that each day on trail is well within your comfort zone – ie easy! –
rather than a struggle.
Trekking, especially multiday journeys at higher altitudes, shouldn't be under taken lightly. Our
walks are always broken down into manageable chunks according to the stated itinerary. We
ensure you will have plenty of opportunity to rest, eat and drink but we do need to get from A-B
each day and is often not just a gentle walk!
Getting to your accommodation at the end of each day with plenty of time to relax and with
plenty of energy left in reserve will ensure that you have time to recover, dry your kit (if
necessary!), eat and rehydrate well – ready for the next day.
The fitter you are before you leave, the easier each day will be, read on to find out how!
There are several key factors to ensure a safe, fun and enjoyable walking holiday and tailoring
your training to cope with each of them will help you maximise your enjoyment – and you are
less likely to need to take unwanted rest days or worse case have withdraw from your trip!
1. Stamina & Endurance – To help manage long days of walking on rough terrain. If you
are on a multiday trek then it's not just 1 day’s walking, it’s several days or even weeks
2. Altitude & Strength – The non-technical trekking paths in the Alps are not particularly
high in altitude in comparison to the greater ranges. High passes or peaks usually sit
between 2500m upto 3200m. But we do still need to let our bodies get used to the
height gain. Being fit and strong (mentally as well as physically) will help you deal with
the rigours of the trip.
3. Health & Well-being – Sleeping well, eating well and being generally fit on your trip will
also help you reach your objective. So we suggest you get in the habit before you go!
Your aim is to build up the distances more than the speed over the coming months
before your trek, so that by the time comes around, you’re feeling strong and confident
about long days hiking in the mountains! It may all feel like hard work, but remember:
you’re going on a journey to one of the most spectacular and beautiful places in the
world. The fitter you are, the more you’ll enjoy it! We promise, it will be worth the
effort ;o)
STAMINA & ENDURANCE:
GET UP INTO THE HILLS:
The ideal training for walking is walking! IE: so as much as possible to mimic the exercise you’ll
be doing on the trek as much as possible. This means: long days hill walking with a rucksack (5-6
hours), taking in some steep terrain - both up and down - and ideally incorporating overnight
stays and back to back days. Most people find going uphill harder on the lungs and going
downhill harder on the body (knees in particular). You may need to build up to it before you’re
comfortable with back to back days walking, so we’d recommend getting out to the hills for
weekend walks well in advance of the trip. If you do find your body hurts (esp from walking
downhill), don’t give up! Rest, and when you’ve stopped aching, go back for more – you’ll find it
gets easier and easier as your joints get used to it.
Speed: It’s important to find a pace you’re comfortable with and can maintain for several hours.
Don’t worry about being slow and holding people up – on the actual trip, you’ll have the
opportunity to walk at your own pace, so concentrate on finding ‘your’ speed and being able to
stick to it.
Distance and route planning: If you’re not sure how fast you walk, you can use a treadmill to
work out a flat speed and a hill speed that suits you. This will help you with route planning and
distances. Walk in pairs/groups, let someone know where you’re going, make sure you have
maps, suitable equipment/clothing etc etc ...
GET ‘DOWN THE GYM’ (or outside!):
Time is often the limiting factor for busy people. Focussed gym based training will make a huge
difference to how well you cope with long days in the hills.
What type of exercise?
We’d recommend running/jogging or cycling – either indoor or outdoor, or a mixture. Walking is
also a good form of training and should be an important part of everyone’s preparation. If you
choose to focus on walking as your main form of exercise, you will need to be doing longer
sessions then the equivalent run or bike ride. However, if running or cycling really aren’t your
thing, there are plenty of alternatives to build your endurance fitness. You could consider
swimming (great for taking the pressure off your joints), or competitive sports such as
tennis/squash. The aim is to raise your heart rate and get you sweating!
We’d also recommend incorporating stretching and strength training to help balance your body,
prevent injuries, and cope with the increased demands of training more, and carrying a pack
while walking.
Gym vs Outdoors?
The gym is great for ease and accessibility, for working out under supervision, and for keeping
track of your progress.
Exercising outdoors on the other hand may be more relaxing, more realistic, and more fun!
If you want to measure your outdoor workouts in the same way as in the gym, think about
investing in a specialist watch and heart rate monitor which will measure your speed, distance,
heart rate, calories burnt etc.
For outdoor workouts, have a look online for running/walking routes or cycling routes in your
area. Try www.run.com or www.cycle-route.com for ideas.
Aim to include 1 of each of the following per week:
Please note: The examples are examples only – everyone’s time and speed will vary, so
adjust accordingly for your own pace. Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing or
how fast they go. On the trip you’ll be able to go at your own pace - it’s a journey, not a
race! Progressing with your training will require challenging yourself, but push yourself
within your own limits - not so hard you get injured. If at any point during your training
you suffer unusual pains/dizziness/shortness of breath, consult a doctor before
carrying on with your training. If you’re not sure where or how to start, your local gym
will be able to put you in touch with a coach or personal trainer who can devise a
training programme specifically for you.
DON’T FORGET TO WARM UP AND WARM DOWN BEFORE AND AFTER EACH SESSION.
