image used with permission by Flux Photography

I know you guys are the ultimate authority for training and racing, but I noticed most of your plans focus of races in the  5-20 mile distance.

Next July I am leading a 3 day, 100-mile adventure through the ICW in North Carolina for a group of type 1 diabetics to show the world that adventure is a terrific way to deal with the burden of diabetes.  I wanted to find some info on training for a multi-day adventure. Could you point me in the right direction?

This is a topic that we touched on previously when we addressed nutrition and a pacing approach on race day for The 100 Mile Paddle Race .

We did not, however, discuss training leading up to the race. It seems that muti-day, epic style, are all the race these days as we get this question from time to time.  We guess it is time to tackle the question.

The good news is that training for a 100 mile paddle, or any multi day race,  is not all that much different than training for a single day  ultra distance race like Molokai. The fact of the matter is that most athletes cannot handle super long monster training days . Your goal in training is not to simulate the entire race in one day or go much longer than you are going to in any single day in order to somehow build up enough fitness in a single day and translate that to a multi day effort. Those approaches will only get you burned out. The trick is to be ultra-consistent with your training. Consistent, shorter, workouts add up when it comes to fitness.

What you need are solid back to back training days but don’t overdo it in any single day (e.g. we do not recommend 8 hour paddle training sessions for most athletes). One approach would be to extend our ultra distance 16 week program by  2-4 weeks (make it a 20 week program) and then throughout the program load up 3-4 weekends with back to back longer days in proportion to the length of the paddle on the schedule for that weekend. For example, if there were a 4 hour paddle on Saturday, do a 3 hour paddle on Sunday.

Nothing more than that is needed.

As  we mentioned in the article we linked to in the beginning of this post,  your 3rd race day is about good pacing on  the first 2 days and good nutrition throughout the race. You are also going to be suffering on that third day but you probably already knew that. The real key to success is consistent training for several months leading up to the race and not just a few huge weekend training sessions.

Good luck at the event

Roch