A few months from now I'm going to undertake some really hard physical testing, one of which includes the following:

An exhaustion 'race':

15-20 guys stand at the top of a sand dune. When the instructor says 'go' they all sprint down, circle a stick or shovel, then run back up and stand in order of arrival. The instructor writes down the first X number of people (can be 1-20, depends on what he wants), then they go again.

Basically it's 20-90 seconds of sprinting, 10-30 seconds of rest, repeated for about 1 hour. Sometimes there are variations, where the first 4 people take a 100kg stretcher and do a 'bonus' round while everyone else jogs along. Then repeat the sprinting.


How the hell do you train for this? There are groups that train specifically for these testings, but they only meet 3 times a week for about 1-2 hours. They run on sand and mostly do sprinting or 30 minute runs.

I'm thinking building a big aerobic base would be the first step. If you're more aerobically developed you process lactate better, which would be good in this situation. But how big of a base? 60k a week? 70k? 100k?

Any thoughts would be appreciated