Is there a formula for training towards a backpacking trip/distance/difficulty?

[Bryce]

42yr old male, average build and former wknd warrior backpacker reporting in w/ a question.  (Geesh, I see I haven’t posted here in over 6yrs! :o)

I’m wondering if there is a somewhat established formula/schedule/school of thought for training for a specific backpacking trip distance/difficulty? Being a numbers guy, I’m looking to optimize my training hikes/walks for specific goals. I realize it may be hard to factor in the difficulty of one hike vs. another, or in my book elevation gain into the formula, but I had to ask the community.

I used to be a SUL gear weenie who spent more time researching and filling his basement w/ gear than going on the few 3-4 day weekend backpacking trips that he did, but I got away from the activity as my knee problems worsened over time (had a major motorcycle accident in 2007, lucky to still be here). Before I retired, I was this close to a knee replacement, but luckily I came across a Whole Foods Plant-Based Diet/Lifestyle and in the context of my severely damaged knee, it miraculously reduced the inflammation and swelling in my knee to the point that I’ve been out there walking and hiking again, not to mention the other benefits I’ve realized with the change.

Yesterday I completed a 16.6 mile loop maintaining a 2.5mph pace with breaks included, and hot damn do I feel good! Immediately after and for the remainder of the night my knees were achy and I got up out of my seat like an old(er) man, but by the morning, the knee aches are gone and all that remains is some slight muscle soreness in my glutes.

Unfortunately, I’m not willing to go to the gym to hit the StairMaster just yet given the pandemic to help with my training, and I live in a flat, concrete jungle. But I’m wondering, other than just doing more mileage, more often (I am able to get out for 6-8mi walks in the flat, concrete jungle where I live 3-4x / week), are there formulas on how to work up to given goals, perhaps ones borrowed from the running world?  Heck, how would I incorporate stair work even if I chose to?  I now have the time to train in an optimal way rather than try to fit it into a busy schedule and just deal with the consequences (:p) on a backpacking trip or hike.

For Example(s):- I want to complete a 20mi hike in X hours. In order to prevent burnout and optimize my fitness during training, I should start training X weeks in advance, ramp up training this way, and taper this way leading up to the day before your hike, and how would the formula change with multi-day hikes and repeated mileage per day?

The recent changes to my body have brightened my outlook towards ever backpacking again, but I realize I’m getting older and I enjoy pushing myself while I’m able to enjoy the trails. If anyone has pondered this question, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you optimize getting into shape for your most challenging hikes/trips. Thanks!

[Bryce]

Getting acquainted with the new(to me) forum layout, I’ve now found the search button.  No need to reply. ;)

 

 

[Pedestrian]

Check out Uphill athlete, Steve House’s website for all things related to alpinism/mountaineering/climbing/running. They have a wide range of training plans and tons of resources including individual consults. Their books are excellent as well.

Not directly “backpacking” but very useful for any kind of training.

No financial interest – I’ve had great success using their books and online resources.

 

 

[Bryce]

That’s a wonderful resource.  Thanks so much!

[David Thomas]

If you take your horizontal distance and add 10x your vertical climbs (so each 1000 vertical feet = 2 miles), you get “equivalent miles”.  I usually do 3 equiv. mph when backpacking and 4 emph when day hiking.  If I had a newbie along or someone asked “how long does it take to get to XX?”, I’d figure 2 emph.

For training distances, in my 20s, if I was regularly walking X miles around town on most days, I could do 4X on the trail without discomfort.  In my 30s, that was 3X.  Then 2X.  Now, exceedingly close to 60 years old, it’s getting close to 1X.  If I do 10 miles most days just hiking in the woods with the dog and the miles I do mowing the lawn and shopping, then I’m good to BP 10 miles/day with 20-25 pounds on my back.  I can backpack 15 miles and not be too sore, but if I had a 20 mile/day trip coming up, I’d be upping my miles and my hill work around town for weeks in advance.

That’s another thing that sucks about getting old – conditioning for the hiking season takes a month or two instead of the week or two it used to.   I wish we’d figure out this covid-19 thing so I travel again and do more trips to the south with the sun is up and the hiking easy in the winter.

[David Thomas]

>” I’m not willing to go to the gym to hit the StairMaster”

Good news, better than the StairMaster are the stairs in your own house (or outdoor stairs in a park or public setting).  4 mph and 20% slope on a StairClimber is nothing like climbing up a trail.  Your legs move and your legs end up lower in elevation than they started each stride, but you aren’t raising your center of mass up at all.  A physicist would say you’d done no work at all.  Whereas on real stairs, you ARE moving your entire body weight up 9-10 feet per flight (and any extra weight you add each week).

