[Philmont] Conditioning

Stephen Readett <spreadett@hotmail.com> asked:

> Would anyone care to report on the success or failure of their
> preparations
> for Philmont.
>
> Specifically, should you have better prepared for the physical
> demands?
> Steve R.
> Preparing for '07.

What I can do is compare what I did in 1993 (at age 47) with what I did this
year at age 60:

In 1993, our crew had three day hikes of ten to fifteen miles, beginning in
March, plus a Memorial Day backpack of about 15 miles. All of these was
done near sea level. In addition, I did my own additional day hikes without
the rest of the crew (but some with my son), totalling probably about 100
additional miles, again at sea level, capping it off with a 3-day backpack,
20 miles at elevations ranging from 7600 to over 10,000 feet, the week
before we left for Philmont. In addition, I switched from regular sodas to
diet sodas and bought (and used) a Nordic track. In all I lost twelve
pounds before getting on the train. Our trek was not a strenous one (about
56 miles, with the longest day about eight miles), and I don't recall being
stressed (but we did opt not to climb the Tooth after hiking down from
Urraca Mesa the last morning).

In 2006, we (two of our Scouts plus myself) were guests on another troop's
crew, and there was no opportunity for both troops to collaborate on prep
hikes. Because of work-related travel I was unable to do much with our two
Scouts either (but I wasn't worried about them). My training actually
started earlier this time, with a weeklong cross-country ski experience in
the Tetons (lodge-based, not snow caves!), followed by additional ski trips
from January through March (total miles skied about 75). The Nordic track
was cleared of all of the clothing that had taken up residence on it, but it
still didn't get much use. In April, I switched over to hiking (again at
sea level) and covered probably another 75-80 miles by early June. At that
point, business travel and a local heat wave, compounded by soaring gasoline
prices, cut into my preparations and I probably only logged another 25-30
miles over the last eight weeks before we left. I had lost ten pounds this
time, but the starting point was somewhat higher than before (and I had
already given up sweetened sodas).

Also as part of my preparations, I read Karen Berger's book on lightweight
backpacking and trimmed about eight pounds from my pack.

It was a bit more of a struggle than I remembered from thirteen years
earlier, but by the third day, I was feeling pretty comfortable on the
trail. Unfortunately, the fifth day was a climb from Black Mountain Camp
over Black Mountain (2000 ft climb in about two miles), with an eight-mile
runout to Clarks Fork on the other side. I was tired that day, and for the
remainder of the trek (three days, average about five miles per day), my
legs were pretty dead. But I made it all the way under my own power and
without offloading any weight to anyone else.

In retrospect, I think the key issue was that I lost much of the
conditioning that I had built up early when I was unable to keep up with my
training program at the end.

YiS,

Alan R. Houser
ASM, Troop 24, Berkeley
Crew 2006-812-D1
alanh@askcnet.org

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Received on Mon Sep 11 11:49:29 2006