Nithyam Nachappa
“He has a great aerobic base.”
“She has a big motor.”
You’ve heard these lines before. Maybe around a campfire. Maybe whispered on a steep climb when you’re frowning and gasping while someone else is… not gasping but smiling.
Those mountain guides who start the day without stretching, walk non-stop to camp, drop their bags, and still have energy to boil water, pitch tents, and joke around. Meanwhile, you reach camp and collapse. Legs done. Appetite gone. All you want is sleep and not get out for rest of the evening.
If you’re reading this hoping for a shortcut to walk endlessly on treks, I’ll disappoint you early.
This article won’t give you a hack.
Instead it will give you a philosophy, a way of thinking about endurance that actually works.
And I should warn you: the work is simple, boring, and unsexy. It demands patience. And you have to do it yourself.
The goal (let’s keep it simple)
When I train runners or hikers, everything starts with the goal.
So let’s choose a clear one here as well.
Goal: To not get tired too soon on a trek. Sounds good?
To do that, you need two things (To begin with):
- A strong aerobic base
- Strong muscles
Strength is the easy part
Well not that easy, but self explanatory.
Gym. Weights. Muscular endurance workouts.
Pick 4-5 routines, decide the weight, sets, reps and train them week after week. You see the results pretty quick.
The real "impatience" shows up with the first one.
The aerobic base: where people lose patience
The aerobic base is what allows you to keep going without your system falling apart (or not hitting fatigue)
It’s what lets your heart, lungs, muscles, and mitochondria (yeah that powerhouse of the cell you studied in 9th Grade, pretty awesome organelle) work together efficiently for long durations.
The philosophy is simple
- Train at low to moderate intensity
- For longer durations
- Consistently, week after week
- Progress slowly (no more than ~10% per week)
- Only increase when you’re adapted to the previous load
That’s it.
No secret workouts. No magic sessions.
This is the same philosophy you’ll find in Training for the New Alpinism and the Uphill Athlete system: build the aerobic system first, patiently, before chasing intensity.
Base is what you need to build and maintain - for a long period
I am able to maintain my body in the Aerobic zone with this pace and effort.
For Elite runners, this maybe a run in their recovery zone. For a beginner, this maybe a Threshold pace.
There is no one pace for all.
63% in Aerobic and 30% in recovery is a sweet spot to develop that Aerobic base
What about VO₂ max, lactate, thresholds?
They matter. But later.
Those come into play when you want to:
Run in the mountains, Push steep ascents, Power hike hard, Race or move fast at altitude, that’s a different goal. And we train differently for that.
If your goal is simply to not get tired, aerobic base comes first. Always.
How to actually build it (practical, boring, effective)
- Stay mostly in Zone 2, with occasional Zone 3.
- Run or brisk-walk at a conversational pace.
- Log your weekly volume and reflect on it.
- Increase total time or distance by not more than ~10% per week
- Repeat
The hard part (mentally)
Do this without questioning it for a year.
You’ll feel slow. You may not see the results instantly.
Your strava stats may look unimpressive.
Friends might think you’re not training “hard enough.”
Let them.
You’re not trying to look fit (you will feel it)
You’re building a system.
And one day, you’ll notice something has changed:
You’re walking longer. Recovering faster. Still moving when others are stopping.
That’s the aerobic base showing up.
And the only way to build it is through patient, consistent, unsexy work.
A small but important note
Building an aerobic base is just the start. It won't guarantee you a smooth trek like the mountain guides, Unless you learn to manage:
- Fuelling and Hydration on the trail
- Layering
- Managing altitude and acclimatisation
- Choosing the right pace for the terrain and the day
So take this article for what it is:
Not a shortcut.
But a philosophy.
A way to train patiently and mindfully, without obsessing over speed, pace, or comparison, while building the foundation that makes everything else work better in the mountains.
To know about training for the mountains - drop an email to me at nithyam@outonodyssey.com
