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Join me in a chat about how I have been prepping for backpacking the Italian Dolomites! We'll go over my current workout split, some hiking fitness strategies I've incorporated, and a few specific tips to booking treks in Italy that may be a little different than you'd expect!
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What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the fit for hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady, and today I'm going to be sharing about how I am prepping for a summer backpacking trip that I have coming up in about a month in the Italian Dolomites. You guys, this has had been a bucket list trip for me for maybe five years now, and it's something that kind of had to be put off because of a lot of different things. Um, my husband Shane and I started planning this trip. Man about. Yeah, about five years ago when we were dating. And then, of course, everything hit the fan with Covid. We didn't end up getting to go. Then we ended up saving up for a van and traveling in a van. Then we got pregnant. Then we bought a house. We had a baby. Life just got crazy and it seemed like there was always something that was coming in the way. So now we are finally getting to implement and go on our dream trip, and we're bringing our two year old daughter, juniper, which will definitely be interesting. But this is actually going to be my first time in Europe at all, so I'm beyond excited. Italy has been a dream trip, like I said for the longest time, but specifically, getting to experience the Dolomites and hiking in the Dolomites is top of my bucket list, so we are very excited. I wanted to kind of share the details of the trip that we are planning to take, as well as how I am prepping for this physically, as well as just other prep, because I think that, you know, backpacking is something that can be kind of overwhelming. It's definitely overwhelming when you're looking at going in another country, especially a country that you've never been to before. So I wanted to share what this process has been like for us. Um, because personally, I have felt a little bit overwhelmed. And I'm no stranger to backpacking and planning trips like this, so hopefully this will help you kind of build some confidence around how to plan a bucket list backpacking trip, even if it's in another country. So I wanted to share a little bit about what we're doing. We are planning to hike the Trade Human Nature Traverse Trail. Um, and this is kind of technically a national park in the Italian Dolomites. So, um, we're doing it three days and two nights is going to be roughly 20 miles. We're going to start out the first day with our longest stint. So it'll be about ten miles. And we are covering a ton of elevation that day, like 3 to 4000ft of gain. And then the next day will be slightly less with about seven miles. And then the final day will be 3.5 miles back to where we are finishing the trail and getting our car. So that's what it's going to look like for us. There are so many different options in the Dolomites, um, for really long backpacking trips, you know, upwards of 7 to 10 days. However, because we're bringing our daughter, we wanted to do something manageable. Um, my parents are actually going to be meeting us there, and they're going to be helping out watching juniper. So we will not have to pack, uh, pack for her. Carry her? Um, because this is actually a pretty technical trail. There are some via ferrata that we can do. Um, it's definitely not something that I would want to do carrying a toddler on my back. And this has kind of been our dream thing to do together. So it's really special that we kind of just get to do this as a couple. And, um, my parents are able to watch juniper, which is amazing. Um, so we wanted to pick a short enough trail that they're not stuck watching her for a week. And there's so many other things we want to do in Italy. So that was kind of how we decided on this particular trek. The trade time route is one of the best, because you get to see some of the most iconic sights in the Dolomites, which is why we picked it. And it fits kind of just with the overall timeline that we want as well. So let's go over what I've been doing in the last few months as we've been planning this trip, and we knew that our dates and everything, I have been very strategically shifting my workouts a little bit, um, still continuing to do a lot of the same things. So a lot of what I'm about to share is pretty typical for me year round. I will say that I'm very consistent with my workouts. I very rarely go a week without doing some form of weight training or, you know, strategic exercise and I think that being consistent year round is a really important foundation, because if we all we do is just start to work out for like a month before a trip. Yes, you'll see some benefits for sure. Some things always better than nothing, but you're not going to have that foundation of strength and conditioning that you would if you were already working out, even just like two times a week, year round. And then you just started to ramp it up a little bit leading up to a big hike or a big trip. Okay. So let me just preface with that, that I do consistently work out year round, at