How Do You Keep In Shape For Hiking?

[KenC]

We have 3 Viszlas (hungarian pointers) so plenty of walking in the woods nearby. I'm about a half hour from any real "Hiking" but do have one nice route that is pretty rugged. It's 7 miles of PUD's out (7 Sisters) and back with 3,200' of climbing. I mountain bike, used to road cycle and race but the roads have gotten so congested it's not as enjoyable. I took up rowing (sculling) about a year ago, great cardio, and actually develops good core strength, and keeps the legs and back strong. Gives the joints a rest also.

I'f i had more hiking opportunities closer i'd just hike, untill then i variety is the name of the game..

 

[jbrown]

I'm with the crazy man from Hull on this one in that I do nothing to get in shape right now.

I used to work out like crazy, did trail running, even used a treadmill (*gasp*) Now I have an all-consuming job that doesn't allow much extra time or energy for training, so I just use what little energy I have on hiking occasionally. I have lofty goals of peak-bagging this summer, but may be over-reaching in some areas. I push myself as hard as I can on the trails and pay for it later. Lots of vitamin-I.

 

[JJD]

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[Sugarloafer]

I used to be a competitive cyclist, but after a few years of it, the fun wore off and it became like my "second job" (wasn't good enough at it to quite my day job ! )...monitoring heart rates, training zones and keeping a log became a chore, as well as worrying about how many miles I didn't get in each week because of meetings at work and my kids sports activities. I then realized that at my age (late 50's), this stuff has to be fun or I won't do it. So now, I like to mix things up by season: Winter (telemark skiing and snowshoeing every weekend and the gym twice a week at work), Spring (start to do some cycling on the indoor trainer depending on how long Sugarloaf stays open), Summer (about 120 miles per week of cycling and hiking a couple of times per month, as well as some sea kayaking), Fall (start to transition from road cycling to mountain biking, as well as a little more hiking).

I used to try to rationalize all these activities as prep work for either cycling or the ski season; now I've come to realize that it doesn't really matter and I just have fun with all of it !