How to plan a year of training for adventure

If you spend your precious training time bouncing from one Classpass session to another — or doomscrolling through gym workouts not really sure what you're doing or why — you need to sit down and plan. It doesn't need to be detailed, but you need to be clear about what you're working on and how you're going to get fit.

Think about it like a track and field athlete. They work towards a main competitive season — generally late spring and early summer. Think about what kind of adventure trips you'd like to do, and when. The chances are, most will be in summer. That's your "competitive season."

The macrocycle: your year in four phases

We recommend breaking training down into four distinct phases. Here's what that looks like across a full year, with summer adventures as the target:

Phase 1: Base Building (Sept–Jan)

The goal of this phase is to build a base level of aerobic fitness and strength — and importantly, fix any niggles or injuries. This is key. If you don't spend time building your body to be strong and injury-free with a good aerobic base, you're increasing your chance of injury when training gets harder in Phase 2.

You don't need to be pushing yourself to the limit here. Focus on quality movement and very progressive increases in training load. The common mistake: people do nothing, then sign up for a marathon with 10 weeks' notice and wonder why they get injured.

Phase 2: Increase Intensity (Jan–Apr)

Now you've built a strong base — it's time to up the intensity. In this phase, push the mileage and switch strength training to focus more on muscular endurance. This phase helpfully coincides with peak running race season. To focus the mind, always sign up for a race — trail, marathon, half, 10k, whatever you want. We're aiming for big gains in fitness during this phase.

Phase 3: Skill Development (Apr–Jun)

Skill development can also be thought of as specific training. You're still training hard but switching more of your training time to adventure activity. More trail running, hiking with a pack, getting out on the mountain bike, spending more time at the climbing wall. This is where the fitness you've built starts to become adventure-specific.

Phase 4: Maintenance (Jun–Sept)

This is what you've been training for. Peak fun season. Get out and put your body to use enjoying all the things you've wanted to do. During this phase, focus on maintaining fitness — don't worry too much about trying to get fitter. You're at peak fitness. Make the most of it.

The mesocycle: planning each phase

Each phase is made up of mesocycles — the detailed plan for what you're doing week to week. For a base building phase (12–16 weeks), a rough guide: dedicate 3 sessions per week to aerobic base building and 2–3 to strength, mobility, and rehabilitation.

You don't need anything fancy. Draw a table with weeks across the top and the aspects of fitness you're working on down the side. Include an idea of progression — how the sessions build week on week — and when you'll have "mini-peak" weeks and "de-load" weeks.

The microcycle: planning your week

Think of this as something you do on a Sunday night, 2–3 weeks in advance. Map out what your sessions will involve. Once you start thinking like this, you'll quickly realise that smashing yourself every day with a CrossFit WOD or bootcamp class is far too random and likely not supporting your goals.

Key principles to follow throughout

• —De-load once every 4–6 weeks — no matter how fit you are. You'll still train that week but reduce the intensity. This is where adaptation happens.
• —Take a rest day at least once per week. Even as an elite soldier doing 15–20 hours a week at peak training, we almost always had one or two full rest days.
• —Progressive overload — build up slowly. We've trained people who couldn't run for more than 5 minutes to completing their first 10km and climbing their first mountain. You will get there.
• —Consistency beats everything. "Boom and bust" cycles are the enemy. A couple of bad weeks where you only manage half the planned volume? That's fine. Better that than deciding it's 100 miles or nothing.
• —Always have something to train for. It's very difficult to motivate yourself to train for training's sake. Set goals — big and small.
• —Don't worry too much about where you enter the cycle. Maybe you only start thinking about this in January — that's fine. Follow the basic principles and you'll still make gains.

Keep it simple. Simple movements and simple programming will always work. The goal isn't a perfect plan on paper — it's consistent training over time.