If you've never heard of it here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM3_TMEc-qw&ab_channel=RedBull.
The race is 400m long and around 100/200 meters of elevation depending on the course, the steepness reaches something like 78%, the winners time is around 3-5 minutes
How would you train for a race like this? What could be some key sessions? How important would be training in the gym, have strong calves...
stair climbing.
just run as fast as you can on easy days...
hard means harder than ever, easy means pretty hard...
The race takes 3-5 minutes. I think I'd train as for 1000/1500m, but all workouts would be on hills. Normal plyos and drills would be modified for proper strength development.
Vert baby
That looks awful. I want to do it. Anything like that in 'murica?
My home XC course in high school started like that.
I'd find a relatively mild hill and do some rep sessions, 12 x 200m, walk back recoveries, maybe a break in the middle, stuff like that. Get comfortable with it and having hills in training regularly if they weren't already.
Then find a medium-ish hill and do similar there.
Then, I'd find as severe a hill as I could and just try walking up and down it, then do a few sprint reps and so on. A lot of people won't have access to a hill as steep as the one in the video though.
Overall conditioning is important but this race is very specific. TBH I'd be concerned about injury from the training itself, let alone the race. However, it seems daft to do the race without doing specific training for it. I'd imagine fell runners would do well in this race!
Reminds me a bit of this:
This machine would be perfect for training:
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I did the 2019 edition of the Red Bull 400 in Ironwood, MI. I trained with a lot of stair repetitions in the back stairwell of my office (about 160 steps and I got up to 12 reps before the race). When it comes down to it, it’s really more crawling than anything, so I agree that Jacob’s Ladder piece of equipment would be great to train on.
The guy that won my heat was a professional tower runner from Malaysia.
I would practice a similar vert profile with a weighted vest or dragging something, or both.