If you're a three season hiker and hike in alpine country then this is the season to dream and strategize. That's the case for me; I haven't yet gotten into winter backpacking so a few day hikes and some snowshoeing are the closest that I get to backpacking in the winter season.

By far, the two biggest improvements to my backpacking hobby have been getting fit and dropping weight from my backpack.  By focusing on these two areas I enjoy hiking more and I'm able to go to much more remote and beautiful places.

Now that the year is starting rather than ending, I'm thinking about getting fit again.  I'm a little past 40 and it takes more work these days to prepare for the hiking season.

I categorize my preparation like this:

1. Strength training
2. Aerobic training
3. Actual hiking

What I've discovered over the past few years of spring training is that it is extremely difficult to exercise all my hiking muscles in the gym.  When I go to the gym I focus on leg muscles and core body muscles but when I finally get a pack on my back and start hiking I always find muscles in these areas that my work outs didn't prepare.  Because of that, I have started to adjust my spring training to include actual hiking with a backpack.

However, I still think the most important element of training is the aerobic element.  In Idaho, where I live, most of the mountain hiking is somewhere between 8,000 ft and 11,000 ft.  If I don't prepare my lungs I inevitably run into breathing limits before I run into strength limits.  Because of this, the constant in my work outs is aerobic exercise.  I like the eliptical and stairmaster machines the most so I spend at least 25-30 min on one of these machines several times a week.

I like to vary the strength part of my training.  Early in the season I focus on strength training in the gym.  Then around early March I start mixing in weekend hikes and around mid-March I add a full backpack to my hikes.  That's been effective for preparing me for my first hike in April.  My first hike is usually only a few miles a day but I like to carry a lot of camera gear so I'll feel it if I'm not physically ready.

The most effective exercise I've found in the gym is the lunge.  I hate doing them because they hurt so badly but I can really feel the difference after doing them for a few weeks.  I carry weights like the diagram above and do a lunge/walk across the gym.  By the time I get to the far side of the gym I'm breathing hard and my quadraceps are in total pain.

So wish me luck.  I'm writing this blog entry in part to get myself motivated to get going.  I've been doing the aerobic part but I need to get back into the rythm of going to the gym and doing those lunges again!