YOUR WARM UP SHOULD INCLUDE STRETCHES AND A GENTLE BUILD UP TO YOUR
MAXIMUM EFFORT. YOU CHOOSE WHICH STYLE OF AEROBIC WORK OUT YOU'D PREFER
SUCH AS RUNNING, CYCLING, WALKING.
1. Med distance cardio session. This is probably your ‘normal’ workout - your default run
or bike ride, at a steady pace that has you breathing quite hard and sweating a bit - but
you feel like you have something in reserve. You should be able to have a short
conversation while you’re exercising.
Example med distance session:
40 minute run or 1 hour minute bike or 1h30 walk
2. Short sprint cardio session. This is a shorter session, where you’ll be working hard,
quite out of breath and sweating. You may be working up to 30% harder than your normal
med distance pace - but for a shorter time. This session is designed to improve your
overall fitness. The aim of this workout is to work your lungs and legs harder than normal,
‘raising the bar’ to build up your emergency reserves and overall fitness level. You can fit a
sprint session into less than half an hour, so it’s a great work out if you’re in a rush.
Please note: The aim of this session is to push yourself, but you may need to build up to it –
listen to your body and don’t work too hard, at least initially, until you know your own limits. You
may be at a higher risk of injury during this session as you’ll be exercising out of your comfort
zone, so if you’re not very fit when you start, build up slowly! You may want to introduce
‘intervals’ to help you progress – eg 5 minutes warm up at your normal pace, then 2 minutes
sprint, 1 minute recovery, 3 minutes sprint, 1 minute recovery, 4 minutes sprint, 1 minute
recovery, 5 minutes sprint, 3 minutes recovery.
Example short distance session:
10 min warm up 25 minutes interval session as above and 10 minute cool down
3. Long distance cardio session. This is an endurance session. In this workout, you’ll drop
your normal pace, but exercise for longer. You should find the speed easy at the beginning
of the work out, and you’ll feel like you’re holding back. But by the end you should feel
tired. If you do a long weekend hill walk, that will count instead of this long gym session.
Please note: You may find a long session hard to fit in and/or boring, but is vital in the long run
so stick with it! Taking the session outside and varying between running, hill walking and cycling
will help keep you interested. Going with friends may also help keep you motivated.
Example long distance session:
1 hour (or more if you can!), 1h30 by bike, 3 hour walk
4. Strength & Stretching session. Think of your body as a solid core (your trunk) with
loose, rotating limbs (your arms and legs) attached. When you run / walk / cycle, it’s not
your legs powering you through, it’s your stable core that drives the loose rotating limbs
to get you there! Think about having a strong body and light limbs. Being strong in your
core and flexible in your body will make a massive difference to how you feel on a multi
day trek, as well as helping prevent injuries. Yoga, pilates, stretching, and abs work
are all good options. Carrying a rucksack will automatically alter your posture and put new
strains on your joints. The stronger your core muscles (all the ‘interior’ muscles from your
ribs to your hips), the better prepared you’ll be to support extra weight for many days.
Example Strength / Stretch session.
1.5 hours yoga / pilates session or 1 hour stretching and ½ hour abs session
Health and Well Being:
For busy, hard working people, fitting regular exercise into the diary can be difficult, so here are
some top tips for general health and well being - including some ideas to help you lose weight if
you think that will help you reach your goal.
1. Rest & Sleep. We advise taking 2 full days off per week to chill out. DO NO EXERCISE!!
This is when your body recovers and you’ll feel better for it. Your body recovers fastest,
mends damage, and builds muscle best when you are asleep. Getting ‘fitter’ actually
happens when you’re doing nothing, so resting well is as important as exercising well. Try
to get at least 7 hours sleep a night.
2. Injury. If you start to feel a niggle developing, act on it! We recommend consulting a
doctor or sports physiotherapist as soon as you develop an injury – however mild – as
they will be able to give you specific exercises or treatments to help straight away and
prevent it worsening. Don’t let niggles turn into full blown injuries! Everyone has
biomechanical imbalances in their body that have developed over many years: ‘weak’
spots, which may be at risk of injury when you increase your exercise level. If you do
develop minor injuries during your training, a sports therapist or physio will be able to
suggest strength exercises or stretches specifically for you that will prevent further
damage and help you improve your overall fitness.
3. Keeping motivated. If you have a bad work out, don’t worry about it! If you have 5 bad
work outs in close succession, you need to think about why: are you Tired? Bored?
Injured? Stressed? Unmotivated? Expecting too much?
Tired? Really tired or just sluggish/bored? If you’re really tired, and think you’ve been over-doing
it, then take time off; whether it’s 1 day or a whole week. Listen to your body – but be honest
with yourself!
Bored? Change what you’re doing. Get outside, run with a friend, bike instead of run, plan a trip
to somewhere beautiful for a walk, join a club. Create a new challenge for your workout – a new
time goal, route, distance, enter a local race so you have something to train for.
Injured? See a doctor / physio!
Stressed? Exercise is ultimately relaxing – when you exercise you stimulate ‘feel good’ hormones
called endorphins. You can’t help but feel better afterwards!
