Prep for a 1000km walk?

I recently saw that in the south of Sweden they have a 1000km walk. It is through forest, across cliffs, along beaches. Along the way there are 82 cabins to sleep and have a fire for the night.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with big walks, and what they did to prep for them, and what they took with them?

Thanks!

 

I'm afraid I haven't, but good luck and I love your signature, nice touch!!!

 

I've never attempted that kind of distance, no advice etc here I'm afraid, but good luck!

Noticed you're my birthday twin as well @Mad Hatter!

 

Ah thanks! I like it too!

Woo! Do you have anything special planned for the big day?

Thankyou! That's very helpful!

 

Striding it out, I reckon you'll average 3 mph (on decent surfaces). If you're reasonably fit, you should be able to do 18 miles with a back pack on, in a day, and still have plenty of time and energy to relax and enjoy yourself, BUT, would you be able to do that again the next day, and the next, for about 33 days?

I've never attempted to walk anything like that far, so my very limited advice might be wrong, but this is based on demanding physical activity in general (its actually based on my experience of martial arts training ).

Anyone can do stuff for a short time. Its when it comes to repeating it for a longer time that you find out where you're weak spots are. So the obvious prep for a multi-day walk is to go on some long walks closer to home, and not just at the weekends, but over several consecutive days. Then see what starts to hurt, and focus additional training there.

I'd expect the legs, lower back and shoulders to take most of the strain. Legs for obvious reasons, shoulders because they'll be taking your back pack, and lower back because anything that puts weight on your spine buts load on your lower back. So I'd be looking at some additional training in those areas right from the outset (pressups, squats, all the core exercises).

You have to remember also that even if you are physically fit in general, your muscles can only store so much energy, and its up to your cardiovascular and respiratory systems to keep them fuelled. Usually easy because we spend so much time normally not burning out that your heart etc can just take its time over many hours to slowly replenish the energy reserves in your muscles. That's not the case if you push yourself day after day, so everything is going to be working extra hard. So, to help in that area, I'd be throwing in some cardio training. Some high intensity interval training will sort you out there. Have a google for 'tabata'. Its a bit of a new trendy thing, but there are some decent audio tracks that give you the timing (20 seconds going hell for leather in any exercise til you nearly burn out, then 10 seconds rest before moving onto the next exercise). Its basically the trendy name for high intensity interval training, but you find better audio on youtube if you search for the trendy name.

Then there are some mundane but important considerations. One that springs to mind is underwear. Yes, I'm talking sweaty undies now. At a recent event (a training seminar followed immediately by grading - over 5 hours of intensive activity) I actually wore a hole right through my skin and actually bled. For real. After some research into this delicate problem, I followed a number of recommendations and bought some super undercrackers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Armour-Heatgear-Short-Boxer/dp/B005CR1O8I

They might be a bit expensive for unders, but its worth it. They wick sweat away from your skin, keeping you dry and fresh, and they don't chafe. Well, someone had to offer this advice

If it was me, I'd also disregard any normal diet for the duration of the trek. Healthy food is great, but if I was doing a lot for a long time, I'd be wanting calories, lots of them, in the most readily available form possible. That means lots of sugar. Kendal cake and chocolate in the back pack, decent meals at the overnight stops. Plenty of protein at the overnight stops though, when you're body is made to do work, it has a very clever way of producing glucose to fuel you. It breaks down muscle tissue. Ok, it breaks down fat too, but muscle is easier to break down, so that goes first. Of course it comes back when it heals, but only if you eat enough protein to build new muscle tissue to replace the damaged tissue. So lots of carbs immediately before and during the walking sessions, and lots of protein when you stop for the day. And of course, it should go without saying, make absolutely certain you don't run out of juice (water, juice whatever). Dehydration can come on quickly, and its not pretty.

So, to sum up, if it was me I'd:

• Do lots of works on consecutive days to see how I fare and which bits of me are likely to fail first (and therefore need more training)
• Do lots of cardio training to make sure my cardio and respiritory systems are up to the job of keeping the muscles fuelled over many days of way above average load
• Do core exercises (planks, push-ups, sit-ups etc) to make sure my shoulders and lower back wont suffer too much
• Get some good sweat-wicking undercrackers to make sure I don't... well lets not go there.
• Ensure I had plenty of chocolate and kendal cake for my back pack, to keep me fuelled with the most readily available calories possible, make sure in advance that I knew I'd have enough water/juice (know how far it is between towns, and make sure you have enough in your pack for that distance, but not too much because liquid is heavy).
• Make sure it was leisure, and not torture. That basically means knowing in advance that you can do it fairly easily.

 

Wow, such an in-depth answer. Thankyou so much! I read this to my partner and she agreed with starting off with something smaller, and once all of the xmas festivities are out of the way we are going to take a 2 week vacation somewhere and try it out for 13/14 days of walking.

Thankyou for every piece of information in there, there's too much to thank for individually.

P.S, ill take a look at the undies