Anyone ever done an Adventure Race?

[Martin Brown]

I've been asked to join a co-ed team doing the Blue Ridge, GA Adventure Race. From what I've been told it's about a 10 mile trail run, 30 mile mountain bike and a 10 mile paddle ( in 3 person canoe). I'm told that it will take between 8-10 hours. There is no set course so those numbers could change depending on the choices you make. I feel pretty confident that I can complete it but was wondering if anyone had any training tips. I'm not worried about the navigation part, as the guy I'm doing it with has completed two Eco Challenges so he knows what he's doing.......I just have to go where he tells me to go. Just for reference and background, I am a 39 year old male and have been doing Crossfit for 18 months now very consistently except for a period of about 4 months this past fall where I was a slacker. My best Fran time is just over 5 minutes. I despise running but do it where rx'd. I've got a really lousy knee so my pace is not that fast. The last time a 15k was prescribed I averaged just over a 10 minute mile. I am a relatively strong mountain biker (weekend warrior) but have never been a "cyclist".

In a nutshell I'm not really worried about being able to complete the race. I think I can do that. The problem is that I was a last minute replacement so I only have about 4 weeks to train, although you could make the case that I've been training for 18 months. Does anyone have any advice on training for this thing? Should I just stay the course and continue to do Crossfit or should I implement some other training into my diet for the next few weeks? I'm a little hesitant to add more running as my knee doesn't do well when Crossfit goes heavy on running.

Advice?

[James Shelby]

Dude, if you have been an xfitter for a while, you should be golden. You might work on the paddle, but remember, as a team, your buddies will help make up for each others deficiencies. Good luck, it'll be a blast!

[Jay Cohen]

already a thread going?????

[David Weber]

I competed in an adventure race a few years ago that was similar to yours. We started with a 30 mile bike ride, did a 6.5 mile paddle in a double kayak and finished with a 6 mile run through a misquito infested woods. Unfortunately at the time I had not heard of CrossFit. My training consisted of a few long bike rides (20 miles each), a couple 30 minute runs, and 2 hours total in a kayak on a lake. I only had 4 weeks to prepare and ended up doing just fine in the race, so I think your background is plenty strong to get you through the race.

The one thing I would have done differently in my case is actually try the food I was going to eat during the race, under race conditions in practice. Lets see if I can explain. I planned on eating protein bars on the race and drinking gatorade (I learned my lesson). Well my plan failed because the gatorade was way too sweet for me after the first hour and I couldn't get the protein bars down because they felt like they dehydrated me too much. So figure out your in-race nutrition and the rest should fall into place.

[Jakub Kruhlik]

fitness wise you will be fine. however i would def. recommend getting in some quality paddle time in so you can work that muscle-memory for the movement, it'll make it less straing in the real race.