Unmotivated? Take the pressure off! Instead of promising yourself you’ll run for an hour after
work, but really dreading it all day, say to yourself you’re going to run for 10 minutes - and if you
feel like it, you’ll carry on for longer. If after 10 minutes you’ve really had enough, stop. Use the
time you’d allocated for exercising to do something else you enjoy. If after 10 minutes you find
you actually feel quite good, then carry on. More often than not, you’ll complete a full work out.
Often, the thought of doing something can be far worse than actually getting on and doing it - it’s
a cliché, but big tasks broken down into small chunks are much more manageable.
Expecting too much? Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t see progress for a while, it’s likely to
go in stages. If you’re repeating exactly the same exercise routine week in week out, think about
variety. Vary your speed, inclination, location, change the type of exercise you’re doing. Your
body needs different stimulation as well as your brain. Try a different class at the gym, go
walking in a new area, meet up with a different running partner...
4. Nutrition and weight loss –
If you’d like to lose weight prior to your trip, here are a few ideas:
Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper. An ‘old-school’ expression,
maybe, but it works. If you eat a large breakfast, it’ll keep you going all day and you’ll burn all
the calories off during the day. If you eat a large meal at night, you go to bed with a full stomach,
and the calories you’ve consumed are ‘unused’ and stored. The simple equation is if you burn off
more calories than you consume, you’ll lose weight!
Carbohydrates – the current trend is that all carbs are evil. Not so, but choose wisely and limit
your portions if you want to lose weight. Aim for brown instead of white (bread, rice, pasta). Go
for a wrap instead of a sandwich/roll. Fill up on lean protein and salad/vegetables. Try to eat
fewer or no carbs in the evening.
Exercise supplements and drinks – unless you’re exercising for more than 1.5 hours, you’re
unlikely to need any kind of ‘sports drink’ or bars. They are effective at replacing lost sugars and
salts fast, but are high in calories. You should get all the energy, minerals, salts and sugars you
need from a balanced diet. If you’re going for a long run/bike ride/hike (1.5 hours+), sports
drinks, bars, gels etc can be very useful – they fit in your pocket and give you a vital boost of
balanced sugars and salts when you start to run out of steam on a long run/ride. Most people
can’t sustain high levels of exercise for more than 1-1.5 hours without some water and nutrition.
Water – always keep hydrated! Concentrate on staying hydrated all the time by sipping drinks
throughout the day, and ideally while you’re exercising too. Aim to drink at least 2 litres of water
a day (in addition to other drinks), and make sure you drink lots of water after exercise. If you
feel thirsty, you’re actually already dehydrated!
Protein after exercise – studies have shown that eating protein within half an hour after
exercise can help build / repair muscles. This can be in the form of protein shakes or bars, but it
doesn’t need to be! Nuts or seeds, lean meat, eggs, cheese, beans and soya are all good sources
of protein.
Exercise on an empty stomach – the best time to exercise for weight loss is first thing in the
morning, before breakfast. You’ll immediately start using up stored energy supplies (fat!) rather
than burning up the food that’s already in your system. You’ll also kick start your metabolism
early, which means you burn calories at a faster rate all day. If you struggle with getting going
first thing, have half a banana before you exercise. If you don’t exercise in the morning, try to
leave 2 hours after your last food before you exercise. Try to avoid exercising late at night – the
endorphins buzzing around your system may mean you have trouble sleeping.
Exercising more? Need more food? –If you’re exercising more than normal, you may need to
eat more to keep your energy levels up. Unfortunately for food lovers, it’s likely that you don’t
need as much extra food as you think – especially if you are trying to lose weight! If you keep
track on a gym machine or heart rate monitor, it can be dispiriting to see how few calories you’re
actually burning. Try not to fall into the habit of ‘treating yourself’ after a workout: 40 minutes on
the running machine is more likely to ‘equal’ a banana than a burger and chips!! However, as
your body changes with exercise, your lean muscle mass and overall metabolic rate will both
increase, meaning you burn calories faster and you may find yourself in need of more food. Listen
to your body and if you’re hungry try to choose healthy meals and snacks throughout the day to
keep you going. Try not to let yourself get too hungry or you’ll risk overeating, and try to eat
slowly so your brain has time to register when you’re full – it apparently takes 20 minutes for
your stomach to ‘tell’ your brain it’s had enough!
WE HOPE THIS HELPS GIVE YOU SOME IDEAS ... REMEMBER TO ENJOY YOUR
TRAINING!
This article was written by Steph Willet.
Steph owns Be Pure Fit and is a yoga teacher, sports therapist and personal trainer - with a
diploma in nutrition. Steph works with Tracks and Trails on our Detox and Wellness weeks aswell
as out Trail Running Camps. She is seriously fit and healthy and is fascinated by the human body
and the relationships between exercise, food and health. Whether it's raw juices or healthy
salads, Steph loves the amazing energy you can only get from eating, sleeping and exercising
well.
If you have any questions about fitness training, nutrition and diet prior to your trip to
the alps then please feel free to get in touch with Steph : info@tracks-and-trails.com