It’s officially been about 3 weeks since I seriously kicked off a training plan using this backpacking training guide.
Michael bought me this fantastic Garmin watch over Christmas and the little gadget is helping me focus on measuring and tracking my training goals, progress.
I connect it up with Strava so there’s a little bit of a social element there but my favorite part of this gadget is the Garmin Connect app that allows me to:
- Track activity during hikes, workouts and weights sessions
- Live GPS tracking (huge battery hog so I will not be using this on the JMT)
- review performance and stats after activities including HR zones
- Plan workouts (sets and reps for weights etc) so my workout plan is on my wrist
- Track my sleep (although I’m skeptical about accuracy)
- There’s a fun thing called “Fitness Age” that tells me I currently have a body of a 46 year old (it was 47 when I first started a month ago) and I could have the body of a 39 year old if I want but I gotta work on it LOL
So, now that I got my #geeking out of the way, I am sharing the experience of my physical training so far.
When I started off on Day 1 and Week 1, I was in a terrible state.
The years of sedentary office life exacerbated by Covid has not been kind to me. While I have enjoyed regular weekend hiking and backpacking over the last half year, it is not enough to maintain a level of strength and aerobic fitness required to truly enjoy a long thru-hike like the JMT.
First, there was the protein shake situation involving my first ever protein shakes of my life and a local coffee shop that gave me Vegan protein powder (read: highly processed ingredients). It tasted amazing, it’s a great local business and I got the recipe idea for making my own but BOY WHEN I TELL YOU IT DID A NUMBER ON ME…. That number was TWO and I’ll just leave it there.
I am happy to report that switching up to making these myself at home and carefully selecting a Protein Powder brand with clean ingredients has eliminated that issue. This Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Vanilla Ice Cream flavor is so delicious!.
My body protested in other ways too including SPLITTING headaches after each workout for the first week, week and a half. So I would take two Ibuprofen pills after every workout as the headaches set in.
I didn’t know what it was. I was drinking water, I had had enough sleep. I think my body was just going into protest mode.
I have also never done any kind of free weight training and the gym equipment the last time I stepped foot into a gym was really for draping myself on when I was a college kid. It was the struggle bus. I first went hunting for weights. The only things lying around were tiny 1-2 lb Peloton weights or like a 50 lb kettle ball I couldn’t even move.
I did find some tiny 5 lb kettle balls and decided they were good enough for the sets I needed to do.
I eventually graduated to a real dumbbell set that Michael salvaged from a rental property and I’m now up to 7.5 lb weights for my strength routines.
When I started, I read the program guide saying I should do medium weights. Then I found out medium weights were 10 lb. I looked at my set of two 5 lb and said Oh yeah I can handle “medium”. These are good…. then I later found out when you see 10 lb it means 10 lb in EACH hand 🙂
This is what I started doing in Week 1 for Strength(3 sessions per week) :
- 3 Sets X 15 Reps Dumbbell Squat Curl and Press (with 5 lb weights)
- 2 X 10 Weighted Lunges (5 lb)
Week 1 thoughts : Kill. Me. Now.
I had trouble finding a good stretching video on Youtube to follow. Everyone wants me to lie down on a Yoga mat and I’m not a cat. My knees hurt.
I ended up finding warm ups, cool downs and stretches that worked thanks to The Fitness Marshall (also my main Cardio program but more on that later).
I noticed that the squats and lunges targeted similar sets of muscles (upper legs) and so in Week 2, I changed the lunges to Calf raises. After each strength session, I was hurting. I do have a Theragun so that helped a little bit.
On the Cardio front, I did get in a nice hike during Week 1 and for week days, I joined The Fitness Marshall program on Youtube. I had seen their hilarious clips on Tiktok and I loved their program. I tried a free 30 minute video they did for the new year and it was entertaining, fun and a fantastic workout. I felt accomplished, joyful and confident. It was a no-brainer for me to join the subscription.
The 30 minute workouts were perfect for Week 1. I was seeing my HR go up to the Aerobic and Anerobic Zones and I was feeling it. It was fun and went by quickly.
Week 2 Strength looked like this :
- 3 Sets X 15 Reps Dumbbell Squat Curl and Press (with 5 lb weights)
- 2 X 10 Dumbbell Single Leg Calf Raise ( 5 lb)
- 2 X 10 Dumbbell 3-Way Calf Raise ( 5 lb )
The calf raises were a good addition and sometimes I would still throw in some lunges at the end but my body was starting to calm the f*ck down this week.
I was still taking Ibuprofen for a few days but the headaches disappeared by the end of Week 2.
By the end of this week, I had also mastered my playlist with my favorite warm up, cool down and stretch videos sandwiching a selection of workout music including my favorite Jack Harlow, Post Malone, A$AP Rocky and other tracks.
I was also enjoying the Fitness Marshall 30 minute videos. They are so much fun.
The snow hit us at the end of Week 2 and there was no hike to do. I did notice that the weights were too easy and I wasn’t quite tired at the end of Cardio. I did some silly things by doubling up on training and I think I skipped a Rest day because I got cocky. But when that happened, my body told me to slow down and I ended with the same output that week anyway because my body forced me to slow down.
I knew that in Week 3, I needed to step it up.
I am now almost at the end of Week 3 and my updated Program is now optimally challenging and fun :
- 3 Non consecutive Strength days
- 3 x 15 Dumbbell Squat Curl Press (7.5 lb)
- 2 x 10 Dumbbell Single Leg Calf Raise (7.5 lb)
- 2 x 10 Dumbbell 3-Way Calf Raise (7.5 lb)
- 2 Non consecutive Cardio Days (non hiking)
- 60 minute (eek) Fitness Martial Dance Session
- 1 Long Hike/ Cardio
- 2 non Consecutive rest days
So far, Week 3 feels really good with the added weight and long cardio sessions. I feel some soreness but not the on-death’s-door-stop feeling. I will keep at this program until things start to feel easy and eventually make it to the 10 lb weights with the same sets and reps. I will also add lunges back and maybe try some planks/pushups/sit ups/[other core exercises].
I’ll make an attempt to do a Weekly Training Recap of how things went, what it felt like, what I am changing. But at least we are now caught up!
