From Mt. Whitney Hiking 2016
I mentioned about this a little in the report of the
hiking. There are a couple things I find
out to improve the future training for a hiking.
Original plan
Here was how I
planned the training for Mt. Whitney hiking this year. In the past, I did not do anything special
just for hiking since I had been running almost daily basis as a marathon
training. I ran around 10 to 20 miles
daily. I did not have much problem
during hiking. However, I got stress
fracture on my left leg twice and I could not keep a similar training for more
than three years. Last three years, the
doctor told me I should not run and all training must be “no impact to legs”,
such as elliptical, stair master, station bike and etc. Thus, I signed up a membership of a fitness
club. Basically, majority of the last
three years, I could not run and spend most of my training in a gym. So a peak of my fitness level was 2012.
Last year (2015), I
ran a full marathon in April. After
that I got stress fracture again and I could not run again. Therefore, I only did training in a gym
without any impacting to legs. In
August, the doctor told me it would be all right to do a long hiking, so that I
went Mt. Whitney and I felt it was not too bad with just limited training in a
gym. I thought it would be good enough
for hiking. Therefore, I did a similar
training before the hiking this year. As
you probably know I got injured in January and I did not do any exercise for a
month even in a gym. I resumed my
training in the end of February with a station bike. I also went a backcountry skiing in the end
of February and I realized my fitness level was really getting worth. Just ascending was a kind of expected, but
skiing down, I did really exhausted.
After a month,
which was in the end of March, I resumed elliptical training. Then finally, I resumed running on a
treadmill in May and I just ran outside only a few times before the hiking.
Here is basic plan
|
|
Menu
|
Description
|
Duration
|
|
1
|
Elliptical
|
Various strength
Build-up
|
1 hour
|
|
2
|
Elliptical
|
Interval
Intensive – 6 minutes
Rest – 6 minutes
Total, 5 sets
|
1 hour
|
|
3
|
Stair Master
|
75 steps / minutes
|
1 hour
|
|
4
|
Rest
|
--
|
--
|
I just iterate the series of the menu continuously. Once I started treadmill running, replaced
item #1 to treadmill running.
Based on the
experience this year, I did not have much problem for ascending as long as I
was doing aerobics training. When I
went to a backcountry skiing in April, it was not bad comparing with the one in
February. So that I would think it
would be all right as long as I kept doing a similar training. The big mistake was I skied for descending.
Problem in Mt.
Whitney Hiking
As I mentioned in
the report for Mt. Whitney hiking this year, the ascending was not too
bad. It was not the same as before, but
I did not feel I was really exhausted.
The pace was a bit slower than the previous year, but there was not much
difference. However, descending was
different. I could not walk as a
typical speed I used to do. I have to
slow down. It is not really a fitness
level. I did not feel tired. But my leg cannot support my weight when I
was descending. Then, I realized my
muscle strength was not enough. I had
never had such descending problem before and I did not really focus on such
training this time. The problem is I
really intentionally avoid any impact to my leg for a long time and my muscle
strength was getting weaker to absolve the shock for descending.
When I went hiking
3 consecutive weeks, then the last hiking, I felt I was able to walk the usual
speed. So, the training for descending
does not have to be so often, but we need to do.
What do we need to
add?
The best way looks
like to add a real hiking with reasonably steep descending every week or every
other week. As long as people do this
for a few months, I guess it would be all right based on the experience this
year. However, if it is hard to go a
real hiking so often, then I would think running on a road regular basis, at
least a few times a week. I think it
would help to improve the leg strength for descending.
Typically, the
impact during descending would be a person’s weight and backpack. So it might not be easy to have a similar
stress during a regular training. If
people go a real hiking, people might want to carry extra wait to have a
similar stress to legs. Or running
would be a potential option, since the impact when people run is much bigger
than walking. Therefore, running might
cover a similar stress to legs.
Real Problem?
I do feel there is
a room for the improvement. However, I
do not believe this is a big problem overall for the hiking since I just need
to slow down the walking pace a little bit when I was descending. The difference in terms of total time was
very minimum. I guess the difference is
probably around 1 hour overall out of total 15 hours hiking. Yes, if people can do the extra training for
descending would be great. However, the
priority is still basic fitness which might be covered by the original
plan. The only concern might be an
injury during descending. Because it is
basically not enough muscle strength.
It could be possible to be out of balance during descending which might
be a cause of an injury. If people do
not do much training for descending, then people needs to be very careful for
descending, such as slowing down the pace, using trekking poles and etc. Especially, when the backpack is heavy, they
need to pay special attention to avoid unexpected injury during hiking.
Mt. Whitney Hiking Guide “Hiking the highest mountain in
California”
(Or you may go to your local
Amazon site and search “ASIN: B01IFSFBV6”)
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