As importantly, for me, is that you also walk down those same real stairs – something that never happens on a StairClimber.  And that down-climbing conditions different muscles – the ones that lower you down 3-5-8 inches each step.  It is often the downhills that leave me more sore after a hike and training on real stairs helps a LOT with that.

Just 10 minutes going up and down before my morning shower really helps for any trip and especially for some iconic, big vertical trips (Rim-River-Rim in GCNP, Half Dome in YNP, Mount Whitney, etc).

[Tom K]

Whatever approach you choose, I’d recommend making it a way of life, instead of having to get in shape for backpacking all over again every season.  I realize you are working with an urban setting, but the principle hold true for any environment.  This becomes particularly true as you age.  Stairs are a great way to simulate hill training from a physiological standpoint, as mentioned above.  Stale air is an issue in stairwells, but if you can find an open air stadium you’re in business.  All this said, there is no substitute for the real thing.  If you can get out of town on weekends, or any day of the week for that matter, and find mountains, or even hills, you can maximize the training effect by incorporating uneven terrain into your training, instead of the repetitive motion of stairs.

[Jacob]

Mtntough.com is another backcountry training company; focusing on hunting most of their stuff seems pretty much targeted towards hiking with weight on your back.

They published some of their workouts in aditorial content:

https://www.filson.com/blog/field-notes/mtntough-filson-wildland-firefighter-workouts/

I’ve never tried one of their workouts.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I just walked around the hills in my neighborhood.

If you walk 2.5 mph you can do 20 miles in 8 hours. Add a couple hours for lunch and taking in the view and you can get ’em done in a work day + commute’s worth of time.

[Greg Pehrson]

Bryce! Welcome back! Good to see you here again.

Greg (from the 2011 BPL NE meetup)

[Mike M]

I’ve been following the same “regime” now for almost a decade.  Four to five times a week I hit the trails around town ~ 4-6 miles/outing and then one day on the weekend (or sometimes two) I increase that mileage to 10-20 miles.  Roughly 30-35 miles/week.  I’m fortunate to live in a very train rich town and every trail has pretty decent gains/losses in elevation.

Two days a week I strength train- squats/bench one day, deadlifts/overhead press the other.  I add pull-ups/chin-ups/dips/lunges to that mix.

I used to do a lot more trail running to hiking, now it’s more hiking than trail running- haven’t noticed any loss, but probably would post slower times in a 50k now than when I was running more.

If you read through the Uphill Athlete, the biggest take home message I got was the importance of building a base and to build that base requires the majority of your efforts in the lower range of aerobic capacity (which obviously differs amongst individuals).  As you slowly build that base, that lower aerobic range will slowly shift (you’ll move faster).

They stress that some of the workouts, but only a few, should be in the higher aerobic range.  For me that’s once a week of hill workouts- steep grades at a relatively fast clip.  I try to vary the “hills” from shorter, steeper ones (often repeating them) to longer, more sustained climbs.

Consistency is key.  I see a lot of folks cramming in a bunch of work right before hunting season to get ready.  When hunting season gets close for me, I’m already starting to cut back my mileage.  I put the work in year round, a much better way to go about it :)

[Rex Sanders]

I have two schemes for getting into shape for longer trips.

I schedule a several shorter trips in the months before a long-distance hike with roughly the same gear and weight, totalling the length of the longer trip. So for a 100 mile trip, I might schedule four 25 mile weekend trips, one per month, in advance. This helps immensely with working out issues found in new or aging gear, as well as physical conditioning.

I also start upping miles and weight carried on day hikes. If I’m planning multiple 20 mile days with a 30 pound backpack, but day hiking only 6 miles with an 8 pound daypack once a week, I start working up to day hikes of 20 miles / 30 pounds (mostly water bottles) in my backpack, two or three times a week. I’m always surprised by how much this helps me with the big trip.

Luckily local parks have plenty of steep climbs. But they’re all below 4,000 feet, so these trips don’t help with altitude acclimation. Best to spend a day or two above 7,000 feet just before starting. I’ll have to try that sometime :-)

HTH.

— Rex

[Scott Nelson]

I have found the training program on Adventure Alan’s website helpful.

it is basically focused on two hikes a week that progress in miles and gain.

