Here is a great article by Robyn Benincasa, a primer level adventure racer:
Adventure Racing 101
Adventure racing 101: A quick-start guide
By Robyn Benincasa, Florida Sports Magazine
5/6/2005
Getty Images/Mike Hewitt
In adventure racing, you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about yourself and your teammates
Okay, you know darn well you've been wanting to try "that crazy adventure racing stuff" for a while now. Well, this is your quit-being-afraid-and-get-out-there official quick-start guide! One word of advice before we start: RUN! NOW! Before it's too late!
Adventure racing is the most addictive sport you will ever try, and once you get sucked in, there's no going back.
So you may as well sell your aero bars, clear out your garage to make space for scads of new gear, cut back on your hours at work, give away your tangerine Speedo, invest in some duct tape and call all your closest pals 'cause you're about to enter a world where anything and everything is possible. (Your course is limited only by your imagination.)
And you will learn way more than you ever wanted to know about yourself and your teammates -- for better and for worse. And you may never want to come back. Still in? Do I hear a "heck yeah?" Okay, let's do it! But when you find yourself eventually standing at the start of the Primal Quest or the Raid Gauloises questioning your sanity, don't say I didn't warn you.
Here's an overview of the sports involved, a brief training plan for each and some handy tips that we old timers had to learn the hard way:
Hiking/running/scrambling
Many of your races will start out with a run that turns into a hike or scramble, so you'd better be ready on all counts. Hiking and running muscles are very different, so you need to train both -- and practicing scrambling (on as many different types of terrain as you can find, including wet, slippery stuff) is the key to gaining that competitive advantage on the roadies.
Training:
For a race of 12 hours or less, you should follow a half marathon training plan, but do most of your runs on trails, if possible.
For a race of more than 12 hours, you should follow a full marathon training plan and use the same guidelines.
Start doing hill repeats (i.e. four to six sets of 80 percent effort on a hill that takes three to four minutes to run) and interval training (two-three-four-five minutes "on" with an equal amount of rest in the "off" phase) twice per week in the final month of training leading up to the race.
Tips:
Race and train in trail running shoes versus regular road running shoes. (Better grip, more stability, fewer stone bruises and fewer blisters.)
Practice running/hiking with a 10-15 pound pack several times before your race, both for the strength benefits and the knowledge of your equipment (i.e. how are you going to get to your water? Food? Where is the most efficient place to store required gear for easy access? Does the pack grate you like cheese on your neck, back, arms?)
Wear thin Coolmax socks to prevent blisters. Two pairs if it's cold.
Take all of the calluses off of your feet before a race. Calluses actually cause deep blisters, which are very painful.
Wear short gaitors to keep "crap" out of your shoes.
Paddling
Becoming a good paddler is the fastest way to gain a competitive advantage in adventure racing, since it's the weak link for most of the teams that cross over from triathlon. It's very easy to gain a 10-15 minute lead in an average two-hour paddle if you're good -- a feat that's almost impossible to accomplish on mountain biking and running legs.
Paddling sections can be anything from a nice flat-water cruise on a lake to class 4 whitewater and six-foot ocean swells, so get out there and practice in as many conditions as you can find. Just remember to always take a buddy with you and stay within sight of one another.
Training:
Start by contacting a good local paddler and learning stroke technique and water safety (especially how to get your booty out of and back into the dang boat when your world turns upside down).
A good rule of thumb for stroke technique, at least initially, is to paddle with your arms locked completely straight throughout the entire stroke. This forces you to use your torso and midsection for power (via the back and forth twisting and untwisting of your body, much like a washing machine rotor) versus relying on your manly arms (which will be limp, lifeless and useless to even a little girl within 30 minutes).
Paddle with a group whenever possible. The best case scenario would be to find a local K-1 training club (flatwater olympic kayaks) or ocean racing team. In California, this isn't too difficult!
Join an outrigger canoe club to supplement your kayaking and help with your strength.
Do at least one "long" paddle (1 1/2+ hours) and one session of interval training per week, similar to the intervals you'd do for running.
