Getting into Adventure Racing

[Frank.S]

Ive been wanted to get into adventure racing for some time. Most of the things I have alot of individual experience in, minus paddling (Have some courses coming up for that). I was wondering how to get started? I know there is an 18 hour race at the end of summer that I would like to attend. Is it to late to prepare for that one?

Also, this forum is great and all, but is there any bigger forums dedicated to adventure racing? Just looking for some good reads and such.

Thanks for the help.

[ODB]

Hey Frank, good to see you here. An 18 hour race is doable in a couple of months. Two things you need to concider. 1. What kind of shape are you in now? 2. How well do you want to do in the race.

As far as help getting into it, I'll direct you to my site www.goplayoutside.net. I have a message board that is small but we have been answering these very questions for others. Also I have links to larger sites that may help. If the race has a web site check it might have a message board where you can find other people interested in putting a team together. If they don't have a message board contact the race director. They often will help people find teams and give advise. Hope to see you on my board or around here some more. JP has some of the best trainers in the country on this board so it is worth it asking for input on your training program.

Joe

[Frank.S]

Im in decent shape. In 2 months though, I could be quite a bit better.

Im not worried about the biking, thats my strong point. Ive raced lots in the past, hell I work in the industry.

The trailrunning and such Ill need some work on, i havnt been out hiking and such much more then once a week in the past few months. The actual trail concerns and getting lost im not to concerned about, ive been getting more and more into mountaineering lately which seems like it would help a ton for this type of stuff.

Im mostly concerned about anything water related. Ive only been in a kyack a handful of times and im sure im not very efficient.

For my first race, finishing would just be the goal I figure.

[Jean-Paul]

What do you do Frank? Other than racing mountain bikes I mean.

You sound like you are probably in shape for an 18 hour race. That is a good length to start with. The dynamic that makes typical adventure racing so much fun is the team aspect... You have to race with others, usually coed, and all sorts of things come out of that. Talk about team building skills, when you are fatigued and your muscles are cramping and you have massive blisters covering your feet, keeping your spirits up while lost in the dark and helping a teammate who is bonking while you want to move faster is a great test.

Joe (ODB) and I have done some interesting training together in the past. I usually bike a couple days a week, do a run or two, run the stairs in my building when I am crunched on time (I have 41 stories), and then brick training on the weekend, which involves some kind of combined training. I would definitely advise paddling as much as you can until the race. Being a mediocre paddler won't ruin you, but getting into a canoe for the first time with other new paddlers and you will really bomb. I'm not particularly fast, but I can keep the boat straight and hold a pace. I paddled against Joe in a race last year and he beat me by 21 seconds!

One of the best things I ever did to improve my racing confidence is to do an overnight training with a couple of friends. We deliberately started training after a long, hard Friday at 8pm, paddled 10 miles and hiked 24 miles, finishing up around 7am. It was pretty gruelling in the wee-hours. It was harder than most beginner races, so we all knew we could take whatever they would throw at us. That is where most teams fall apart due to stress from mental fatigue, chiggers, and blisters. We all kept eachother up and stayed pretty positive, despite getting rained on and running out of water and gatorade (we did get to restock midway).

Sounds like you have the mountain biking down so I won't presume to advise you on training for that.

Welcome to the forums! Keep us up to date on your training and your race results.