The beastly workouts Gary Robbins is doing ahead of the Barkley Marathons

With approximately six weeks until the 2017 Barkley Marathons, Gary Robbins is conquering some beastly terrain in North Vancouver, B.C. to help prepare for what is arguably the world’s toughest footrace.

The Barkley Marathons, made popular by its lack of finishers in its 30-year history and through the Netflix documentary, has only had 14 finishers ever. The event is held in Frozen Head State Park, Tenn. over the last weekend of March. The trail race is believed to be more than 160K, consisting of five loops, though the exact distance is unknown because the course regularly changes. Runners must have strong navigation skills to do well at Barkley. (Robbins recently completed a circuit of orienteering races in Metro Vancouver to help prepare for the 100-miler.)

 

@suunto #VerticalWeek is imminent. Are your legs and lungs ready? Monday, February 27th – Sunday, March 5th. “Which country climbs the most in a week? Put on your running shoes, hop on your bike or release your heels and start skinning up the hill. Track your adventures with your Suunto and by the end of the week we’ll get the results from Movescount. Every move counts.” In addition to the ascent challenge between different sports and countries, the World Vertical Week will also see a #VerticalWeek Instagram photo contest calling people to share their Vertical Week vibes for a chance to win a Suunto watch. The photo contest will be launched on Friday this week. For more info about the Vertical Week you can go to www.suunto.com/verticalweek2017 #suuntorun

A post shared by Gary Robbins (@garyrobbins) on Feb 22, 2017 at 6:58pm PST

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According to a Robbins interview from Suunto, he does a 20K vertical training session about once every seven days, which regularly takes upwards of 12 hours. “The other days of the week I go out for a few thousand (feet) a day,” he says. “In the final three weeks of training I’ll likely do a 15,000-foot workout, and maybe two times 20,000 feet. Other than that I do at least one near daily lap and attempt to get my overall weekly vertical up to at least 30K feet.”

"Hi this is NV police dpt We r calling due 2 report ur car has been parked @ trail 4 many days & we want 2 ensure ur OK" #barkleytraining

— Gary Robbins (@gary_robbins) February 23, 2017

On Wednesday, Robbins climbed 3,081m (approximately 10,000 feet) over 21.1K, the equivalent of a half-marathon, on the North Shore Mountains. The accomplished trail runner is running Barkley again in March one year after he made it to the final lap of the race before dropping out. These days, he does much of his training on the BCMC Trail, just east of the popular Grouse Grind path. One repetition up the mountain is 853m.

Workout statistics

When asked what Robbins will bring for the 20K vertical sessions, he says, “the way the race is set up, racers can return to a campground (where their cars are parked) at the start line at the finish of every loop. So that’s how I do my training – I can access my vehicle twice during a long training session a day. I’ll bring a water for three hours, food for 12 hours, and gear like a waterproof breathable kit, shirt, gloves, micro spikes for snow.”

Robbins has transitioned to mostly running for his weekly volume after spending the better part of the winter skiing.

Robbins regularly posts his training to Strava, a social media platform for runners, cyclists and many other disciplines. He’s one of the most-followed Canadians runners on Strava too, with 5,332 fans tracking his progress.