RE: [Philmont]: RE: 6 Months to Go

I think as advisors, we can all agree that it isn't so much the conditioning
of the boys, but the conditioning of the advisors that is usually in
question. For the boys, focusing on skills and techniques is the largest
importance. We are focusing on arriving in camp, setting up, getting
dinner, waking up (on time), breaking down, and getting out of camp. If we
could run that drill 5 times a day and not get bored stiff, absolute karma
would set in.

   _____

From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of Daniel Preston
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 3:56 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: Re: [Philmont]: RE: 6 Months to Go

I am not convinced that you need to backpack every day to make it a valuable
conditioning exercise. As I wrote in an earlier post, we backpack for an
hour or two in a local park on a weekly basis and then have shakedown hikes
monthly. Having a backpack on while training is the key but the extended
shakedown trips stretch muscles that are not taxed in the same manner with
shorter, albeit more regular, workouts. While I don't have a medical
background or any scientific data to back-up this concept, from my own
experience it seems that the shakedown hikes improve overall conditioning.

Dan Preston
Louisville, Kentucky
On Jan 13, 2006, at 11:09 AM, abthomson@comcast.net wrote:

Daniel Preston writes...
 
I really don't understand the thinking that shakedown hikes cannot be for
physical conditioning. Of course shakedown hikes prepare the crew to work
as a team, but there is nothing that prepares you physically for backpacking
like backpacking. Exercising and running stadium steps are fine but
backpacking over steep terrain is the best physical conditioning you can do.
Doing this as crew provides both teamwork training and physical
conditioning, not just one or the other.
 
 
Comment...
 
If the only time your crew is hiking with a full backpack is on shakedown
hikes, you have problem...
 
The shakedown will show if the crew is properly conditioning themselves, but
if they aren't, it is not going to happen just on shakedown hikes.
 
-- Al Thomson, Troop 236,
Schooley's Mountain, NJ
Treks 1999, 2001, 2003
Autumn Adventures 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006
 

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