The Pangea Atomic AR, thirty F@$*%! Fun-filled hours of adventure racing! I’m at a loss, I don’t really know what to say. I can’t even imagine what a 30hr race is going to be like. I have an idea what my bottom is going to look like after being on a bike for that long…
Like all things that we do that are difficult, painful, and outside of my comfort zone, I blame Stu. You see, instead of getting out of the Air Force so that he could continue to work with the coolest guy ever–me–he decided to stay in. As a thank you, the AF has decided to move him to the great metropolis of Dayton, Ohio. What this means is that Stu will soon be leaving Team Disoriented and the Atomic AR may be the last time we get to do an epic adventure race.
The Atomic AR is May 31st, so we have 17 weeks to prepare. How does one prepare for a 30-Hr race? I have no clue. Ana keeps asking me how we’re going to train for it and I keep answering, “Well, we should probably do a lot of running, biking and canoeing…definitely a lot of canoeing based on our past results.”
Probably not the training plan she is looking for. So, if you know of a good plan, please drop us a note in the comments section. For now, we are putting together a plan based on David Kuehls book, “4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon.”
While not the training plan of an elite team, I hope that this plan is enough to get us prepared for tackling the Atomic AR. One thing that I’m really looking forward to is the night training. The final 2 weeks prior to the Atomic, we plan on doing our long training at night so we can get an idea of what it’s like to run, bike and paddle in the dark. This will also give us a good opportunity to check out our gear before the race.
If you want to see how a real team trains, check out this video from Team Tecnu. These guys are amazing.
- 2Hr paddle
- 1Hr Crossfit
- 3Hr bike
- 2Hr run
Want to know more about the Atomic AR? Check out this video from Pangea. It’s a little dated but you’ll get the idea. And don’t forget, leave us your training suggestions in the comments section. Oh, and if you’re in the area and would like to come train with us on our long days, send us an email: teamdisoriented at gmail .com
teamdisoriented.com 
The Atomic AR is the most exciting race I look forward to each year. Georgia just has breath-taking terrain that Florida does not have. Good for you guys to make the decision to take on the 30hr. Don’t do the 5hr. You won’t absorb all that Georgia has to offer with that little time. Your training looks great to me. Cardio trumps all, but throw in some stair-steppers. If you don’t have stair-steppers at your gym, use a stadium and just walk up and down for a couple hours. Simulate that thigh burn as you’re traversing mountains and condition them. There was one CP last year that took us 1.5hrs to walk up a mountain, find the CP, and then 1hr to walk the same path back down. The way up was brutal on the quads. The way down was painful for the feet and toes! 30hrs will push you to strike the balance between fitness and maintaining physical conditions (blisters, feet issues, chaffage, cold, wet, etc). You guys are doing great for being so new to the sport! Absorb the unknown. We miss it often 🙂
Thanks for looking over our training schedule and the stair stepper suggestion, great idea. It’s hard to get any hill conditioning in Florida, especially for mountain biking. I can’t wait for this race, but we’re definitely nervous about it. Glad to see you guys are registered.
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