Dr. Jeni McNeal and Dave Adlard, founding members of Team Adventure Sports Week, along with an unofficial support crew of Rick McCharles of www.besthike.com completed the 94 mile/47,000 feet elevation Wonderland Trail in 63:03, June 25 – 28.

The main reason that so many adventure racers struggle with the paddling legs is that we just don’t have a ton of time to train effectively, given that we have to be proficient in up to 6 different sports at a time. When I decided to train for the Yukon River Quest this year (first of all, what was I thinking?), I knew there was no way I was going to get in enough face to face time with the ocean and my surfski to train for a 460 mile race, so I started doing the research about alternative training methods. I spoke to my friend who coaches the junior olympic canoe and kayak team in San Diego, and he suggested the KayakPro Speedstroke ERG.

The tips below are from Adventure World contributor and long distance hiker, Justin Lichter. We will also be posting sample packing lists from Justin for several regions.

The first day of spring has passed and Old Man Winter’s wrath is starting to give way to spring weather. It is a great time of year to start planning and looking into a long distance hike or expedition; or a shorter hike.

Here would be a few pointers that I would recommend.

With the Yukon River Quest starting today…we felt the following tips on endurance paddling were appropriate. The tips by Paul Cox appeared in our May 2010 issue.

Love to paddle and curious about long distance events? Well, there can be too much of a good thing — if you’re not prepared. Follow these five tips to increase your chances of finishing a long race and have fun doing it.

What started as a contest to pick 2 guys and 2 girls for the opportunity to train and race together on Team RaceDayRush.com at the Saucony RockstAR Adventure Race on July 24th 2010 gave way to an overwhelming response in which 10 ‘awesome’ females were chosen for the Team RaceDayRush.com/Phat Chicks contest. What follows is the first two training videos.

Endurance sports in the Middle East are funny things. It’s true, every country in every region has its own challenges. UK athletes often endure blinding wind and rain. Scandinavians deal with year-round snow and plummeting temperatures. The unrelenting humidity in SE Asia literally saps everything from its athletes. In the Middle East, we deal with the heat.

Adventure Racing is one of the only sports in which you actually have to have your teammates with you, doing exactly what you’re doing, glued to your side at all times. That’s why Adventure Racing is just as much an interpersonal journey as a physical one. In the best of times, you will experience moments that will bond you to your teammates in a very special way for life.

You may not have to worry about doing any climbing in the sprint races, but you will more than likely have at least a rappel in the longer races. In expedition and 24-hour races, you may also have to do an ascent with jumars. Both are very fun and relatively easy to learn.

Most people considering an adventure race are pretty familiar with mountain biking and what it takes to train for it, so I wont spend a lot of time here. I’ll just cover a few tips that are adventure racing specific:

Eighty and ninety percent of the races you will enter will have some kind of navigation or orienteering component. It’s a bit intimidating at first, but once you start learning and have some successes, this is an aspect of the race that you will truly learn to love. And learning the basics is not all that hard. If I can (sort of) do it, anyone can. Good navigating provides an incredible competitive advantage, and most experienced racers will admit that strategy, team tactics and navigation are a far bigger factor in their team’s success than speed. That’s why it’s no surprise that athletes in their mid-forties are still winning the big events!

Becoming a good paddler is the fastest way to gain a competitive advantage in adventure racing, since it’s the weak link for most of the teams that cross over from triathlon. It’s very easy to gain a 10-15 minute lead in an average two hour paddle if you’re good—a feat that’s almost impossible to accomplish on mountain biking and running legs. Paddling sections can be anything from a nice flat water cruise on a lake to class IV whitewater and six foot ocean swells, so get out there and practice in as many situations as you can find. Just remember to always take a buddy with you and stay within sight of one another.

Training:
*For a race of 12 hours or less, you should follow a ½ marathon training plan, but do most of your runs on trails, if possible.
*For a race of more than 12 hours, you should follow a full marathon-training plan and use the same guidelines.

