Training for Fire Season-2 Months Out

Key Takeaways:

• Start incorporating “two a day” training sessions (training twice a day) if you need to do some catching up
• Start adding hiking to your training, 1-2 times per week 
• Maintain cardio and strength training sessions with progressive overload
• Skip to the bottom for a sample Daily/Weekly Training schedule

We’re assuming that for most seasonals, the start date for fire season (typically involving at least a few weeks of office time for training and onboarding) is at the end of April or the start of May. Obviously this is going to be region specific and on a district by district basis, but this should still give you a rough idea on where you want to be at the two month out mark.

Hiking

If you haven’t done much hiking during the offseason, then March is the time for you to get back into it. By this time the snow is (hopefully) receding in the mountains, leaving the trails open for throwing a pack on and hitting some vertical. If you’re new to the job and are wondering where you should go specifically, ask the crew/engine/etc. that you’re joining where they train and then go train on that. A lot of crews have a mountain they like to train on, and knowing the trail route and distance will be a big advantage when you show up for the first PT session. If however you can’t hike that specific mountain or there isn’t a trail or route that the crew your joining is training on, the main things you are looking for are:

• Elevation gain of 2,000 ft. 
• Distance of 1-2 miles
• Pack weight of 25-35 lbs. 

Obviously finding something that matches the exact criteria here is going to be hard to do, but if you’re in the ballpark you’ll be doing fine. If there isn’t anything close to this in your area, find a trail that you can do multiple times in a PT session to get the desired elevation gain and distance, or if all else fails, find some stairs. 

GOAL:

• Hike 1-2 times/week
• Weight range of 25-35 pounds
• Weekly total mileage of 20-30 miles (running and hiking)
• Consistency, remember that hiking is the job, be consistent in getting those hikes in 1-2 times/week

Cardio

Hopefully you’ve been doing at least some running during the offseason and were staying in decent aerobic shape. If not I would highly recommend starting now, as having a good aerobic base going into the start of fire season will do wonders for your performance. In training for cardio, I would highly suggest using the Maffetone Method, which is basically: 80% of your aerobic training takes place below your maximum aerobic function threshold (MAF). To determine your MAF, use the formula:

Maximum Aerobic Threshold  =  180 – your age

So if you are 25 years old, you want 80% of your training to be below 155 beats per minute. To really dial this down I would recommend investing in some sort of watch that has the capability of tracking your heart rate. However if this is too cost prohibitive, a good way to get this training in without the tech is to just really slow it down on the majority of your runs, think running at a pace where you can hold a conversation. 

The other 20% of your cardio training should consist of tempo runs, sprints, things that will really jack the heart rate up. In applying this to wildland firefighting, hill sprints are a great exercise to really light up the legs, but you can’t go wrong with a healthy mix of tempo runs and regular sprints. 

GOAL: 

• Continue to build your aerobic base
• 80% of your aerobic training should be medium distance or long runs at a slow pace, 20% at a pace above MAF.
• Weekly total mileage between 20-30 miles (running and hiking)

Strength

As with cardio training, ideally you’ll have been strength training as well throughout the offseason, but if not, now is the time to get after it. There are a million different ways to strength train, and everyone, especially in the fire communit,y has their own programs and methods they follow, and pretty much all of them will get the job done, so long as you don’t injure yourself and are strategically using progressive overload. For myself, I have seen the best results from incorporating a Push/Pull/Legs routine, doing each once to twice a week. For a really great breakdown on a decent PPL workout routine, I’d recommend watching these Youtube videos: 

I would also recommend adding pushups, pullups, and a ton of lunges into these push/pull/leg workouts. The lunges in particular will be very helpful going into fire season. Don’t think of doing just 3×12 sets of lunges either, think of doing a couple hundred in one go. As a general rule you can never do too many push ups, pullups, and lunges.

Also feel free to swap some exercises for others depending on the accessibility to equipment you have, just remember the goal is to hit every muscle group for that specific day.

GOAL:

• Do not injure yourself, bullet proof and injury proof your body with strength training
• Improve your efficiency in doing compound lifts: add cleans, KB swings, things ike that 1-2 times per week

Recovery and Deload

Just as it’s important to have consistent, quality training days and weeks, it is just as important to have time to allow the body to rest and recover. If you feel like you hit the week hard and had a solid week of training, feel free to take a recovery day. This can include a short walk, some stretching, etc. Another thing to take into consideration is every 4-5 weeks take the next week as a deload week. During the deload week you cut your cardio/strength/volume by 25-50%. So essentially the 5 mile run you did the week before becomes a 2.5-3.75 mile run during the deload week. The week after the deload week you go back to regular training and progressive overload. 

Example March Training Schedule (4 weeks)

Week 1 and 2

Week 3 and 4

* Pick one based on where you’re feeling weakest, if you’re crushing your hikes but your cardio sucks, add some long runs in and vice versa.

NOTES:

• Add or subtract the volume as you see fit, add or subtract cardio and strength as you see fit, this is meant more to give you an idea of the training block for the month that you’ll want to roughly achieve, but is in no way meant to be an exact schedule to follow.
• Remember the goal of cardio is to build an aerobic base for your overall physical performance, the goal of strength is to make you efficient in moving your body and to bulletproof yourself from injury, and the goal of hiking is to be able to do it pretty damn well, since it’s your job.