Physical conditioning

[Luziana Feller]

Being a complete rookie, i need to know if my fitness goals are realistic or inadequate. i'm hunting Elk in October from 9K to 11K+ elevation in a fairly rugged area. Primarily backpacking/bivvying but may spend a night or two truck camping if needed. i also understand i cannot be in TOO good of shape since i'm coming from sea level practically.

I am wanting to be able to hike 10 miles on trails with a 100 pound pack by the time August gets here. then slowly increase weight to 120 pounds or so leading up to the hunt. i am also a competitive trail runner. and strength train 3 times a week. i do a ton of core and legs. i don't mind a little pain. i put my new pack to work yesterday with 40 pounds in it and honestly got bored after 3 miles and ran mile 4. i'm thinking i'll start upping the weight and mileage gradually every week.

thoughts? are there holes in my training? should my goal be 20 miles with 200 pound pack? (Lord, i hope not)

 

[*zap*]

The wear and tear you put on your knees running with 40# and rucking 100#+ may not be good for you as you age. Personally, I would track moving mph and terrain difficulty and stay primarily in the 50-70# ruck range. Going faster and over more difficult terrain will provide some good benefits and can be done incrementally. 100#+ for a set distance may be a good gauge of where you are but it may not be the best to do with regularity.
Ruck hiking is a very good exercise to prepare for ruck hiking and if you add full range of motion posterior chain lifts you will increase your preparedness. JMO, ymmv.

Good luck with it!

 

[RosinBag]

I think your training of packing 100 pounds for ten miles is counter productive and seems silly. You sound like you are already in good shape with your current regimen. I think this topic of hunting shape is overrated. Someone in good / decent shape will be good to go. I see more people fail in the woods mentally more than I do physically.

 

[Luziana Feller]

that's kind of what i was thinking. maybe occasionally do a really heavy ruck just to gauge where i am. but regularly do a ruck around the weight of what my pack will way on the hunt. and for the record i don't foresee myself running with a weighted pack in the future. i just bored as hell being a runner but walking through woods with a pack i thought would be challenging...maybe it's a testament to how well the pack carries a load. that's for another thread though.

 

[ericF]

I would focus more on vertical than weight and horizontal distance. It is not completely clear from your first post, but I'm guessing your Louisiana trails don't have much vertical gain. Rucking a pack across a couple horizontal miles isn't near as fatiguing as trying to gain 1000 or 2000 feet of elevation in the same distance. From your original post though, it sounds like you will be ahead of 99% of the people that come from out of state.

 

[Nickziegler]

I agree with others. I tried 90 lbs on my atlas trainer last year on flat ground for 4 miles and it was hell on my knees and hips. If you don't have terrain to hike I would find a gym or someone with a treadmill or stair stepper that can go above a 30% incline and work your weight up in the pack doing that. It's a pretty killer workout. Try to climb it over 2000 feet and you should be good to go.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Luziana Feller]

yeah finding elevation is going to be the struggle for me. i have a few steep hills here in the woods that i have in mind to spend time on. i guess i could always go run some stadiums with a pack on right?

 

[Btaylor]

We are used to thick heavy air and when you start above 9k, you cant breathe what aint there. As for pack training, last year I did a 5 mile hike with 50# twice a week for about 8 weeks leading up to the hunt. Along with other training, I felt good in the mountains. This will be my fourth year and I have continually tweaked training based on prior year results. This year I am adding more lunges and deadlifts as well as running stairs. Another area of focus is on stability excercises for legs and core. Blowdown in steep terrain is taxing and I think more effort with that type of training will be beneficial.

 

[Btaylor]

yeah finding elevation is going to be the struggle for me. i have a few steep hills here in the woods that i have in mind to spend time on. i guess i could always go run some stadiums with a pack on right?

Wouldnt worry about running stadiums with a pack, walking them is sufficient I think and you get the benefit if up and downhill. Downhill training with weight is important too. Most folks seem to focus on uphill because of the need to build fitness and strength. Sounds like you have plenty of fitness at this point so just training for functional strength side of things.

 

[Luziana Feller]

solid advice everyone. thank you. i'm glad i asked now and not 3 months and 2 blown knees later...

 

[Dmiller25]

It sounds like your already in good shape, stamina will be more important than sheer strength. So I’d say keep doing what your doing consistently and you’ll be good to go!

 

[Scoot]

I would keep running and hiking, but with minimal or no weight. Don't run with a heavy pack unless a bear is chasing you! In August climb some hills with 20-40 lbs 2x/week. That helps prepare my hips and glutes for the hunt.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[LaHunter]

Get on a stair master with 30-40 lbs, without using hand rails. Work up to 30-60 minutes. Bad thing with stadium or small hills, you are at the top and going back down with very little sustained vertical cal gain. You can also do sustained weighted tire drags, without a pack. Check our Atomic gym online for the tire dragging

 

[Newtosavage]

yeah finding elevation is going to be the struggle for me. i have a few steep hills here in the woods that i have in mind to spend time on. i guess i could always go run some stadiums with a pack on right?

High school stadium bleachers are what I use. And they work great. During most of the year my wife and I do 5 reps (10 sets of stairs on a loop around the stadium) in addition to the walk to and from the stadium (1/2 mi. ea way) for a total of 2250 steps and about 4 miles of walking/jogging. We do this 3 times/week. As season approaches, I start adding weight and by the time I leave for the mountains, I'm used to running up 5 reps of 10 bleachers with a 30# pack. HS stadiums in TX are about the size of most smaller college football stadiums, to give you an idea of the size. It's a great workout and has served well to prepare me for elk season these past few years.

Before I started training with bleachers, I was just running and that wasn't enough. My lungs were in good shape but my legs were lagging behind. Running bleachers seems to be the best combination I've found yet.

 

[Poser]

Before living out West, I’d often hike local trails with the biggest hills I could find and do hill repeats on the bigger hills along the way, doing many of them 2-3x each before moving on. I’d also regularly use the stairs in a 30 story building, mind numbing as it was.

 

[5MilesBack]

The only time I carry heavy loads on my back is hauling the meat out. In fact, I don't really even do any training leading up to elk season........I just stay active year round. Take the mental game with you, and you can force your body to do some pretty intense hunting.

 

[taggart_lumpy]

biggest thing you can do for yourself is get there a few days early and acclimate.

 

[elkguide]

Sounds like you have a great regimen going all ready. Keep it up. I'm sure that as a runner you know how much more of a workout it is to run on uneven terrain than it is to run on a track.
I live at 270 feet above sea level and when I was younger and guiding in the hills of Wyoming the best way that I found to accurately describe what I felt like when I first got into camp was that hiking the hills even being in good shape was like trying to run up 20 flights of stairs while only breathing through a straw!
What works best for me is to get in the best physical shape that I can here and then try and get to my hunt area/altitude a couple days before the hunt begins to let my in shape body get acclimated to the...….

"LOW OCTANE AIR!"

 

[cnelk]

I fast walk 2-3 miles every morning before work carrying 2- 15lb dumbbells. I do shrugs, curls and flys the entire way.

4 times throughout my walk I do 20 squats.

This keeps my core, shoulders, legs and arms tuned up all in the same workout.

What works for me, may or may not work for you

 

[StopMakingSense]

If you don't have great cardio capacity the foundation program helps but this is has been a good program to follow ... https://atomic-athlete.com/product/ultimate-predator/