Long Trail Unsupported Training Questions
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Hello everyone, I’m sorry if this is the wrong forum to ask this question is, but it seemed the best fit.
I’m currently training to try to beat the Colorado Trail Unsupported FKT. It’s ~500 miles, with ~100,000′ of elevation gain/loss, and I’ll be starting with a 45lb pack, much of that food (~25lbs). We’re looking at 10, 50 mile days approx. with 10,000′ of gain/loss, and losing 2.5lbs if pack weight a day of food. I’ll be hiking for ~20 hours a day at a blazing speed of 2.5 miles/hour.
This is a realistic goal for me, I feel that my work capacity is honestly at this level. Doing 25 to 50+ mile test hikes with an appropriate pack weight is something that I’ve been doing this year since May.
I’ve also attempted this before last year, but was stymied by intense hip flexor pain – the pain and spasms would rock me awake at night and seriously slowed me down during the day as I could only go so fast before the pain welled up in the front of my upper hips. I’d like to prevent this in my next attempt and am looking for guidance.
From my research, I’m guessing this has to do with weak hip flexors, mostly the glute medius and TFL, and I’ve diligently have done both a stretching routine for my hip flexors (and legs in general), as well as a strength and conditioning routine: clams, lying leg raises, that sort of thing.
Are there any other preventative measures I should be taking? I’m asking here partly because perhaps the “Military” coaches and clients may have some experience with carrying heavy loads and experiencing painful hip flexor spasms like I have. Self assessing, I probably have a very mild anterior pelvic tilt, and a fairly well developed and turned on glute max. I’m also working on optimizing my pack system, and getting a bit trimmer, but with only 2 1/2 months left before my next attempt, that weight savings will be marginal.
Thanks for your great question and good luck in your FKT attempt.
Rather than lying in a supine position for your leg raises you might want to try using a slant board or a bench, one end of which is elevated 12 inches or so. This will increase the load on the hip flexors through a range that is more specific to hiking or running. Hanging leg raises are another way to up the ante. While side lying leg raises like clams etc definitely target the glute meds I would try adding in single-leg Romanian Dead Lift as a more running/hiking glute med exercise.
I’ll also ask some other coaches to chime in here.
Scott
From a medical standpoint – I’ll chime in. Chronic ‘Hip Flexor Tendinitis’ is something that is often diagnosed but rarely exists, though it’s certainly not impossible given what you’re attempting. As a sport MD I’d want to assess your hip joint ROM, and see what manoeuvres recreate your pain; I’d also want to get some X-rays. These anterior hip pains can be due to other things such as hip impingement (femoroacetabular impingement), labral pathology or even OA (yes, even in young people). 2 questions: how old are you? Have you had xrays?
If you want to take this offline, email me: andy@evokeendurance.com
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