Training for the Barkley Marathons
I have no coach and very little organized running experience. But, maybe this could be to my advantage. I have thought of training as filling three buckets. While Barkley is thought of as a running race, a good loop time is between 8 and 9 hours for 26 miles. I’m my mind this means there is running, power hiking, and extreme elevation gain. These are my buckets: Running, power hiking, and vertical gain.
I have bounced between three styles while trying to maintain a day off each week. This has shifted my focus with each workout. On Vertical gain days I don’t look at the mileage. The workout is completely guided by the feet of elevation gain. But, on running days I work only to either time or mileage. To fill the power hiking bucket I fueled my inner snowbird.
Living at elevation (Denver and Tahoe) has been really good for my fitness and performance, so with the Barkley Marathons looming, I wanted to get back to elevation. Through a strange series of events, I ended up in Montana at 5,000’ of elevation. There is a hill nearby that gains 1,000’ in half a mile. There are also many ranch roads to run on. But, since it’s winter traction is often necessary. Because it is winter, I had to go elsewhere to fill my power hiking bucket.
Lots of things fell into place and I was able to escape to Arizona to put in 10 days of training on dry trails with a backpack on. I felt this was important because the fast packing style is essentially what got me into the Barkley Marathons. I am down here now, and the goal is to log 300-350 miles before leaving. I have always found 300 miles is about the sweet-spot for being in FKT shape.
There should be another training update before the Barkley Marathons.
