I'm doing a bad job of training

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

What the heck is wrong with me? I’m just not doing enough training for my coming trip.

[Todd T]

If you’re like me, you’ll be in great shape when you get back.

[Tom K]

“What the heck is wrong with me? I’m just not doing enough training for my coming trip.”

Maybe you don’t want the trip bad enough?  If it’s worth doing, it’s worth training for.  Better yet, make fitness a way of life.  Then you don’t have to “train” for a trip.

 

[David Thomas]

How much I hurt last time is my biggest motivation to train more next time. That, and the dog wants to hike in the mountains.

[Pedestrian]

Better yet, make fitness a way of life. Then you don’t have to “train” for a trip.

Couldn’t agree more!

On my weekly hikes I often run into people on the trail and the conversation turns to “So what are you training for?”

My answer: “For life”.

Some think I’m being a smart ass or are just confused. Some of them get it right away.

Or as I once heard it said: “It’s much easier to STAY in shape than to GET BACK in shape”.

 

[Tom K]

“Or as I once heard it said: “It’s much easier to STAY in shape than to GET BACK in shape”.”

Indeed, particularly as you age.

[MJ H]

My answer: “For life”.

I’m going to copy that. It sounds so much nicer than the more detailed response I’ve been using, “Because I have a desk job with long hours, I get really painful hemorrhoids unless I exercise regularly.”

[BlackHatGuy]

“Better yet, make fitness a way of life.  Then you don’t have to “train” for a trip.”

+1

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I’ve been taking walks at lunch and taking long walks on weekends or going on hikes. It’s just not enough. That’s one demotivator I have had, that after a while, it just takes too much time to do anything that feels like exercise anymore. But I can’t say I’m in shape enough to make my coming trip feel like a breeze. I just did a dayhike with 3000 feet elevation gain and I’m toast.

[Edward John M]

Ski season here is 5 weeks away and I haven’t started training yet. I think that the first sled haul is going to be very hard and very painful

[M B]

My wife knows when i have a trip planned  because my running and cardio increases . She cues on that and  out of blue she just asks ” when are you going hiking?

[Tom K]

“I just did a dayhike with 3000 feet elevation gain and I’m toast.”

That just means you need to be doing more of them.  ;-)

Seriously.  Making that kind of day hike routine, and then gradually stretching out the distance, will not only prepare you physically for anything you’re likely to encounter on your trip, but also do wonders for your self image/confidence.  Another way of at least taking a step in that direction would be to do two day hikes/week, each with at least 2000′ of elevation gain, and then gradually stretch one of them out while adding more elevation.  Soon enough, you will find yourself with 20 plus miles and 5000′ of elevation gain for the week.  After that, you will be fit enough to go long and high on a day hike, maybe up to at least 15 miles and 4000′.  At which point you will be ready for your trip.  My 2 cents.

[AK Granola]

I hear ya on the not doing enough. I’m preparing for the biggest trip I’ve ever done, so I got a trainer and had a 12 week fitness program built for my goal. First week I wrenched my neck and had to let it heal for a week; the weights I started on were too much for me, as well as poor form in lifting. Then right when I was starting again, I caught a cold. Then I had a week long work trip, and now I have another cold. So next week is week five, and I’m starting over again – this time reducing the weights and the reps. If it isn’t work or illness then family interferes with my ability to stay on track,someone always needs something. It’s just impossible to stick with it, not for lack of motivation or trying. Nonetheless, I’m starting again next week, because I know the better shape I’m in the more fun and less tiring the trip will be.

Those who say wait and let the trail get you into shape aren’t dealing with the effects of age or autoimmune disease, as I am. It’s just as important for me to physically prepare as it is to reduce pack weight, or have basic outdoors skills. I learned long ago that it was worth studying for tests!

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Age is really a bigger factor than I ever imagined. Over the course of maybe the last 2 years I’ve gone from feeling essentially invincible to wondering why my shoulder doesn’t work, why my knee won’t bend, why I’m not a thru-hiker on the PCT anymore but my feet feel just the same. I didn’t even do anything specific that I can remember that caused any of this. Oh and yeah, only a couple years ago I managed to squat 210lbs, but now I hover around the 155-175 range. After my giardia experience I could barely squat 95 and it’s taken a year to work back up to where I’m at now. I don’t think I’ll ever see 200 again.

My trip is next Saturday! If I can make it from Mission Pine Spring to West Big Pine –in other words, if there’s still a trail there and it’s not washed out from the massive rains we had or so covered in blowdowns I can’t get through, the rest of the hike should be mild enough that I think I will be okay with the suffering over my physical conditioning. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is when the hot flashes come at night I will be able to blissfully soak in the cold outdoors air.

