Hiking Prep--Training

Here's a training for hiking post for you, and I will start it with a caveat--the best way to train for hiking is to get out and do it, no matter what your ability or fitness level is. Figure out where you are comfortable and start! Don't put off the fun!

I mentioned earlier that I get altitude sickness, and talked about finding out that delightful little nugget of information. So, let's talk about what I do now to mostly NOT get altitude sickness. Spoiler alert: there's no easy fix. It takes time.

I know there are products out there on the market that advertise themselves as a pill or an herb to avoid altitude sickness, but in my experience, the only thing that really gets the job done is fitness. When I say that, I don't mean being a certain weight either, because, honestly, fuck the patriarchy, and fitness comes in all sizes, and I've been fit at many different shapes and sizes in my life. I mean, are you in a position to do sustained amounts of heart-pumping exercise? That's all I mean. 

In addition to altitude sickness, right now, I've got myself a nice little case of plantar fasciitis, brought to me courtesy of an ill-advised attempted to think I could maybe run a 5K. Note to self: I am a swimmer and a hiker, I will never, ever be a runner. See also: persistent shin splints.

So, while normally I would say that the best thing I can do for training for big hikes is making sure I am doing big or long hikes, that's not in the cards currently. Below are some examples of what I've been up to in my home gym.

Cardio days: You need to have the actual ability to keep up sustained walking, usually with inclines tossed in. Here's what I cycle through: (1) 30-45 minutes of rowing; or (2) 30-45 minutes of cycling. As my foot heals, I will add in (3) 30-45 minutes of elliptical at increasing levels of incline/resistance. The more my foot heals, the more I will rotate between these, and further adding in (4) 3-5 mile brisk hikes on some of the more hilly trails nearby.

HIIT and weights: This makes a big difference for me, so I always make sure I include it. I have a wide variety of high-intensity interval training workouts that I rotate through, so I won't bore you, but I will tell you what I focus on. The things that help me most for hiking are: (1) squats--without weights, with weight, and/or with jumps; (2) lunges--stationary, walking, with weights, and curtsey or speed skater style; (3) stairs--running up them, lunges on them, one legged squats on stairs while lowering down, like going down an incline; (4) planks--low planks, high planks, side planks, mountain climbers; (5) work with an Olympic bar--landmine attachment exercises, dead lifting; (6) other core work--ball crunches, reserve crunches, bicycles, stuff like that; and (7) upper body work--I have to focus on my upper back and shoulders, due to some old sports injuries', to ensure that I am holding core properly and can carry a pack or a kid. 

Yoga. I also work in yoga days. That big stretch and flexibility is huge in terms of how I feel after hikes and how I can recover. It does not get my heart rate up in a big way but oh boy do I notice when I've skipped yoga. Yoga also pulls in all that core work you need while hiking along with a pack.

Swimming. Lastly, as an altitude note--the biggest and best thing I do to make sure I can hike at high altitudes is swim. Nothing increases my lung capacity quite like it, especially since I do breathing-control exercises (meaning, I limit how many times I take a breath while swimming laps, and that limit gets progressively harder throughout the workout). I am a former D1 swimmer, so the pool is a place where I am really comfortable and really creative with how hard I can push myself. There is a huge difference in how I handle altitude if I have been regularly incorporating swimming into my training and workouts.

So, that's a little picture of the work I do to make sure I can hike some of the bigger hikes we like to do, and at altitude. This year, I'd like to pick some summits to accomplish, though nothing over, say, 11,000 ft. I've been out of the pool for awhile, so I will need to get back to it, but in the meantime. I'm healing my foot and keeping up with the rest of it.