Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting 2017 Fitness- Workout thread

I guess time to jump in here....prepping for my first elk hunt this fall. I'm from southeast PA and live at about 450' or so above sea level. I'm sure altitude is gonna hand me my butt, but trying to do what I can to prep. 4.4 mile run with 340' of elev. gain yesterday. Been running since March and almost done with a 10k training plan, moving to 1/2 marathon soon. Cycling as well to add some volume without beating my 41 yr old knees TOO hard.

Lifting on the Wendler 5/3/1 plan, as well. Deadlifts on the menu tonight...probably put the treadmill on an incline tonight and walk for an hour or so after deads. Been doing 15-16 mile rides on my road bike a couple times a week, soon to stretch that out, too. Let a specific workout "program" turn me off of cardio work for a while, but I'm enjoying being back at it now.

Still working out, just not posting. A couple hikes over the weekend, cardio yesterday (40 minutes bike intervals), lower body today.

Best thing you can do besides working out is to get to your hunting spot a few days before the hunt and give your body time to acclimate.

Going for 1st rifle in CO in October. Opening day is a Saturday. We're getting there near dark on Thurs, be in our location on Friday all day with no travel, and then hunting on Saturday. Can't get there much earlier, so hopefully that'll be enough to help at least a little bit.

Every day helps, in my experience. Good luck, keep working!

Glad you are still working it SP- was worried you'd fallen into the Pit of Despair over the cankle...

I live at a similar elevation and it can be bothersome at first at elk camp at around 6k feet... lots of water, avoid excessive alcohol, and don't eat a big taxing meal... I know, can be tough, it's elk camp after all <g>. My buds used to be in "playing hooky from the wife" mode and it was like a beer & bacon festival or something. I learned to just say no or at least eat/drink in moderation the first couple days up there. Ain't no hangover, like one with an elevation assist.

No real plans for any alcohol, really. I don't drink often, and rarely in any quantity. The other hunter on the trip is a pretty serious elk hunter, and we're there to hunt.

But we'll be between 9500 and 11,500 as near as I can tell. It's gonna be up there.

not sure where to source one or cost, but I read a really neat account of agent who made into the Hardrock 100 and lived in Texas iirc. He put lots of miles in training, but he purchased a mask that you can adjust the amount of O2 you're getting and used it on stair climber

I want to say he finished in the top 20 which is really saying something in that race

might not be germane to your elk hunt, but a neat story nonetheless:D

Those things don't really mimic altitude, but they do make it harder to breathe, and thats how they restrict oxygen intake. So their value in helping acclimate is questionable.

that makes sense; at least you shouldn't be huffing and puffing as bad

Yeah, I am aware of the Training Mask stuff. But as was mentioned, unless you wore it 24/7, it's value is questionable in my mind. If it makes me work harder to workout, I guess there's some value in that, but my body won't adjust to less O2 because the other 23 hours of the day will be at normal 500' elevation oxygen levels.

I monitor my heart rate during exercise and I check it periodically when idle. I try to every few days check my resting heart rate as well, and watch how fast my HR recovers after exercise. The faster my HR drops after exercise, the better...the lower my RHR is, the better. These metrics point to overall heart health and cardiovascular ability to recover from an O2 deficit state. I figure that's what I'm gonna need the most at altitude, so that's where my attention is.

Then my lifting and hiking is more to sort myself out for how I want my packs rigged under weight, my boots, my gear, etc....my general strength and stability (muscular strength helps with joint stability), etc. I do some mobility/flexibility work as well to be sure I'm not strong but immobile, too. Trying to keep things in balance and not overtrain or undertrain anything. A lot of plates to keep spinning.....but doing my best around work, kids, life, etc.

Interesting that you mentioned that. If you keep track of your resting heart rate, you'll see that it will elevate when you first arrive at your hunting spot. That's because there's less oxygen in the air (not a lower percentage, just fewer molecules within a given volume) so your heart has to pump faster to get the same amount of oxygen to your muscles and organs.

Your body reacts to this or acclimates by producing more red blood cells, raising the amount of oxygen your blood can transport. So at the end of your trip, your resting heart rate at altitude will have returned to somewhere close to what it was back at sea level, since you'll have more red cells.