[AK Granola]

I think what shocked me about the age thing – I knew that old people have lots of aches and pains. What I didn’t know is that old age would start instantly, right after menopause. I’m turning 55 this summer. Like flipping a switch, how I feel daily, has changed permanently. Never do I feel comfortable. Which tells me there’s a switch somewhere that needs replacement. Maybe for males it’s more gradual? I felt great, then overnight things started to fall apart. Everything got harder, suddenly. I didn’t realize how much was connected with the change. Modern medicine has no answer. Please guys, don’t tell me to take herbs or practice witchcraft. Not helpful.

But…just have to “soldier on.” I hate war metaphors but it seems apt, since it means moving on despite injury, or permanent wound.

On the happy side, I’m still getting out there and there are a whole lot of people who can’t, or won’t. I’m not yet at the place of fondly remembering great trips, I’m still making them.

I hope you have a fantastic trip, Diane, and if it’s hurts a lot when you get done, it’s still probably worth It!

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Yeah, after my 2017 Grand Canyon rim-to-rim backpack I realized I needed more “downhill training”.  Hiking down for two days in the GC will alert you to “training deficits’. So afterwards I began to hike mountains near ‘Vegas with more altitude and thus longer downhills.

OK, so I was 74 at the time but with proper training I could have (mostly) avoided the sore legs. Luckily I had the mountaineers’ cure for aches, “IBelieve” (two IBUPROFEN and one Alleve). That helped a lot, especially for the next morning when I took it before bedtime.

Train for the altitude you will hike. If you’ve in Alabama but will hike in the Rockies then do a LOT of aerobic training. And the rest of your training should be weight training and hiking without least 30 lbs. in a properly framed and hip belted pack.

 

[M B]

After about 15 yrs lifting hvy weights, old age started for me in late 20s. Thats when sitting still or lying in bed started to hurt

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Wow Karen I thought it was just me. It’s like overnight everything changed. It sucks. And I have to suck it up because the Mr. over there is a big baby and any mention of anything brings on the litany of his aches and pains that of course are always so much worse.

[d k]

No, it’s not just you.  I find it so much harder to improve my fitness now, at 63 (almost 64); back in my 30s and 40s and even 50s, if I did a day hike I wasn’t in shape for, I’d be sore for 48 hours and then okay, and the next time I did a similar hike (if done fairly soon) I didn’t get sore.  Now I’m sore for several days afterwards, and if I go out and do it again, I just get sore again.  Keeping at it, but it’s definitely different than it used to be!

[BlackHatGuy]

Well now, if y’all are going sing the blues, make sure you’re singing the right song…

 

[Gary Dunckel]

That’s so right on, Doug. This thread reminds me of one of those T-shirt pop-ups on BPL that says, “I thought getting old would take longer.”

But heck, I’ve enjoyed one hell of a life so far. And I’ve been endowed with a near-perfect autobiographic memory, so I get to remember most all of it. No need to take a camera on trips anymore, as I can usually remember everything pretty vividly. At least so far.

I recently lost one of my best all-time friends. When we partied in the ’70s he used to say, “Do it while we’re young, Dunk!” In the ’90s it changed to “Do while we’re getting older!” A couple of years ago he said, “Do it while we’re old guys!” Time passages…

In my mind it’s important to do what we want, while we can. Enjoy our lives, and our friends, before they turn off the lights.

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, keep fit all the time

If some hike you used to do is now impossible, maybe you can do something less strenuous.  I’m happy doing anything I can do.  I’m slower than I used to be, especially uphill.

[Pedestrian]

While we all experience age related decline in exercise performance, it’s also important to not attribute all decline to aging – especially decline that comes on more suddenly. There might be another reason: nutritional or health related. Important to rule those out!

Something very useful is to monitor heart rate while working out. If you see the heart rate off your “typical” for a given trail you hike regularly then you know something is off. Same for keeping track of how long it takes you to hike some known trail. I use some trails I know well as benchmarks.

These are the trails that keep me honest ;).

A couple of months before a big trip I start hiking with an increasingly heavier pack for specificity of training for backpacking.

 

 

[Doug Coe]

Doing it all the time makes sense, but if it’s not somewhat fun I’m just too good at putting it off. So, I guess I need to try ways to make it fun. No gyms for me, but day hikes of length is what I’m thinking.

(When not backpacking, my bumper sticker of choice would be “I’d Rather Be Playing Tennis”.)

[AK Granola]

“There might be another reason: nutritional or health related. Important to rule those out!”

How would you do that, rule anything out? I could have 500 expensive medical tests, but there’s really no reason to suspect anything but … age. There’s just no magic. I do wish there was a anti inflammatory I could pop. I’m allergic to just about everything. Is Yukon Jack anti inflammatory?

The Buddy Guy though, was what “I need right now.” Thanks Doug! Yup.

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