How Difficult Is The Tarsar Marsar Trek

Honestly, there is not much difficulty on Tarsar Marsar as compared to other Himalayan treks. 

Gradual Altitude Gain

It is a very gradual ascent, right from the first day, all the way to the last. Each day, you’re gaining just around 1,000 feet or a maximum of 1,500 feet, which is not much of an altitude gain. It’s a gentle ascent, easy on the legs and very leisurely. So in terms of altitude, even though you’re climbing up to a total of 13,000 feet, there’s nothing much to worry about.

Distance Covered Daily

On an average, you cover 5 km each day on this trek. This is a very short distance for a Himalayan trek. Only on the first and the last day of the trek, you have long distances to cover. 

The first day is a 10 km stretch from Aru to Lidderwat. However, even in this section, you’re gaining just around 1,000 feet, which means you have nothing to worry about. You experience a very pleasurable walk in the valley with the Lidder river next to you. 

The last day, coming down from Homwas back to Aru, has a 13 km trek and a huge chunk of it is a descent. You’re losing almost 4,000 feet in that one descent, which can really knock your knees out if you’re not fit enough. So make sure you work to strengthen your legs before the trek and that you use two trekking poles on that descent. 

A Guide To Start Your Trek Fitness Preparation

Focus on your warm-up and running form

Just like any other sport, you must begin to run slow and steady. 

Two things that you must keep in mind while starting out is your running form and technique. I found videos from Vo2maxProductions extremely helpful in working on my running form and technique. 

Another important thing most runners neglect is a proper warm up before the run, and a cool down stretch after the run. The pre-run warm-up should include dynamic stretching. This means that each stretch should not be held for more than 2 seconds, and the stretches should mimic the running movements so that your body activates the muscles used while running. Your post run cool down should include static stretching. This means holding each stretch for at least 20-30 seconds. I found StrengthRunning and The Run Experience of great help. 

| Tip: It helps to set aside days for cross training. This includes exercises which focus on strengthening your whole body through lifting weights, or using only body weight. They also include cycling and swimming. This helps you gain muscles, and exercise a wide array of muscles. Your muscles need to be strong and healthy to take all that pounding they go through while running. 

Personally, I have noticed that cross training helps a lot in improving endurance, stamina, and just a person’s overall fitness. It also adds variety into your workout. And if you are not much of a runner, mixing it up makes things fun. 🙂

What makes a good training schedule

A typical running schedule must consist of easy runs, speed work like intervals, fartleks, tempo runs, a cross training day, and long run day, and a day of rest. Here’s what each of these are –

1. Easy Runs

During easy runs you should not be pushing your body in any manner. As the name suggests, it should be easy. Make sure you are breathing in a rhythm. Here’s what I follow during my easy run, 3-3, or 3-2. This means inhale for 3 steps, exhale for 3 steps, or inhale for 3 steps, and exhale for 2 steps.

You should also be able to speak a full sentence without breaking, or gasping for breath. If you use a Heart Rate Monitor, the beats per minute should not go beyond 60% of your maximum heart rate.

2. Intervals

Intervals are a form of speed workouts wherein you run a set distance (say 400 meters) as fast as you can, for a specific number of times (say 6 times). The challenge is to decrease the time taken to cover 400 meters in each repetition. 

A good way to begin is to run 400 meters as fast as you can, and then rest for a minute. Repeat this 4 times.

Rest time should not be reduced. Rest time of 1 minute should be completely utilized to get your heart rate down.

3. Fartleks

These are similar to intervals, and are a form of speed workout. Instead of resting for 1 minute between each interval, you do an easy run/jog for a specific distance.

You begin by setting a distance. For example, if you are doing a 5 km run here’s how you can divide your run –

1 km easy run/warm up

1 km of running hard. You must really push yourself.

0.5 km of relaxed slow running. Catch your breath here.

1.5 km of running hard again. You will feel the burn. Keep pushing.

Finish up by doing a 1 km easy run again.

Fartleks are a sure-shot way of building endurance and stamina. This helps increase your lactate threshold. Your body will produce less lactic acid while you train hard.

4. Tempo Runs

Tempo runs are a true test of your endurance. In this workout, you run for a relatively longer distance at a faster pace. The challenge is to maintain the pace throughout the run.You should not be running at an all out effort. Instead you should be running at 75% of your maximum effort. Simply put, tempo runs must be comfortably hard. You should be confident that you can run faster, but at the same time, do not get tempted to run slower towards the end. That is the real challenge.

5. Long Runs

As the name suggests this workout is all about running long. This usually means more than 10 km at an easy pace.The goal here is to complete the distance, and not to run hard or fast. Pace yourself well, and start off slow. You can walk and take short breaks to re-hydrate in between.

Personally, I think these long runs have been great times of introspection for me. Not only about my running and fitness, but my personal goals as well. I’ve even got breakthrough ideas for work!

Learn to enjoy these runs, and you will never want to stop.