I met a guy yesterday whom apparently had done the Aim Challenge a lot of times so I made sure to get his best tips and here are the ones I remember.
In a week, it is time for the Aimchallenge at Lindvallen in Sälen. My brother and I are competing and I’m so excited. My brother wants to win and I just want to beat 10 (from the bottom). I’m quite a competitive person and he will probably be a bit more realistic when we get to the starting line, so somewhere in the middle would be fun.
The guy I met yesterday who has apparently done it a lot of times and he gave me his best tips, so here are the ones I remember:
- Bring plenty of water, a backpack and two bottles on the bike. Have regular water in the backpack and energy drinks with ”resorb” (sports) in the bottles.
- Make sure you have plenty of bars/gels with you to give you energy
- Use with SPD shoes if you have a softer pair, it will help you when it comes to cycling and you can run in them.
- Hire/borrow/buy a map holder for the bike.
- Collaborate, one of you ”blipps” while the other use the map to figure out where to go next
- Take the bike in the morning and try to find the first control spot so you have a plan right away when it starts.
- Set a clock for 4 hours, check how far you’ve come to your route when it rings and decide if you need to change your plan.
- Try not to think about how you’re ”supposed to take the controls” and focus instead on finding the best/smoothest way (everything goes!)
- Check out old maps and see which route you’ve taken. When you start, draw either a route that suits you or just draw a run that is random and solve all the challenges along the way.
- There is a check on the top of a ski slope, consider if it’s worth it, the energy you use to get there might be the same as reaching 3 other controls.
There was certainly a lot more tips, but unfortunately, I forgot. Yes, he said you should choose whether to make the challenge just for fun or to get a lot of points. Once you know that you can decide which race if for you.