least 3 to 4 days a week, and I'm really dialed in with that, which I've been proud of throughout all the chaos of big life transitions. Having a toddler, I've done pretty well staying consistent. So here's what my training has looked like over the past 3 to 4 months, especially over the last maybe 1 to 2 as the weather started to get warmer and it's easier to implement some outdoor training. So what I do right now is I do two gym workouts a week. Um, the reason that I end up usually doing two at the gym and not all of my workouts at the gym, is because of the childcare situation. I go on days when I've dropped my daughter off at daycare, and I can easily take that time and go to the gym. Um, it ends up working really well because I use my gym workout days to do heavier lifting. So about the 6 to 8 rep range 3 to 4 sets lifting with barbells. Where things like squats, hip thrust, deadlifts and then being able to use cables for a lot of upper body pull. I can also do like the assisted pull up machine. They have a lot of different great upper body pull variations that I can use there that I don't have at home. So when I'm at the gym, I try to be very strategic about using equipment that I don't have access to at home, and doing a slightly different stimulus than what I'm going to get at home by using the heavier weights. Okay, so about 6 to 8 rep range, 3 to 4 sets. And I do this two days a week. And I'm doing like heavier compound lifts and a lot of upper body pull. Upper body pull is crucial for backpacking because you want to have strong posture muscles. So all of your posterior chain, your back muscles, that's what's going to support you to keep your back feeling good, to keep you from having slouchy posture. And when you're carrying a big, heavy pack on your back, that's going to make a big difference. So you want to make sure that you are strong, um, all down your back side. So from your upper back, lower back, glutes, hamstrings, all of that. So that's a lot of what I focus on when I'm at the gym. I also do 1 to 2 at home workouts a week, and all that I have for equipment at home is a range of dumbbells, so we have adjustable dumbbells that go from like 10 to £80, but I'm typically using just moderate weights right. Moderate dumbbell weights. And then we have a step. So when I'm at home I'm doing moderate weights. And a lot of like single leg stepping work and core. So things that like I can do easily and I don't need gym equipment to do those things. Um, so I use the step a lot for single leg, step up, step downs. Um, you know, you can do lunges off the step, curtsy lunges off the step, a lot of step variations because that really mirrors what you're doing when you're hiking. I remember even just a week ago, I was hiking with my daughter and the trail was so steep we were covering like 1000ft of gain across just a mile. So the up and down was crazy. And I was carrying juniper, which meant I had about £40 on my back. And when you're doing really steep inclines and declines like that, the stepping with all that added weight, you need to be strong in that single leg position. And I remember stepping down off of a massive boulder and thinking, if I didn't practice this stuff in the gym with weight, this would be almost impossible for me. Like, I actually don't know if I could do it now that I'm carrying £40 every time I'm hiking. Like it's a lot of hard work. Um, so doing that step work has been huge for me, and I just have a little step that I got off of Amazon. So you really don't need a ton. Um, and I and I recently shared a episode about home versus gym workouts and kind of explained my split. And so, you know, if you're kind of questioning what works best for you, I definitely would recommend going back and listening to that episode. On whether or not home workouts make sense for you. Gym workouts, or maybe a fusion like what I do. All right. So I do that 1 to 2 times a week with moderate rep range. So typically anywhere between 10 to 15 reps and three sets. All right. The next thing that I focus on is 60 to 100 minutes of aerobic cardio. And this is outside of just my typical walking and hiking. And this is probably the biggest variable that shifts for me as I get closer to a big hike or just hiking season in general, I start to ramp up my aerobic cardio. I don't do a ton of aerobic cardio year round. I don't find that it's super necessary if I'm getting my non exercise activity in in the form of walking and just staying active as well as my lifting. But when I know that I'm going to have some pretty aerobically demanding hikes coming up, this is an area that I really ramp up. So 60 to 100 minutes across the course of a week, and this can look different based on how my week looks. Right? So some days I might just do a full cardio workout where I have like 40 to 60 minutes, where I'm just banging out some cardio, just doing some steady state, whether it's incline walking, elliptical biking, um, StairMaster jogging, my favorite forms of aerobic cardio are jogging, incline walking and elliptical. So those are the forms I typically go with. And sometimes, like I said, it's a long stretch and that's my whole workout. Other times I'm tacking on like 20 minutes to the end of the workout, and other times I will just go for like a 20 to 