Thanks to the folks over at CheapTents.com for sending us this interview with Ian Adamson to post on AWM.

When it comes to Adventure Racing, Ian Adamson has achieved phenomenal success, winning the World Championships no less than six times! He has achieved fifteen world championship podium finishes and fourteen international adventure race championship titles, including Eco-Challenge and Primal Quest.

Adventurer Lei Wang departs in less than 2 weeks to make an attempt on Everest. Born in Beijing, she says that she grew up as a typical city girl. She graduated with a B.S degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in Beijing followed by an M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After working in the IT field for several years, she decided to pursue her M.B.A. degree at Wharton. It was there that she was first introduced to ice climbing and mountaineering and climbed her first glacier mountain in Ecuador (Cotopaxi). Upon graduation, she traveled to Africa where she reached the summit of Kilimanjaro.

I have been watching some of the threads and getting inquiries of late from friends and colleagues about snowshoeing. With the enormous amount of snow that has hit the mid-Atlantic states this season, the race staff has suggested to the participants of the Endorphin Fix that they add snowshoes to their gear list. So, we wanted to post our tips from Travis Macy (that appeared in our January 2010 issue) on snowshoeing.

Phatchicks.com, in partnership with RACEDAYRUSH, are hosting a contest where four selected participants will go through a 12 week training program in order to qualify for one of two spots on Team RACEDAYRUSH.com at Saucony RockstAR Adventure Race on July 24th 2010.

I have spent my life playing sports. A product of the American Midwest, my youth is best remembered as an athletic menagerie of freshwater lakes, kayaks, canoes, cliffs, campsites, forests and fields of grass as green as any gracing the Irish countryside.

I grew up playing organized football – the proper ‘football’, not the American bastardization of the beautiful game – basketball, tennis, golf and whatever else I could do. I have splished and splashed in a good percentage of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes, traversed the tributaries of the mighty Mississippi and camped, climbed and competed in her pine forests for most of my life.

Do you remember the first time you crossed a finish line? Was it a Marathon, Adventure Race, or Ironman? Maybe it was crossing a finish line for a charity run? No matter what race or how long it took, you always remember the first time you crossed that line…

As AW covers the upcoming all-women off-road rally raid, the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles we decided to catch up with a team of first-time competitors to get a glimse of their perspective on this unique évent and take a look as they prepare for the unknown.

Some people talk about the weather when they have nothing else to talk about, whereas climbers and cyclists and runners and skiers, etc. talk about it all the time – as it plays a crucial role in their adventures. Weather patterns affect everything from the clothes they wear, the gear they bring, and when they head out. Recently, SLATE.COM posted an article about the Wind Chill Factor being somewhat deceptive and outdated. Apparently, for the past 60 years, the windchill factor has been grossly exaggerated, and a new “toned down” system has been created that is more accurately calibrated with the effects of the wind.

Words I here regularly around the house. My wife Paulette Kirby has joined up with Team Kayak Lake Mead for the February Patagonia Expedition Race. But we will have NO training at our house.

OK. I understand, but then what do you call last weekend?

As I tend to bike and run alone most of the time, I am always carrying my iPod but am always getting the headphone wires caught on my hydration pack or arm and pulling the ear buds from my ears. The answer came in something as simple as the Magneat. The solution is only about the size of a half dollar and gives you something to do with all of that extra wire coming from your MP3 player. I always attach my iPod to my hydration pack d-ring for easy access and by placing the Magneat near by, I am able to wrap the excess around circular piece. It attaches to your clothing via a 2 piece powerful magnetic clip that I have used with everything from shirts to cycling jackets.

My training program
As I said, I started to train for Mongolia 2010 way back in October 2008 but even before then I was always working out. I have given myself ample time to get conditioned both mentally and physically for this expedition.

I believe in taking things slowly and not overexert my body. I have measured goals that give measured challenges. I may readjust my objective as I go along to suit the body.