55km Alpine training and man eating trees…
Aidan Toase (GBR) fills us in on his recent training reconnaissance mission to the Alps:
"Well I have had a few weeks in the Alps which was a great chance to fly my new Ozone wing and to practice carrying it around. You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that flying over the Alps is definitely easy than walking over them. The terrain is so severe, making headway on foot is rarely easy.
"Anyhow I have taken this opportunity to simulate the Red Bull X-Alps by walking to a take off point and then flying every day – a great work out. One day was completely unflyable, so I put in a 55km training session with nearly 2000m of ascent covering the distance in 8hr 20min.
"The aim was to simulate the race so I kept my heart rate averaging 100bpm, which meant a good walk uphill followed by a gentle jog at 10km/h down. This was looking great and I figured if I could keep this pace up during the race, it would be fantastic.
"However it is far from clear than I can. At the end of the run not only did I have two beautiful blisters, but the terrain was not that easy either. Even the trees are dangerous (see photo) and look like they will eat unwary competitors for breakfast.
"I ended up tripping over a tree root and after performing a superman act flying through the air, I landed flat on my face and breaking my t6c heart rate monitor (HRM) in the process.
"So although I covered 55km I finished the day bruised with two blisters and a broken HRM... Hmmm this is not going to be easy!"
Says coach Eddie Fletcher: "This logfile of Aidan’s is a good one as it shows what the Red Bull X-Alps athletes may need to do all day in the Alps if flying conditions are not good.
"Steady pace and keeping heart-rate in check will be paramount to conserve energy. Although in this session, Aidan still consumed over 3000 calories!"
"Well I have had a few weeks in the Alps which was a great chance to fly my new Ozone wing and to practice carrying it around. You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that flying over the Alps is definitely easy than walking over them. The terrain is so severe, making headway on foot is rarely easy.
"Anyhow I have taken this opportunity to simulate the Red Bull X-Alps by walking to a take off point and then flying every day – a great work out. One day was completely unflyable, so I put in a 55km training session with nearly 2000m of ascent covering the distance in 8hr 20min.
"The aim was to simulate the race so I kept my heart rate averaging 100bpm, which meant a good walk uphill followed by a gentle jog at 10km/h down. This was looking great and I figured if I could keep this pace up during the race, it would be fantastic.
"However it is far from clear than I can. At the end of the run not only did I have two beautiful blisters, but the terrain was not that easy either. Even the trees are dangerous (see photo) and look like they will eat unwary competitors for breakfast.
"I ended up tripping over a tree root and after performing a superman act flying through the air, I landed flat on my face and breaking my t6c heart rate monitor (HRM) in the process.
"So although I covered 55km I finished the day bruised with two blisters and a broken HRM... Hmmm this is not going to be easy!"
Says coach Eddie Fletcher: "This logfile of Aidan’s is a good one as it shows what the Red Bull X-Alps athletes may need to do all day in the Alps if flying conditions are not good.
"Steady pace and keeping heart-rate in check will be paramount to conserve energy. Although in this session, Aidan still consumed over 3000 calories!"
posted by Suunto At X Alps at
11:04 AM
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