Christian's marathon

While for most people running a marathon is the goal of a lifetime, for the Red Bull X-Alps athletes jogging 42km is just another part of their extensive endurance training.

Austrian athlete Christian Amon recently completed a marathon distance session in 3hr 38min around the streets of his home town, Hallstatt.

"Christian ran his in just over 3hrs 30 mins with his average heart rate (HR) at 80% of maximum," says coach Eddie Fletcher. "The logfile shows a steady HR for just over 2 hours and then a gradual drift upwards to peak at 88% of his maximum.

"His average speed was 12 kph and total calories consumed were 2900, slightly less than Aidan's walk/ run marathon where he used up 3200kcal, but his hourly consumption was significantly more - 800kcal/h compared to Aidan's 600kcal/h.

"All in all, this is a good demonstration of even pace running and great endurance training."

Tip: check out Eddie's Suunto t6c Running Guide for advice and information on getting the best out of your Suunto heart rate monitor and training.

Aidan "trundles away the miles."

British Red Bull X-Alps competitor has been beefing up his training, recently completing a long distance session using a variable speed technique and carrying a rucksack to "make it more realistic."

"This is a marathon session in which Aidan walked or jogged 42km in 5hr 20min," says coach Eddie Fletcher. "His average heart rate (HR) was 64% of the maximum and the highest it went was 73%.

"Average speed was 7.9km/h with a maximum of 13.4km/h. His calorie consumption was over 3000kcal which works out at about 600kcal per hour.


Aidan picks up the story: "There are only so many hill repeats of Richmond Hill that you can stand before you get a little bored, and you get strange looks from people worried for your sanity.

"I therefore decided to head to the wonderful Dorset Coast to attempt a 42km route along the notoriously hilly coastal path. The hills here may not be as high as the Alps, but what they lack in height they make up for in number.

"My average HR was 123 meaning I used 3200kcal, although I ate so many Jelly Babies en-route that I may have actually put on weight.

"Running a new route like this is a great way of training, the countryside and views are stunning, which it makes it so much easier to trundle away the miles."

This type of training is extremely important for Red Bull X-Alps athletes, says Eddie. "Energy efficiency will be important when in the Alps."

"Walking is very energy efficient (as expected) and it can be quickly seen how running, then climbing causes fatigue to build quickly and uses far more energy. A Red Bull X-Alps athlete must be able to balance the amount of walking, running, climbing and flying properly."

Michael's cross training

As spring takes hold, Michael Gebert made the most of the remaining snow with a bike/ ski/ speedflying session, and used his t6c to measure total altitude gain.

Michael takes up the story:

"Last week I had some spare time and took the opportunity to use the snow conditions which are still really good.


"Previously I've made some short two hour trips to my nearest mountain, the Nebelhorn. It's five minutes away and also a really good flying spot. But this time there was fog in the valley and it was better to go skiing than flying. I did this trip with a good friend and it was a perfect tour to the 2400m high mountain.


Going up took five hours with skis and speeding down took only four minutes with the speedglider! Great fun! For first kilometers we rode by bike, with ski boots and skies on our shoulders."

More Honza: 'bread and butter' (or taco?) endurance training

In addition to hiking and flying, Honza has also been mixing up his land based training, with this 6.5hr bike, hike, hike, bike(!) session.

"Yesterday I biked 35km to the closest mountains and did two uphill hike/ runs and then biked back," says Honza.

"This is not too fatiquing," says coach Eddie Fletcher, "but requires a significant calorie input."


The logfile recorded on his t6c estimated that Honza needed 3470kcals to replenish himself afterwards.

"On the ride back, I stopped to eat six tacos at a taco stand," he says. According to Taco Bell, one taco is approximately 200kcal, so Honza would still need substantially more fuel to recover from this effort.

However, the session cost Honza a little bit more than just a few Mexican delicacies.

Honza explains more:

"At the end of the second hike/ run I took a dip in the lake. I had my cell phone in my pocket so it too went for a swim, and messed up the screen. Took $25 to fix."

Simulating the Red Bull X-Alps: Honza hikes and flies

In order to train for actual conditions that he will likely encounter during the Red Bull X-Alps, Honza Rejmanek (USA) has been hiking up mountains with a paraglider and flying back down again.

Take-off. Honza doing some hike-and-fly training in the USA

From the readings on the logfile, it's possible to determine that Honza climbed and glided down two mountains over a period of 2hr 6min 4sec.


Coach Eddie Fletcher explains more:

"This log shows the benefit the Red Bull X-Alps athletes will get whilst flying. They reduce heart rate (HR) and conserve energy. The more flying they do the better. Of course coach Fletcher suspects that in the race conditions HR will be elevated somewhat, but flying will always be better than hiking!

"Over the two hours, Honza's log show significant reduction in kcal need compared to Christian’s equivalent run (see previous blog entry) and has a Training Effect of 2.8 compared to 3.4."

Honza in flight mode during the 2007 Red Bull X-Alps