Looking for conditioning advice...

Hi everyone!

Desk jockey wondering if anyone has any links, book titles, or advice to offer on conditioning for a midweek 4-day (possibly solo) Pemi-loop in mid May.

I have access to a well-equiped gym, and tend to get there 2-3x/week -mostly doing cardio. I try to get out a twice a week for local walks with pack for 3-10 miles. I also plan on doing a few more NH4Kers between now and then.

I expect I could "survive" the trip as is, but I wanted to be as prepared as possible so I could really enjoy the trip.

She-who-must-be-obeyed rarely allows me this much time off and I want to make the most of it.

A word of advice. The way conditions are now be prepared for snow even in May. The Twinway Trail especially is "Notorious" for holding snow late into Spring. This can be a challenging hike that time of year.

"She-who-must-be-obeyed rarely allows me this much time off and I want to make the most of it."

hey bro! just work up to runnin' say 4 or 5 miles a day at a good clip. you'll be fine. no need to lift weights in my opinion. stay lean.

and try to get "she-who-must-be-obeyed" under control. believe me, your life will be so much better if you do!

Eat your wheaties!

I reconmmed doing five mile walks in local woods. I have done that before and have done hiking in our town forests. If you want to do a mountain, I reconmend the Welch-Dickey loop, Mt. Major, and Manadnock. Have fun in thd Pemi, its worth it!

Thanks for the replies.

As far as running (or local hike practice) goes... should I be taking rest days between sessions, or is the whole point to get the ol' body putting out daily mileage?

The old adage of push hard every day is false. You get stronger on your recovery days. Every other day is fine.

John

Definitely keep doing the cardio work. IMO, some quad and ham work would always be beneficial to improving your endurance. Do some low weight high reps and work in some good high weight sessions in between finishing with killer 100's. Total fatigue. Also, do some bushwack snowshoing with a fairly heavy pack. Working the butt, back, pecs and shoulders with some weights wouldn't hurt you either. Basic total body condidtioning. Be a billy goat up there, why walk on two legs when you could use four? Just my two cents as a trainer. Have fun!

Oh, did I mention nutrition? Very important to feed those muscles well. Graze with good carbs and protein mixes all day, low fat, and tons of H2Oand of course eat your veggies

I'll take a different perspective. Running something like 5 miles just isn't that much.. Less than an hour. It'll build up strength, what you want to do is build up endourance as well. What did we used to call that.... acid?? No, it was LSD (long slow distance)

By working hard for a short amount of time, you are training your body a to get all its energy from glycogen. What you should be doing, is working on conditioning your body to work at a slow steady pace, and train it to pull its energy from other sources.

If you're interested in speed, you need a combination of the two. If you just work at LSD, you'll be like a diesel. You can go forever, but you won't be fast. If you mix it with running hard for a short amount of time, you'll be increasing your speed as well.

McRat,
This is my favourite subject so now I'm gonna bore the heck out of you and everybody else!

I've given it lots of thought,effort and reading. My personal experiment of one has yielded some observations.
The only surefire way to get into shape for a day of hiking is by hiking all day. Therefore anything else we do is a facsimile and not as good. Don't despair, if you run an hour a day and then rest for the 2 days prior to your hike it'll help a lot.

I found that by tilting a treadmill up to 25% (today's only go to 15%), and wearing a backpack with 20 odd pounds in it I got a decent workout walking as fast as I could sustain for one hour. Trouble was, after an hour I was bored numb. So I switched to running and I agree with Pete, take LSD and spice it with 1 kilometer of speed (start with only 1 or 2 k per week of speed and build). By speed I don't mean flat out but definitely faster than your ave. speed. This is called a Tempo Run and theoretically is best done at your so-called aerobic threshold. Run on a hilly course if possible.

Post-run you want to profit from a physiological window and immediately consume sugar and protein. Then again an hour later. This will set you up for tommorow's workout.

When not hiking I like to train 5 or even 6 days per week but mix it up with hard/easy, slow/fast etc. When hiking a lot (2 big days per week) I work out a LOT less. Several sets of low load, high rep (20?) resistance training has gotta be good but I hate it so much that I never do it.

dude, pete and neil know what they're talkin' about. good advice. my whole deal with the 5 mile thing was that i thought you were just kinda startin' out since you said you had a sedentary job and all. if you have the time, definitely go long aerobically. this is key. i'm sure neil is better-versed in this, but my take on it is try to go over an hour at a good pace. i try to go 9 or 10 seven minute miles on long days. i try to do this twice a week, with runnin' at a good pace (say 7.30) for 7 miles the other days. but some folks knees can't take this so maybe some other aerobic work every now and then is good. i just like runnin' and my knees seem able to take it so that's what i do. and try to do it on trails if possible. i live close to the middlesex fells outside boston and it's ideal for runnin'. my advice is to avoid pavement like the plague.

i never lift weights cause i just don't like it. i tell myself i don't want to carry the extra weight that bulkin' up would add, but the truth is i just don't like liftin'. but i know that it's probably good too unless you start lookin' like giambi or bonds.

there's a book called "conditioning for outdoor fitness" (or something like that) that is good too. if you really want to go 'core have a look at mark twight's book "extreme alpinism."

oh yeah, and stay away from fat.

