I'm trying something a little new—a thread from awhile back discussing muscular endurance https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/muscular-endurance-for-mountain-athletes.371086/
Basically finding a steep ass slope and hiking it w/ ~ 25% of your weight on your back AND keeping your heart rate in Zone 2. The idea is to throughly fatigue the muscles, not the cardio system. Taken from Uphill Athlete (and others) who have a pretty good idea on what works in the mountains. Their take is doing this once or twice a week for a month or so before whatever it is you're getting ready for.
Soooo... 5 miles today (w/ Tiny Elvis- no extra weight for him!) and ~ 1400' of gain, the gain all coming in the first 3/4 miles—using 45# pack.
I had to make a conscious effort to keep the heart rate in Zone 2—I kept it right at the edge of 2 & 3. A little over 40 minutes to go 3/4 of mile
I'll give it another shot in a few days.
Thats awesome! I remember seeing this thread and committing to giving it a try. I replaced one of my weekly trail runs with a steep 4 mike hike, 30# pack and my hunting boots. All went well. After reading your post and watching the videos again I need to go steeper. Ugh.I'm trying something a little new—a thread from awhile back discussing muscular endurance https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/muscular-endurance-for-mountain-athletes.371086/
Basically finding a steep ass slope and hiking it w/ ~ 25% of your weight on your back AND keeping your heart rate in Zone 2. The idea is to throughly fatigue the muscles, not the cardio system. Taken from Uphill Athlete (and others) who have a pretty good idea on what works in the mountains. Their take is doing this once or twice a week for a month or so before whatever it is you're getting ready for.
Soooo... 5 miles today (w/ Tiny Elvis- no extra weight for him!) and ~ 1400' of gain, the gain all coming in the first 3/4 miles—using 45# pack.
I had to make a conscious effort to keep the heart rate in Zone 2—I kept it right at the edge of 2 & 3. A little over 40 minutes to go 3/4 of mile
I'll give it another shot in a few days.