Mountain training - when to switch?

[Teaman1]

Been slowly getting back into the gym and hitting the weights with some cardio. Was wondering how far out from the hunt do you guys switch to a specific mountain training plan? I was thinking 6-8 weeks, but not sure if that’s long enough

 

[Coach Chris]

I switch 2 of my lift days to rucking as soon as our trails are dry. I will start rucking this Saturday if it stops snowing and raining today.

 

[MikeStrong]

I like to try and get some mountain time in as soon as the weather and time allows. The earlier the better in my opinion.

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[Poser]

This assumes the presence of sufficient baseline strength and conditioning, but I only did 3 weeks of specific backpack conditioning last season and I performed to my satisfaction. For comparison, I’ve had years where I started packing with weight as early as February. I’ve also noted in the last couple of years that, again, assuming baseline S&C, 3 weeks is sufficient for getting into sufficient conditioning shape for Mtn biking in the summer and skinning/bootpacking in the winter. 6-8 weeks of sport specific conditioning should be sufficient and anything more than 12 weeks and I expect your time would be more efficiently focused on pure strength training.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

As long as you have a good base with strength training rather than coming straight from doing nothing on the couch, your 6-8 week timeframe is just fine. It's enough time to get your body adjusted to the sport-specific demands of hiking/rucking, but not so much time that you will lose strength from your current program.

 

[Teaman1]

I’m just trying to get back to where I was a few years ago. Working pure strength, but also getting some conditioning. Just trying to figure out my calendar to be mountain ready.

 

[Coach Chris]

I’m just trying to get back to where I was a few years ago. Working pure strength, but also getting some conditioning. Just trying to figure out my calendar to be mountain ready.

Endurance on a physiological level is capillary density. The best way to improve capillary density is time out walking, hiking, etc....
Before you start rucking you might want to figure out the average amount of time you plan on hiking everyday. Start putting in unweighted walks/hikes that are a couple of hours longer than that. This can be done all at once or over 2-3 successive days. This can be done concurrently with strength training. Just simply count the amount of time lifting as that amount of time of endurance training.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I’m roughly 10 weeks out from sheep season and I’ve just started doing pack workouts and climbing mountains.

I worked out all year and kept the fitness up but due to ice and crappy winter weather getting out on one pack workouts just dosent happen until around May.