Training for Fire Season- 1 Month Out

Key Takeaways:

• Continue with “2 a day” training sessions to improve any areas of weakness
• Increase number of hikes to 2-3 times per week as needed
• Focus on longer trail runs for your cardio sessions
• The last week of training before your start date decrease training volume/weight by 25-50%

Oh boy! Only one month out from the start of fire season! Hopefully by now you have a solid aerobic base, a decent amount of strength, and your boots are broken in and your’re in good hiking shape. This last month is a good month to focus on any areas where you feel you may be deficient. For example, if you haven’t hiked much but have been lifting a lot of weights, increase your hiking sessions and decrease your strength training sessions. Above all, have fun during this last month, and don’t get hurt!

Hiking

With one month to go, we need to make sure our hiking ability is dialed in. If you followed the guidelines in our “2 months out” post, your legs should be feeling pretty strong. In addition to adding another day of hiking to our training week, we’re going to add another type of hike. As a refresher, last month’s hike (Hike 1) consisted of:

Hike 1

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

For this last month of training, we’re introducing Hike 2, which consists of:

Hike 2

• Elevation gain of 1,000-2,000 ft.
• Distance of 3-5+ miles
• Pack weight of 45-55 lbs.

With this additional hike we’re increasing the distance and pack weight to simulate a long shift out on the line. The longer hike also allows us to practice our hydration and fueling during our training. Look to do Hike 2 at least once a week.

Goal

• Hike 2-3 times/week
• Incorporate Hike 2 in addition to Hike 1
• Practice hydration and fueling on the longer efforts

Cardio

Not a whole lot will change this month with our cardio training. We want to continue to build our aerobic base, and to do that we use the Mafetone Method. For a deeper dive on the Mafetone Method, see the “2 month out” post.

Ideally at this point in the year the trails in your area are nice enough to be runable. You want the majority of your runs to be on trails with at least some elevation gain and loss, and terrain that’s tricky enough to improve your agility but not enough to injure yourself.

Depending on where you’re at physically, you can substitute a trail run in place of a hike. Do this based on an honest assessment of your physical abilities. If you’ve built up a monster aerobic base already, it might be more beneficial to throw some weight on and go for a hike instead of a run.

Goal

• Continue to build your aerobic base with trail runs and tempo runs
• Substitute a run for a hike (or visa versa) based on perceived weakness
• Weekly total mileage of 30-40 miles (includes hike miles)

Strength

At this point in our training cycle, you can ease off the gas a bit when it comes to strength training. The increased weight and distance of our hikes will be plenty of stimulus to improve our strength where it matters. Therefore, I’d recommend only doing 2-3 days a week of dedicated strength training. Feel free to sprinkle these in on the lower milage or non hike/running days.

Again, the overall goal of strength training is to injury proof our bodies and improve our efficiency of movement under heavy loads. You’ll see a way better performance on the line if you can squat 100 times with 115 pounds than if you can squat 1 time with 350.

Goals

• Avoid injury and focus on movement efficiency and improving areas of weakness
• Strength train 2-3 times/week
• Add in compound lifts such as cleans, KB Swings, etc.

Recovery and Deload

Nothing to add to our Recovery and Deload section that we didn’t cover in last month’s training post. Just to recap, we want to cut our cardio/strength/volume by 25-50%. The 6 mile run becomes 3-4.5 miles. your 180 squat drops to 90-135 lbs, etc. This last Recovery and Deload week will be your most important because the following week will be the start of your fire season. Really focus on good hydration, nutrition, and getting plenty of rest, and being honest with your deload volume.

Trust me, you’ll probably feel like pushing it for this week. You’ll want to go harder on the hikes and runs and lift heavy. The time to do that is the SECOND to last week of training. This last week rest and stretch, hydrate, and move the body, but don’t push it. Going into the first week of fire season PT you want to be feeling strong and well rested, not already sore and gassed out from the week before. Take this Recovery Deload week serious.

Goals

• Cut cardio/strength/volume by 25-50%
• Rest and stretch, focus on good hydration and nutrition
• Get ready to crush next week

Example April Training Schedule (4 Weeks)

Week 1, 2, 3

Week 4-Recovery and Deload

*Pick one based on perceived weakness

Best of luck this fire season!