Cabot Ten Tors

The following guidelines will not only help to turn you into a machine! But it will help you to get maximum enjoyment out of your Ten Tors experience.

Getting fitter means that you will be able to do more AND whatever you want to do will take less effort. GREAT! You get more for your money. And you'll thank me when the finish line is in sight, it's only 10am, and you still have enough energy to run about Okehampton watching the other teams come in after you!

Take regular daily exercise

• This helps you to reap the benefits of hiking such a long way (you deserve some benefits). It's called 'fitness maintenance'. Not taking regular exercise means that you will totally lose any gain you made from hiking. Your body has a memory, but only a short one, you will need to reinforce things!
• Why not walk to school everyday with your schoolbag - there can't be much better training for Ten Tors than hiking itself - in fact, the more similar the exercise is to the actual Ten Tors, the more effective it will be (that's called 'specificity').
• Or cycling, swimming or playing football for at least 30 mins is good too. Anything that will get your heart rate up, and you tired out, means that it is probably improving your endurance. Become a beast of heart and lungs.

Eat a healthy diet

(Click here for more info on food and cooking)

While not on hikes:

• Why carry all that excess FAT around on the moor? Try and eat a balanced diet of plenty of fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates like potatoes and pasta, and protein like fish and meats. Avoid stuff like McDonalds, greasy chips and pies etc. Common sense applies - there's really no need to count calories, especially as you are young and active, just don't be a greedy pig!
• Do avoid lots of soft drinks (a can of coke contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar - which turns to fat if not used by the body)

While hiking:

• Carbohydrates will be your main source of energy during a Ten Tors hike, and don't worry about eating too much fat out there either, you'll use it up when you hike for such long periods of time. Carbs are things like pasta and oats, this is what we like!! A very common mistake is to think you can survive a hike on chocolate on sweets - this is good for those short energy bursts, but useless over time - you'll feel sick and drained.
• A good way to get extra carbohydrates into you on a hike is to use carbohydrate drinks like 'Isostar' or 'Lucozade', available from most sports shops, although be warned that they are expensive, and sometimes bad for your teeth (but you packed a toothbrush, right?)

Drink plenty of Water

You can run, but you can't hide from the benefits of H2O - it's the best way to keep yourself hydrated. Not only is it essential for life, but it helps you to avoid getting headaches and feeling bad out there on the moor, even if puritabs do make the water taste like rubbish! Did you know 90% of all headaches are caused by dehydration?

Wear your hiking boots as much as possible

• We all know that the other major cause of drop outs (and unhappy hikers) apart from being totally knackered (exhaustion), is BLISTERS. You can learn to predict where and when these are going to happen by wearing your hiking boots as often as possible.
• Your skin will respond by toughening up where there is rubbing, and your boots will respond by softening up a little and stretching to fit you.

Avoid sweating while hiking

Don't worry, it's good to sweat, but if you can avoid it, then do. Sweating cools you down, but it also means that you are losing fluids and other electrolytes (like salts). Additionally, it means that your clothes are getting heavy and won't insulate you when you stop (could lead to hypothermia). I don't mean stop working hard, because you'll never make the finish if you do that, I mean if you start sweating, immediately stop and remove a layer. When hiking it's good to peel off and put on layers as often as you like.

And one other thing . . .

Many of us who got hooked on Ten Tors when we were younger and have medals of all different colours scattered about our homes, however are now suffering from sore knees, shins and sometimes even hips. As a sport scientist I have looked into this and it is most likely that these are the result of excessive hiking placing stress on the body from impact forces, and not allowing enough time for the tissues to recover. The resulting injury is called a 'repetitive strain injury'.

This can be avoided!! I wish someone had told me this when I was 13.

• Simply purchase some shock absorbing insoles to place inside your boots, and replace them when they become worn - this can reduce shock by about 10%
• Avoid walking on roads wherever possible, walk on the verge wherever you can.
• If you really go to town, use hiking poles (or just sticks). This can take out up to 30% of the impact forces, you can prod at bogs before you decide the ground is safe, AND it gives you a full body work out (like cross country skiing) so you don't develop those puny hikers arms....!

Good Luck!!

Charlie (a previous participant who completed 35, 45 and 55 several times!)