Tips:
Always focus on technique versus turnover (number of strokes per minute) for increased speed. Similar to swimming, the better your technique, the fewer number of strokes you have to take to get across the pool/lake, and that efficiency pays huge benefits over the long haul.
It's very difficult to eat while paddling, so rig your Camelback straw to a wire coat hanger that you can adjust to sit just below your lips for hands-free refueling. Fill your bladder with CarboPro (my favorite way to add 500-1,000 tasteless calories to my water -- see
www.sportquestdirect.com) and your electrolyte drink of choice, and you will never have to stop paddling.
Practice paddling/steering without a rudder on your boat. Many races will supply boats that have no rudder, and you will gain a huge advantage with your ability to steer through the other teams who are going in frustrated zig zags and circles.
Put a pad on your seat (duct tape it down) if you have access to your boat before the race. You'll be higher (more power if you can handle the slight increase in tippyness) and your butt will thank you.
If you're at the point where you are considering buying a training boat, think about a surfski. They're great for flatwater and ocean paddling, and they're generally easy to transport and carry solo. They're also tippy enough to ensure your technique is correct, but stable enough so you don't have to spend the entire day trying to keep the rudder side down.
Navigation
About 80-90 percent of the races you will enter will have some kind of navigation or orienteering component. It's a bit intimidating at first, but once you start learning and have some successes, this is an aspect of the race that you will truly learn to love. And learning the basics is not all that hard. If I can (sorta) do it, anyone can.
Good navigating provides an incredible competitive advantage, and most experienced racers will admit that strategy, team tactics and navigation are a far bigger factor in their team's success than speed. That's why it's no surprise that athletes in their mid-40s are still winning the big events! Old age, treachery and good navigation will overcome youth and skill any day. So get out there with your map and compass and become the MVP on your team!
Training:
First, buy a local topographical map, a compass and a beginning navigation book to get the basics.
Next, attend a course or a camp with someone who is into "speed" navigation. Local orienteering clubs are a great source, as are adventure racing camps and clinics.
Join a local orienteering club and start doing competitions. Try to do your first few with someone experienced, if possible, and watch their technique. Part of the efficiency of navigation revolves around where you keep your map/compass, how you hold and remember your location on the map, and how you access all of the information you need to get to the next checkpoint. The end goal here is to not only learn to navigate, but to navigate on the move.
Tips:
Buy several local topographical maps of your local area and take them with you everywhere you go. You can learn a lot just by being a passenger in a car and practicing terrain association with the map while driving around. You should also do occasional runs with your map and see if you can identify the terrain features as you go.
Find a way to have easy access to your maps during all events. For hiking, get a map holder that hangs around your neck. For paddling, find a waterproof map case that you can secure directly in front of you and a marine-type compass that sticks to the hull of the boat. For mountain biking, create a map platform that's positioned across your handlebars.
Make sure that your teammates have at least a rudimentary knowledge of navigation so that they can back your up or cover for you. The best case scenario is to have at least two capable navigators on every team.
If you can find out the "scale" of the maps for your race course in advance (most will be 1:7,500 or 1:24,000), practice with maps of similar scale to get a feel for how far apart or close things really are.
Mountain biking
Most people considering an adventure race are pretty familiar with mountain biking and what it takes to train for it, so I won't spend a lot of time here. I'll just cover a few tips that are adventure-racing specific:
Tips:
For sections that are certain to be at night, go big with the lights if the course is remotely technical. The extra weight will be worth the increased speed and safety. We use Niterider's newest HID light, which gives us the option of both super bright halogen for the sketchy stuff and a battery-saving set of L.E.D lights for the roads.
Rig two bikes with towlines and all bikes with small hooks to receive a tow. We've had great success using retractable dog leashes (for small dogs) as towlines. Just cut off the latch at the end, tie the end of the line into a three-inch to four-inch circle that fits over the receiving hook on your bike(s), and zip tie the leash casing under your seat and around your seat tube. Voila! This is called the "Rocky" system, since my buddy Isaac Wilson's Jack Russell sacrificed his leash for our initial test run of this system for the last Eco-Challenge.
Try to use the same pedal system as your teammates in case you need to swap bikes or bits of bikes for some reason.
