Hut-to-Hut Trek Training: What I Do Before Every Multi-Day Hike

The question I get most often about hut-to-hut trekking isn’t which refuge to book. It’s “am I fit enough?”

I’ve completed six multi-day treks solo across Europe, including four hut-to-hut routes in the Alps and Dolomites: the Alta Via 2 short route, the northern section of Alta Via 1, the Palaronda Trek, the MADE Trek, and most recently the Tour du Vallaisonnay in the French Alps. I’ve also completed two inn-to-inn walking routes: the Côte d’Opale in northern France and the Donegal Way in Ireland.

It is, a little. It’s also trainable, and it does not require a running habit.

After several years of these trips, I’ve learned that hiking one long day is very different from waking up and doing it again the next morning.

So here is a bit of advice for training and preparing for your hut-to-hut treks.

This post pairs well with:

• Italy’s MADE Trek: The Quiet Trek You’ll Fall For
• Four Days on the Via Francigena Toscana: San Gimignano to Siena
• Palaronda Trek Itinerary: A 4-Day Solo Hike Through the Pale di San Martino
• Alta Via 2 Short: 4-day Itinerary
• Alta Via 1 Short: 4 Days on the Northern Section of the Alta Via 1

How Fit do you need to be to do a long-distance trek?

You need to be fit enough to carry your pack for several days in a row. Fit enough that the climbs don’t leave you winded and your ankles don’t turn on you by day three.

That’s it. Any single day on a beginner-friendly route is within reach for most active people. Four to six hours of walking, some climbing, some descent.

Day three is what catches people out. Your legs are tired, yesterday’s descent is still in your quads, and you slept in a bunk room. Training for multi-day hiking isn’t about building up to one enormous hike.

It’s about building a body that recovers overnight, and properly fuelling yourself during the hike.

My Starting Point:

You should know that:

• I am fairly fit; I work out quite a bit (now)
• 40 Years Old
• No known Injuries.
• I try to hike as much as I can ….
• I live in Belgium, where there are barely any mountains, but I used to live in Italy. I would be out on the trails as much as possible!
• Former fitness instructor who just fell off the wagon. Seriously, after I quit my corporate job, I became a certified fitness instructor through ACE, but that doesn’t mean I know everything!

What I used to do, and why I stopped

For the record, training for my first two long-distance treks was terrible. I was getting iron transfusions in Italy during the summer of 2024 and honestly don’t know how I did the Alta Via 2 short route and the northern half of the Alta Via 1. I knew I wanted to prove to myself that I could.

So my training has slowly evolved. I got tired of the way I felt after hikes.

For years, my training was one thing: walking with weight on or simply going for a hike.

I’d take my Osprey 38L, stuff two 15-pound weights in it, and go. Sometimes I’d wear my husband’s weighted army vest instead and walk in that. On paper, that sounds like solid preparation, and it did help.

The problem showed up afterward. I was getting torn up after hikes. Not during, after. Sore for days, slow to bounce back, and aware that if I’d had to walk another hard day on top of it, I would have struggled.

That’s when I figured out what I was actually training. Walking under load builds tolerance for walking under load. It doesn’t build the strength that protects your knees on a descent, and it doesn’t build the aerobic base that lets you recover overnight and go again.

So I stopped freelancing it and got a program.

Before I started Meg’s (the program I mention later in this blog post), I spent about 10 weeks preparing for the Tour du Vallaisonnay. I started with roughly two weeks of foundational strength and conditioning before moving into an eight-week structured training program.

The balance piece turned out to matter more than I expected, because mountain trails are loose rock, wet roots, and uneven ground for hours, often while you’re tired.

Why VO2 max matters for multi-day hiking

VO2 max is one measure of aerobic fitness, or how effectively your body can use oxygen during exercise. Improving my aerobic capacity was part of the goal, but it wasn’t the only focus of my training.

That matters on a hut-to-hut trek for two reasons. A climb that sits near your ceiling leaves you cooked for the rest of the day. The same climb, further below your ceiling, is just a climb. And a stronger aerobic base means you recover faster overnight, which is the entire game when you’re walking five days in a row.

It helps at altitude too, though not in the way people assume. Being fit doesn’t make you acclimatize faster, and altitude sickness doesn’t care how strong your legs are. Better aerobic fitness makes the work cheaper when there’s less oxygen to go around.

The program also incorporates shorter, harder efforts alongside lower-intensity aerobic work. For me, that meant intervals, incline treadmill sessions, and the StairMaster rather than trying to turn myself into a runner.

My weekly hut-to-hut training plan

Eight weeks, structured like this:

Four strength days. Legs, glutes, core, and the posterior chain work that holds you upright under a pack.

One endurance day. Sprinting, jogging, that kind of thing. I swap in the StairMaster or put the treadmill on an incline and do hills, because that’s closer to what a trek asks of you than flat running.

One outdoor movement day. Moving on real ground.

One recovery day. Built in, not optional.

Notice how much strength there is and how little running. If you come from a cardio background, it will feel like you aren’t training.

As the weeks progressed, the number of repetitions increased, as well as the number of rounds you do.