There are a lot of things going into preparation to the GR20 ! However there are the 6 most important facets of the whole approach to do well during the GR20. A lot of people neglect these while choosing the lightest underpants, titanium fork and water purifier.
These facets are important during the months leading up to the event, during the event and afterwards recovering from the event.
Mental Attitude
A lot of hikers are seeing the videos of idillic ridges and leader climbing, using via ferrate cables, open vast fields of flowers, kind hotel owners and so.
In reality: the weather can turn so bad, that it can force you to stay under a rock for 10+ hours, while the temperature is going down from +25 to 0°C and start snowing. Land slides can flow near you and waking up in the morning, everything can be frozen and slippery. Even summertime !
Shepperds and refuge managers are not always kind and they might not welcome you at all, even if they had several places, depending on their current mood. While you might think of getting some sausages and cheese, you can get attacked by a shepherd dog or a bunch of them, circling around you, while a drunken shepherd is shouting at you to put your walking pole down ! Hunters and mountain guides might harass you, that what the hell are you doing here, go home it is not your island, just stay out of here and so. Your paradise can turn in to a fun adventure, spiked with small moments of hell.
Outside of this there are the physical issues to come over. Those issues are not just the result of gear choices, but lack of lubricants or talc, undried body after shower, unprepared skin against sun. Chaffing under the arms, blisters on feet, chaffing of cheeks, aching teeth due to lack of hygiene and so.
What you have to have in your mind always as the very first thought or at least that is how I do:
Core Strength
This is huge. This is what will keep your ankles, knees and hips stable. Your back erect and your neck neutral. If you had only one month to prepare, this should a priority ! The thing is that in 15minutes, you can smoke your core so hard, that you wouldn't not want to think about another plank for weeks. However the recovery of these muscles are just epic fast. While your first week of core training might be painful, starting from the second week, you'll be able to hang on and even up your training to 2 x 15minutes a day.
Crunches on a stability ball, russian twists with a medicine ball, front and side planks, kettlebell training, pilates routines, leg lifts are epic from a hang or a dip position too. Tons of exercises are out there.
Work on this to avoid joint pain ! Not only in your vertebrae but all your other joints to. A swollen wrist can be avoided just by staying upright all day and dispatching load evenly through out the body.
Nutrition
You must be a good fat burner. That is it. Even if you did it in two days or three, or used a 20kg backpack for 2 weeks of hiking. Your pre-GR nutrition is superbly important. Get in those fa calories every single day, avoid grains and add a little bit of dairy every day to your diet too. On the GR20 you cannot get, rice, dates, bananas, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds or anything. You can get cheese, sausages, lentils and maybe pasta some time.
Carrying your own food is necessary. You'll need energy. The most dense foods are high fat foods. A KG of Macadamia nuts contain like 7000kcals nearly as much as pure oil. Some olives and dates can be packed.
I am not a fan of dehydrated foods but some cous cous or manioca flour can be packed to get some instant hot food. Dates and dried fruits are also great snacks to satisfy your hunger.
Ground seeds are epic ! You can add hot water and eat them as porridge or shake them up in your bottle and you'll get a smoothie. Flax, sesame, pumpkin, chia.
Dried meat, sausages and high energy animal foods are also great, but honestly, you can get all of them on the GR, so don't worry about taking them with you.
You must have healthy nutritional habits. We eat 3 times a day. No snacking, no drinking juices or coffee during the day, no sugary crap ever at all. 6 am, 13pm, 20:30 and sometimes we skip a meal, if there was something important to do, or we just forget to eat.
On the GR we will eat every 3 hours or so, to keep up the demand and to stop for some mobility too. It will be a great and doable approach to just move forward.
Using gels, powders and other supplemental sport foods are not necessary. You can have it with you, in case you fall into a hypoglycaemic situation while rushing away from a storm or getting out from a sketchy situation. However, do not rely on gels every hour for weeks.