Most exercises emphasize the production of energy (ie uphill) by the muscles--don't forget the absorbtion for the downhills. Typical exercises would be lowerings (eg deep knee bends on one leg down, both legs up or just walking downhill perhaps carrying a pack).

For me, a nice exercise is just to put a 30-45 lb pack on my back and walk up and down a nearby hill-- ~200 vert ft and 2mi rt. Covers many bases, some aerobic, some uphill, and some downhill.

Doug

And don't forget post work out stretching.

I would also suggest doing some some balance exercises.

As a FORMER (way long ago former) athlete i will offer a different, just common sense angle

don't overtrain, esp. as you near your "dream trip" - you wanna be well-rested before you start. Like JL says listen to your body and rest it when it says to!

don't overtrain period - consider your age, any injuries, etc. you wanna build yourself up not break yerself down. gradually work up to whatever your goal/exercise regimen is

don't try to pack in so much "fun" that you traverse a lot more miles per day on your dream trip than you ordinarily would. if your body starts to breakdown it will cease to be fun. many people like to haul most of their stuff to base camps and peak bag, etc. w a small daypack...

thoughtfully consider how you will replace fluids and electrolytes lost on long days yer not used to. that's usually the cause of "bonking" - not tired or weak muscles (at least in most adult males)

i agree w most of the advice, like go for endurance, stay away from weight lifting, try to simulate hiking as much as possible and 4-sure get used to your pack weight.

you soundlike yer aleady in pretty good shape. have fun, stay warm and post some pics when ya get back!

Here's a book that emphasizes the LSD approach: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=16-0071343318-1

And this link describes more about the program:
http://www.chuckiev.com/page/page/961846.htm

Dugan said:

And don't forget post work out stretching.

I would also suggest doing some some balance exercises.

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Ahhh.. The dog-person knows of what (s)he speaks. Stretching is important. I know, because I never do it, and my physio-therapist is always yelling at me for that, "You know, you wouldn't have gotten this new injury if you did your stretching like I told you."

Some things tend to tighten up some muscles (eg cycling). Stretching keeps you more flexible, and you'll find it easier to get over blowdown, or up big steps.

Oh... and by the way... you may be wondering why I never listen to my physio therapist. Well, she's kind of cute, and by getting injuries again and again, I get to keep seeing her.

Gris' advice just might be the best yet. Last summer I was getting into shape for a 2 week trip to the Cdn. Rockies. We planned on scrambling every single day anywhere from 3000 to 5500 feet of vertical so I was going 2 and 3 times a week to the dax and running 2-4 days a week. Guess what? I got Achilles tendinitis 6 wks before our departure. Luckily, it was mild and 10 days of total rest and self treatment(and deconditioning ) allowed it to heal and the story ends happily.

Bruno, 10 miles @7:30/mile is awesome! My inferior connective tissue just won't take it. Lucky you!

Pete_Hickey said:

Ahhh.. The dog-person knows of what (s)he speaks. Stretching is important. I know, because I never do it, and my physio-therapist is always yelling at me for that, "You know, you wouldn't have gotten this new injury if you did your stretching like I told you."

Some things tend to tighten up some muscles (eg cycling). Stretching keeps you more flexible, and you'll find it easier to get over blowdown, or up big steps.

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I use to stretch and stretch and then stretch some more. When I did my training (I'm a chiropractor) stretching was thee thing. Now it's being downplayed in the literature (pop and pro), studies suggest it may increase injuries. This is starting to resemble the butter vs. margerine debate. Anyway, I quit stretching based on the scientific principle that it bores me and haven't noticed any subjective difference.

For all those who don't like to stretch try this on: if you work a muscle in the weight room and it gets bigger that is seen as good adaptation. If you run and hike and your hamstrings, quads, calves etc. shorten then maybe that is good adaptation too. I really don't know.
More input from the forum please....

BTW, was Timothy Leary a runner?

Pete_Hickey said:

Oh... and by the way... you may be wondering why I never listen to my physio therapist. Well, she's kind of cute, and by getting injuries again and again, I get to keep seeing her.

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Pete,
Glad to hear your Physio therapist is a hottie - What's your Psycho-Therapist look like?????? (as I am ROTFL)

OK, OK, OK....
On a serious note, as long as this is a fitness thread, I am going to start to bike-commuting to work in April - Does anyone else commute to work via bike?? (I know Pete does it all winter long in the frozen arctic).
It's an 11 mile ride each way, and I think I can take bits of the Quabbin Aquaduct out of Clinton, which might be kind of cool. I would think that should keep me in killer shape all year.....

I'd really appreciate any bits of distilled wisdom, please.
Thanks
Rick