I also have learned from the Uphill Athlete book about building your base with a really low heart rate.  Since I’m in my 60’s that pencils out to maddeningly slow walking to start out.  After a few months my body adjusted and I’m able to slowly jog in that low zone.  I even had a child on the road ask me in all sincerity:”why are you running so slow?” It was hysterical!
Scott

[Bryce]

Thanks for everyone’s contributions to this thread.  I think I’ll continue with my walks in the concrete jungle for my zone 1 training and throw in some zone 3 work at the high school stadium doing the steps, but it remains to be seen if I can get my heart rate to zone 3 before my knee starts singing to me from the impact.  From my reading, it seems like a pyramid or polarized mix of zone 1 & 3 is optimal:https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00017

Training based on heart rate also led me to look into fitness trackers, and eventually into ones that measure HRV (Heart Rate Variability), a way of determining your level of recovery and ability to add more strain to your workout(s).  Pretty cool stuff, though I have resisted additional gear/gadget purchases at this time.  Haha.

@Greg, glad to be back. Here are photos from that event, lots of high tech and homemade gear in those photos from the time! https://photos.app.goo.gl/E6Etfx1r8dnPLiLSA

[W I S N E R !]

I think Mike and Tom are spot on about making it a way of life, not “training” or getting overly complicated per se. Having backpacked with both of them a bit, they’re definitely role models in regards to what maintaining trip intensity and an outdoor lifestyle should look like. I can attest to both of them being highly consistent above all else…and that it has paid off.

[Pedestrian]

New from Uphill Athlete, Uphill athlete podcast.

Seven episodes were released today.

 

[Bryce]

Alright…when you’re not working, the mind goes places, and for me, that tends to be lists and spreadsheets to frame my ideas. Haha.

Goals:

– Use quantifiable metrics to track how my body is recovering from training and it’s ability to handle additional training/stress.  Before training consisted of doing what I could in between a heavy work schedule.  Now I have the ability to do what I think is “optimal.”  I decided on tracking Resting Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability as two factors that correlate to overall health as well as an indicator of your body’s recovery from overall stress.  It could be stress from a job, from a spouse, lack of sleep, drinking, or of course training.  What was important to me was having a way to measure what my body is going through, even stresses I may not be thinking of.

– Spend no $ on fitness tracker.  Wearables give a bigger sample size and better accuracy by measuring constantly while sleeping, but for now, I am using this app that utilizes the camera on my smartphone each morning.

– Track my progress.  Again, paying for a fitness tracker would be beneficial here, but I want to control my data in case I even switch platforms and of course, I’m frugal. So for now I’m using this Google Sheet.

– Having quantifiable stats to tell you if your body needs more rest is great, but how do I turn that into actionable data?  Basing my XLS off a similar one on YT for a triathlete, I created the above spreadsheet that recommends rest days once either or both the RHR and HRV drop a half a standard deviation below the 30 day rolling average, and you keep resting your body until those numbers rise above the 30 day average.  This was the method mentioned in the YT video that references a study that claims a 7% increase in performance over standard training practices.  Worth a shot!

As for the training itself, I’d like to be able to do 20mi/day over 4-5 days.  I’m subscribing to the Skurka rule of thought, to try and replicate the trail conditions as much as possible in my training.  So I’m going to do my mileage on the local HS track that is nice and spongey to preserve my knee as much as possible and then do a combo of stadium steps and trips up a nearby mini-hill in the area, increasing the weight in my backpack to train my legs and shoulders and mileage as allowed by the #s in my tracking XLS.

Enough spreadsheets and training ideology.  I enjoy this sort of thing… but I also like occasionally buying things, of which I indulged myself today, in hopes of many more pain-free miles on the trail.

My Brooks Cascadias are wearing their soles incredibly fast as compared to my old New Balance MT1010 Minimus trail runners (I’d buy 10 pairs if they still made them!) with Vibram soles.  Yes, I retired 12/31/19  and with the pandemic, and whole foods plant-based diet, I’ve been walking miles and miles on these Brooks quickly, but I just can’t get over how fast the soles are wearing.

I’m also not happy with how thick/tall the shoes are.  In rough terrain, I just don’t have a great feel with them and it feels a bit like I’m up on stilts.  I also think with how tall they are, when I am tip-toeing across rougher terrain and slightly roll my ankles as I skip to the next rock or root, it’s allowing for a lot of movement in my heel causing a blister in one spot.

So I saw the Merrel Bare Access XTR shoes are on sale for $50 (ugly colors) and I bit… it’s not like me to buy shoes sight unseen, but I figured it was worth a shot at that price with similar weight and height to the NBs.  If they are 90% as good as the MT1010s I’ll be a happy camper.

Here’s to hoping!  Thanks for everyone contribution on this thread.

[Author]

Posts