- Mental attitude
- Core strength
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Backpack
- Shoes
These facets are important during the months leading up to the event, during the event and afterwards recovering from the event.
Mental Attitude
A lot of hikers are seeing the videos of idillic ridges and leader climbing, using via ferrate cables, open vast fields of flowers, kind hotel owners and so.
In reality: the weather can turn so bad, that it can force you to stay under a rock for 10+ hours, while the temperature is going down from +25 to 0°C and start snowing. Land slides can flow near you and waking up in the morning, everything can be frozen and slippery. Even summertime !
Shepperds and refuge managers are not always kind and they might not welcome you at all, even if they had several places, depending on their current mood. While you might think of getting some sausages and cheese, you can get attacked by a shepherd dog or a bunch of them, circling around you, while a drunken shepherd is shouting at you to put your walking pole down ! Hunters and mountain guides might harass you, that what the hell are you doing here, go home it is not your island, just stay out of here and so. Your paradise can turn in to a fun adventure, spiked with small moments of hell.
Outside of this there are the physical issues to come over. Those issues are not just the result of gear choices, but lack of lubricants or talc, undried body after shower, unprepared skin against sun. Chaffing under the arms, blisters on feet, chaffing of cheeks, aching teeth due to lack of hygiene and so.
What you have to have in your mind always as the very first thought or at least that is how I do:
It is me who chose this, I wanted to be here and how much better to experience life like this, than sitting in the freckin' office !
The second thing is relative thinking. We are not in the jungle, a blister did not kill anybody. It might hurt, maybe hurt all week long, however I can still keep on going.Core Strength
This is huge. This is what will keep your ankles, knees and hips stable. Your back erect and your neck neutral. If you had only one month to prepare, this should a priority ! The thing is that in 15minutes, you can smoke your core so hard, that you wouldn't not want to think about another plank for weeks. However the recovery of these muscles are just epic fast. While your first week of core training might be painful, starting from the second week, you'll be able to hang on and even up your training to 2 x 15minutes a day.
Crunches on a stability ball, russian twists with a medicine ball, front and side planks, kettlebell training, pilates routines, leg lifts are epic from a hang or a dip position too. Tons of exercises are out there.
Work on this to avoid joint pain ! Not only in your vertebrae but all your other joints to. A swollen wrist can be avoided just by staying upright all day and dispatching load evenly through out the body.
Nutrition
You must be a good fat burner. That is it. Even if you did it in two days or three, or used a 20kg backpack for 2 weeks of hiking. Your pre-GR nutrition is superbly important. Get in those fa calories every single day, avoid grains and add a little bit of dairy every day to your diet too. On the GR20 you cannot get, rice, dates, bananas, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds or anything. You can get cheese, sausages, lentils and maybe pasta some time.
Carrying your own food is necessary. You'll need energy. The most dense foods are high fat foods. A KG of Macadamia nuts contain like 7000kcals nearly as much as pure oil. Some olives and dates can be packed.
I am not a fan of dehydrated foods but some cous cous or manioca flour can be packed to get some instant hot food. Dates and dried fruits are also great snacks to satisfy your hunger.
Ground seeds are epic ! You can add hot water and eat them as porridge or shake them up in your bottle and you'll get a smoothie. Flax, sesame, pumpkin, chia.
Dried meat, sausages and high energy animal foods are also great, but honestly, you can get all of them on the GR, so don't worry about taking them with you.
You must have healthy nutritional habits. We eat 3 times a day. No snacking, no drinking juices or coffee during the day, no sugary crap ever at all. 6 am, 13pm, 20:30 and sometimes we skip a meal, if there was something important to do, or we just forget to eat.
On the GR we will eat every 3 hours or so, to keep up the demand and to stop for some mobility too. It will be a great and doable approach to just move forward.
Using gels, powders and other supplemental sport foods are not necessary. You can have it with you, in case you fall into a hypoglycaemic situation while rushing away from a storm or getting out from a sketchy situation. However, do not rely on gels every hour for weeks.