When to start training for your trek or expedition?
- LMG Treks & Expeditions
- Jun 23
- 5 min read
We find that when people book onto our bigger treks such as Everest Base Camp or Kilimanjaro, they're usually doing so with 12 or more months to go before departure. In some cases, it's as much as 2 years in advance. With the trip being so far in the future, it's very easy to hold off on training, but is it the right thing to do?
Of course, there is no definitive answer to this topic question, namely because of the variables with regards to your starting point, training experience and the demands of the expedition you're going on.
The first thing I would say however is 'When has being too fit been a problem?'
Unless you're wanting to struggle your way through the entire trip, you'll never catch yourself saying you got too fit. You'll only end up enjoying the trip more, and having a greater margin for when things may get harder than expected, or for when a bit of illness strikes and you have to dig deeper.
But training does take time, energy, focus and dedication. As a result of this, you may not have the opportunity to get cracking with training straight away. So what sort of things should you be considering when wondering when to knuckle down with it?
What are the demands of your expedition?
It's always easiest to start with breaking down the objective and truly understanding what is required of you. Find out:
How many days trekking
The duration of the days
The distance and ascent associated with them
Are there any rest days, or is it all consecutive days with no recovery period (this is common)
What's the terrain like? Is it a terrain you're familiar with? For example - bouldery terrain is quite a draining experience.
If you look at the answers of the above questions and get that gut feeling that it'll be tough, then you need to get training sooner rather than later. You may be lucky enough to live in a mountainous area and heading up and down hills on a variety of terrain may be a regular weekly occurrence for you.
What's your starting point?
It's not uncommon for people to sign up to treks or expeditions which will stretch them physically - and if that's you, good on you! All too much of life is comfortable, so why not challenge yourself?
But, again, a person's own 'exercise history' will be so varied, and this will dictate when training should be commenced. Even if a person isn't a regular hillwalker, but they are active and jog a couple of times a week or play Squash, they will already be in a far more advanced training position than someone who leads a more sedentary existence. The cardiovascular system, and their muscles and ligaments are already used to being taxed regularly.
If you currently do very little, start now! Even if your expedition is 2 years away, you need to get your body used to an increasing volume of exercise. If you do allow yourself plenty of time, you can really ease yourself into it and apply 'progressive overload' in gentle increments. Trying to cram loads into the final 6 weeks before departure could spell injury, which could of course end up meaning no trip at all!
If you are active, but not much of a hiker, then think about how you can start making your training more specific to the demands of the expedition. All your usual activity (Whatever that may be - Running, Biking, Yoga, Squash etc) can be seen as 'Cross Training'. This is when you use non-specific activities to keep / get fit, but I'm certain that even a very good road cyclist would suffer on a 10 day trek if they didn't do any specific training (hiking!)
How mentally demanding is your expedition going to be for you?
When you dedicate a proper training phase for an expedition, you're adding additional investment. As above, training takes time, energy, dedication, and often a has a cost too - whether it be monetary on fuel or a gym membership, or through sacrifice. The downside to this is that you may find a long training plan becomes too much of a drain on you and you end up lacking motivation to do it.
Getting training done also takes mental strength, and this really is paid forward into your expedition experience. Firstly, it makes you more confident when you do get on the trip that you've put the effort in to give yourself the chance of success. Secondly, when the going does get tough, you are far less likely to give up as you've put so much into it before you even landed in country. I've certainly seen this on a trip before with regards to people both pushing on because they had trained hard, and people giving up the fight quite easily.
How easy is it for you to train?
Can you dedicate 5 days a week, or is it 1 weekend a month? How easy is it for you to get into the mountains to get some ascent in, or are you doing the bulk of it in the gym? You will know based on your starting point, and then the difficulty of the expedition as to whether a relatively short 12 week focused effort of training will be enough, or whether you need more.
Conclusion
If you've made it this far through the blog and you're still hoping for a definitive number, you're not going to get one, it's just not possible. But hopefully, you have now got some handy questions to ask yourself. I'd argue that if you're questioning this, then you should probably get training right away, it really can't hurt.
Start off easy, and think about how you can progressively make each month that little bit tougher than the last one. If your expedition is a long way off, build in some interim goals to test yourself and improve confidence. Do remember that there is no such thing as a perfect training plan. There will be bumps along the road, but 'something is better than nothing'. What I mean by this is, even if your planned 8 hour mountain hike gets cancelled due to the weather, getting out for a flat 2 hour walk with a 15kg pack on is still training! It will keep you physically and mentally moving forwards towards your goal!
Do you need help with your training? Get in touch with me via Summit Push Fitness
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