2024 CHALLENGES
Time to get fit? Get motivated? Bag more summits? Then it’s time to focus your efforts on a mountain challenge. Mountain Leader Will Legon has some expert tips to help you do just that in 2024.
There’s something about turning the calendar page from December to January that makes us reflect on life and focus on our hopes and dreams for the future. So if you’re feeling the urge to embrace life and seize the day, perhaps it’s time to set your sights on a mountain challenge? As New Year’s resolutions go, it could just be the inspiration you need to get fitter, get motivated and reap all the benefits that spending more time outdoors provides.
Back in the safety of January 2023, I set myself a New Year’s challenge when I signed up for the OMM – the Original Mountain Marathon. I’ve helped others overcome many challenges in the hills but this was my first mountain marathon. The event involved us (you take part in teams of two) covering many miles over the mountains of Eryri, and navigating through a series of checkpoints over two days. Which, of course, means we needed to carry overnight camping kit and enough rations to last the weekend. My mate who’s signed up with me in this endeavour is 10 years my junior, ex-Army, and no stranger to hiking up and down hills with a huge bag on his back. Oh, and he’s very competitive.
Success on this event comes down to the holy trinity of fitness, good navigation skills and choosing the right kit. And I can tell you now, buying the right kit for the day has been the least of my problems.
So whether you’ve set your sights on the OMM, the Welsh 3000s or the Cuillin Ridge – and if, like me, you weren’t born with the energy of the world’s fittest springer spaniel on steroids – here are a few top tips on how to prepare for your next mountain challenge.
Boost motivation
Whatever form of exercise you choose for your training, a key factor to your success will be the willpower to keep at it. After all, if your challenge event is six months away, that’s a long time in which to get distracted.
Firstly, try to do something where progress can be measured. Constant and measured progress ignites a sense of inner joy and this leads to continued engagement with the activity. Two items of kit that can help are a fitness tracker or a heart rate monitor. You can also use online maps and apps to measure your progress – I use Strava to help plan and measure my routes.
Secondly, get others to join you. It might be other people who are on the challenge with you, or just friends who want to get fitter as well. Making a commitment to walk by yourself at the weekend might not happen. Promising to join some mates on a group walk is a harder commitment to break. Similarly, joining a local running group makes your fitness training a weekly comm
