Training for hiking

Trail Camp

Training for hiking

   Training before going to hiking is always a good idea, especially a long hiking like Mt. Whitney Trail.   I think many people might do a long running as a training for hiking.   I think it helps people who try to do long hiking.

   Last year (2015), I could not run outside due to injury.  A doctor suggested not to run for a while since I had a stress fracture after a full marathon race.  After the race I could not do any training for a month.  After a month, I only can do "non impact" training.  This means I could not run.  The doctor suggest to use Elliptical, Stair Master and probably walking on Treadmill for a while.   However, the injury happened in the end of April and I planned to hike to Mt. Whitney in middle of August.  Therefore, I need to do something, otherwise I might have a hard time during the hiking.

Actual plan for Mt. Whitney hiking in 2015

   Here is what I had done in 2015.

• Elliptical pattern 1 - Using various stress during the exercise for an hour. 
• Elliptical pattern 2 - Interval, 6 minutes high intensity and 6 minutes reset, 5 sets
• Stair Master - 70 steps / minutes for an hour
• Rest

Then, repeat this for two mounts before the hiking.
Interval helps to improve aerobic performance and Stair Master helps to train muscle for ascending. 

This menu is not very hard.  It is just an hour training 6 days a week and 1 day resting.  In the past years, I was doing more training for full marathon.  I was wondering if it was enough or not.

Result ?

   During the hiking, I did manage my walking pace based on my heart rate.  Since I knew my fitness situation is not as good as the past years.  Since the amount of the training is much less.  So I set the maximum heart rate was around 150~155bpm.  I felt the walking pace was very slow comparing the past years.  However the overall hiking time was very similar as my fastest record. The training plan was probably good enough for this hiking.

   It seems that just for Mt. Whitney hiking, people does not have to do really hard training.  Probably, 1 hour training a few times a week might help.