Buy/make a system for easy access to your food at all times. You will probably not be stopping to eat, and not eating on a mountain bike leg is not an option. I use a "Bento Box" rigged on my cross tube.
Climbing
You may not have to worry about doing any climbing in the sprint races, but you will more than likely have at least a rappel in the longer races. In expedition and 24-hour races, you may also have to do an ascent with jumars. Both are very fun and relatively easy to learn.
Training:
Head to a local gym or adventure racing camp to learn how to rappel with an ATC/Figure 8 and ascend with jumars (a jumar is a device that clasps around the rope and allows you to shuttle it forward, but not backwards, so you can actually climb "up" the rope, supporting your feet in attached "footloops").
Practice with a number of different ascending techniques to discover what works for you. I find that I use two different techniques, one for low angle and one for vertical ("Rope Walker" system and "Frog/caving" system, respectively). It's just a matter of practice and personal preference.
Tips:
Buy lightweight equipment. You may be running with it on your body or in your pack for long periods of time.
When ascending, remember to use your legs to push yourself up, versus your arms to pull yourself up.
Tie a hair band or rubber band around the bottom of your foot loops to keep your feet from sliding out of the loops. Put your foot in the loop underneath the rubber band and then just push down on the rubber band to tighten the webbing across the top of your foot.
Learn to not only ascend, but to transfer from one rope to another (around a knot) and continue ascending. This is very common in adventure racing. You may also be asked to do an ascent to rappel transition, which you should learn to do suspended mid-rope. It's not hard, but there's definitely a method to the madness.
If you're new to rope work, sandwich yourself between your teammates in the lineup for ascending or rappelling on your designated rope. That way you have a coach at the bottom and at the top if you need one.
Tie your hair, maps, compass and the waist strap of your backpack behind you before you get to the rope. Anything that can be caught in your equipment WILL be.
Teamwork
Adventure racing is one of the only sports in which you actually have to have your teammates with you, doing exactly what you're doing, glued to your side at all times. That's why adventure racing is just as much an interpersonal journey as a physical one. In the best of times, you will experience moments that will bond you to your teammates in a very special way for life. In the worst of times, you will walk away having experienced the worst aspects of human nature and be left to pick up the pieces of your shattered hopes.
In my experience, a lack of teamwork skills is responsible for at least 40 to 50 percent of the DNFs in adventure racing, and it is far too important a factor to overlook in any discussion about the sport. So here's my two cents:
After years of study in what causes a team to rise from "good" to "world class," I've come to the conclusion that the biggest factors are the attitudes and actions of the individual teammates. In the races my team and I have won, we were not the strongest or the fastest, but we were able to create a "human synergy" -- an ephemeral quality or "magic" that made the TEAM stronger than the collective training and experience of the individual members. If I could bottle it, I would certainly be a millionaire. But after a good deal of thinking about the subject, I have a pretty good idea of the essential elements required for this human synergy. Here's the highlight reel:
8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy
T Total commitment
E Empathy and awareness of teammates
A Adversity management
M Mutual respect
W "We" versus "I" thinking
O Ownership of the project
R Relinquishment of ego
K Kinetic leadership
Tips:
Be the teammate you would want to race with.
Be cognizant of the fact that, due to the intensity of the emotions generated in this sport, the way that you treat people (especially during their lowest moments) will always be remembered.
In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make (for you Beatles fans).
Try to "coach" versus criticize. Extending a hand always has more impact than pointing a finger.
Remember your priorities. Our team's priorities, in order, are to: stay safe, stay friends and go like hell.
Check your ego at the start line.
That's it! I'm spent! That's the full download about getting started in adventure racing from my skull to yours. The rest is up to you! So get out there with your pals and make it happen -- soon. It will be a life-changing and life-affirming experience you will never forget. See you "Out There!"
Robyn Benincasa has competed in over 15 expedition length adventure races and has won both the Eco-Challenge (Borneo 2000) and the Raid Gauloises (1998). When she's not out playing with her new kiwi teammates on Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure, she can be found at her real job as a firefighter for the City of San Diego or working on her newest passion: bringing the teamwork skills of adventure racing and firefighting to the corporate world through www.worldclassteams.com and www.flashoverseminars.com
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