A tahr hunt is not a particularly technical undertaking. It is, however, a particularly aerobic one. The hunters who suffer on the hill are not the unskilled hunters; they are the unfit ones. This chapter sketches a workable training programme for the twelve weeks before a hunt. It is not a substitute for the deeper material in Steve House and Scott Johnston's Training for the New Alpinism, which is the reference work for serious mountain athletes and which the Uphill Athlete website summarises and extends. If you are training seriously, read them too.
The four pillars.
Aerobic base. The dominant component, and the one most amateur hunters skip. Long, steady, low-intensity work — heart rate in the conversational range — is what builds the engine that drives the seventh hour of a long day. You should be able to walk uphill all day on the hunt; you should be doing that in training, not just running thirty-minute interval sessions.
Strength. Twice a week, focused on legs, hips and core. The goal is durability rather than muscle bulk: knees that hold up under a loaded descent, a core that can carry a pack without low-back failure, a posterior chain that can drive uphill for hours.
Hill specificity. The single most useful workout is walking uphill with a loaded pack. Nothing simulates the hunt better. Stairs, treadmill on incline, hills in the local park, a pack with bricks or sandbags. Frequency matters more than intensity.
Recovery. The least glamorous pillar and the one most often violated. Sleep, easy days, food, and one full rest day a week.
A twelve-week structure.
Weeks 1 to 4 — Base. Three or four aerobic sessions a week, each 45–90 minutes, mostly easy walking or hiking. Two strength sessions a week. Pack weight on hill walks: 5–10 kg. One rest day. Total weekly volume: 4 to 6 hours.
Weeks 5 to 8 — Build. Four aerobic sessions a week, with one of them a longer walk of 2–3 hours. Two strength sessions. Pack weight on hill walks progressing from 10 kg to 18 kg. One rest day. Total weekly volume: 6 to 8 hours.
Weeks 9 to 11 — Peak. Four to five aerobic sessions, one of them a long day of 3–5 hours of uphill walking with a 20–25 kg pack. Two strength sessions, slightly lighter. Add a back-to-back: a long walk on Saturday followed by a moderate walk on Sunday. One rest day. Total weekly volume: 8 to 10 hours.
Week 12 — Taper. Half the volume of week 11. Two short, easy walks. One short strength session. Sleep more. Eat well. Drop pack weight. The taper is not a chance to "make up" missed sessions. Trust the work.
Heart rate zones.
If you have a heart rate monitor, the bulk of your aerobic work should sit in Zone 2 — usually defined as 60–70% of maximum heart rate, or simply the pace at which you can hold a conversation. Most people train too hard for too little benefit; the boredom of long Zone 2 sessions is the point.
A small amount of harder work — Zone 4 intervals, maybe one session a week from week 5 onwards — sharpens the engine and improves tolerance for the steeper sections of the hunt. But it is not where the gains are made. The gains are in the long, slow, weighted miles.
Strength sessions.
A simple, durable template:
- Goblet squats or back squats, 3 sets of 8, moderate weight.
- Walking lunges with a pack on, 3 sets of 20 steps.
- Step-ups onto a bench or box, 3 sets of 12 each leg.
- Romanian deadlifts, 3 sets of 8.
- Hanging leg raises or planks, 3 sets to honest fatigue.
- Standing barbell press or dumbbell press, 3 sets of 8 — your shoulders carry pack straps for hours.
Do not chase one-rep maxes. The goal is durability under load, not a personal best on the bar.
Specific sessions worth memorising.
Weighted hill walk. The most useful single workout. Find a steep hill, fire road or staircase. Load a pack with what you'll carry on the trip. Walk up and down it for 60–90 minutes at a steady pace. Twice a week from week 5 onwards.
Long walk. One day a week from week 7, walk 3 to 5 hours on uneven ground with a moderately loaded pack. The point is time on feet under load.
Recovery walk. One day a week, 60 minutes easy with no pack. Helps the body absorb the harder days.
Strength back-off. One strength session a week is heavy; one is moderate. Both in the 8 to 12 rep range.
Common mistakes.
- Too much running. Running is excellent cross-training, but it does not replicate hill walking with a pack. A hunter who runs a marathon a year may still be slower up a tussock face than someone who has spent twelve weeks weighted on stairs.
- Skipping the long walk. The long walk is the single workout that closest resembles the hunt. Don't skip it.
- Junk volume in the last fortnight. Trust the taper.
- Not training with the actual gear. The first time you put on your hunting boots and your pack should not be on the trail to the helicopter pad. Train in your kit. Find what rubs. Adjust.
- Ignoring pack-on descent. The downhills break knees. Practice them with weight.
The honest test.
If, in week 10, you can comfortably walk uphill with a 20 kg pack for three hours and still want to eat dinner after, you are ready. If you cannot, you have two weeks to find another two hours a week and to get there.
For deeper material on the underlying physiology, the structure of long-cycle programmes, and the science of aerobic base, the Uphill Athlete website is the best free reference available.