The masks make you work harder to breathe but they don't help your body acclimate by making more red cells. Making more red cells requires iron, so eat some iron-rich foods the first few days you're up there, it can't hurt.

I've been hunting deer up around 9k lately... I can say with some surety that being in really good aerobic shape greatly decreases the adjustment period/consequences of going low to high like the OP will be doing. Since he's running he's got that covered. But don't overlook the bike- at least if there's big nasty hills around- because with minimal impact to the knees/hips/back a guy can push his HR to its literal maximum (which is a WEIRD feeling) and then keep it there. I guess it could also be done via sprints on the flats, but, bleah to THAT. Hills are way more fun.

If your bike isn't set up for steep climbing, Ted, a (usually) simple swap of the cassette can address that. The biggest sprocket on my cassette (Ultegra 6800 11-sp) is a 32-tooth.... I can climb virtually anything...

Nothing too exciting. Lifting heavier weights and following it up by ruck sack packing heavier weights for faster walks for longer periods of time. Eating better for me foods each day. Trying to find moments to sleep whenever I can. Drinking lots of water.

Still hate running. I receive no joy from it other than to say I gutted it out and completed what I set my mind to complete. I find genuine joy in walking up to bar stacked with heavy plates and defying gravity with it. Like how a heavy pack feels when I first load it onto my back, and love how it feels when I take it off after I've sweated my arse off carrying it up hills.

I'm there on the bike. I have a 2013 Specialized Roubaix (carbon frame). Tiagra gear on it, but it handles the hills here ok. Can't spin every hill I hit, but close enough that I can stand up and gut out whatever is super steep. Only a few spots like that.

Eventually I want to change it out to 105 or Ultegra gear. Just a matter of freeing up cash that I don't want to use for something else instead.

Generally for a ride around home, I'll get about 1000' of climbing (unless I target hills, then I've racked up over 2000') and average in the 160's for HR for the entire ride.

Since I have deadlifts on the agenda today, I likely won't run or ride, but since my daughter has her dance class tonight, I'll probably through some weight plates into my Eberlestock and take a walk while she's in class (about an hour). I can put my 10's (I have 4 total) in the pack pretty easy and spend an hour walking the hills in town (there's a couple decent ones) while she's in dance class. I'll lift before we go, then take a walk while she's in class.

I totally get it on the bar and the satisfaction of moving it.

I do get a weird enjoyment from riding and running, though. Kinda the same feeling.... "saw a limit and beat it" kinda thing.

Nice. I also ride a Spec Roubaix- 2014 or '15 Expert w/ SL4 frameset. It was a splurge but as an investment in my health, completely rational, unlike other splurges I've done in my life. Love that bike.

My first road bike had Tiagra and it was fine. My spare/travel bike has 105 and it's fine too. Ultegra is lighter and has a very nice, light touch to the controls but Tiagra and 105 are functionally just fine. Well... Ultegra brakes are a notch above.

What are you using for pedals? I've gone Speedplay for the float.. easier on my knees.

My main route is 27 miles, starts and returns to my place, and is like a map to the biggest local hills <grin>. I flat love climbing. 27 miles is just before my contact points start to get uncomfortable, which happens around 30-35 miles... though I'd be suffering if I did 27 flat miles where I couldn't get up out of the saddle.

I have SPD's because I had the idea I'd rig my existing MTB with them too.

Funny thing....that MTB doesn't fit me AT ALL, which I realized after riding a fitted bike. And I don't like them, but again, "fun money" is only so much, and priorities have to be set, lol.

If I had it to do again, I'd get the Roubaix with the SRAM groupset on it. I liked that. I was $600 more, and I decided not to spend the money. I wish I had. I liked the SRAM gear.

I've been hit or miss on my cycling, but when I was consistent 2-3 years ago, I was hitting 30-35 miles pretty comfortably, and did 50 a few times. I want to find a good pro fitter and get re-fit. I think I have settled in to my form more and need some tweaks...need to bring the bars back a tad, notably, and could drop them a little more.

5-ish miles on the trails; again took it pretty easy

Deads tonight, rain stopped a pack walk like I wanted to do.

Cutting weight a bit, so my max sets aren't huge, but got 310 locked out for 9 pulls on my max set, then did 185lbs for 5 sets of 10 as stiff-legged deads.