30 minute jog whenever I can fit it in. But I am intentionally adding more cardio into my week as I get closer to a big hike, because I don't want to feel like I'm dying on the inclines and I always notice a difference. Even this weekend I went hiking. Um, a pretty tough hike as far as incline goes, and I was so excited because it didn't feel that challenging to me because I've been really ramping up my cardio over the last few months. All right. The next thing that I implement is the daily walk. And again, this is something I try to do year round. Um, tends to get a little harder in the winter. That's where a walking pad definitely comes in clutch. And I use that a ton this past winter, on the weeks where it was just like so much snow and horrible weather and I didn't feel like getting outside. So trying to at least go for like a 20 to 30 minute walk on top of my other activity is going to be huge. There's so many like mental benefits, nervous system benefits, as well as just increasing your non exercise activity and you're just getting used to being on your feet. If you go out for like a big backpacking trip or a big long day hike, like, you know, 5 to 10 miles and you're not used to just being on your feet for a long amount of time and just going for daily walks. That's going to feel so tiring. Your feet are going to be feeling it. Your knees are going to be feeling it. You're just going to overall be more tired because you're not used to spending a lot of time on your feet. So walking is definitely kind of an underrated thing that doesn't even feel like formal exercise, but it does help prepare you for long mileage. And then the final thing is hiking at least once a week at 8000ft plus elevation. And this is one that might not be doable for you based on where you live. I happen to live at 8000ft, so it's easy for me to go hiking close by and all of the trails near me are like 8500 to 10,000ft in elevation, which automatically makes it a lot tougher. And I'm getting some really good training in at high elevation. The elevation that we're going to be hiking in the Dolomites actually is much lower than where I live, and therefore where I'm training and where I'm hiking on a weekly basis. So that already is going to put me in an advantage when I'm on that trail, because I'm going to have more oxygen readily available. It's not going to feel quite as tough. Um, so that is something that excites me. When I am training at high elevation, it always feels so much harder. And then when I go down and get to do like a race or a workout or a hike somewhere lower, it feels a lot easier. And I know that I've been putting in that hard work. So, um, the hikes that I've been doing tend to be between just two and five miles, because I'm usually going on a weekday when my daughter is with me and I don't have childcare that day or on the weekend. But either way, my daughter is always with me. So super, super long hikes just aren't doable. Like she's a toddler, she gets so tired of being in the carrier, she's not just going to fall asleep like she used to. So we have to be strategic. Whether I'm doing it by myself or with my husband, have to be very strategic with the timing. And I can't usually do super, super long ones. But even just getting out once to twice a week to do some hiking, um, is prepping me and I'm carrying my daughter, which is going to be pretty equivalent to what I'm going to be carrying weight wise when we're backpacking. Um, so that is really great training for me, even if I'm doing shorter hikes. Um, and I typically do hikes that gain about 700 to 1500 feet in elevation. So I'm practicing that high elevation and elevation gain, which is really important because like I mentioned, a lot of the hiking, I'm going to be doing, even though the elevation that we're starting at in Indiana is lower. We have a lot of games, so we are going to be gaining 2 to 4000ft per day, which is a lot. If you are familiar with hiking, I find that very difficult. It's tough, especially if you have heavy packs and you're going long mileage on top of that. So trying to get out and hike at least once a week, even if you don't live somewhere where you have like intense incline trails, just getting out on the trails where there's a little bit of like up and down and you're not just on the road, it's going to help get your ankles ready, get your stamina ready, you're getting your steps in, and all of that's going to really help with prep if you have a big hike coming up. Okay, so that is what my week looks like. And as a snapshot view as I've been prepping for this summer backpacking trip, here is some of the other prep that I'm doing that is not so much fitness related, but needs to be done when you're looking at planning a hike. So one thing that you need to understand about this particular trail is that in the Dolomites, because it's a national park, they have specific regulations about how you have to go about things. And instead of getting like a backcountry permit, which is typically what you have to do in the, um, national parks in the United States, you have to stay at these refuge. Those is what they're called, and they're basically like huts. And so you are going hut to hut on this backpacking trip. It's actually illegal to just backcountry camp. You cannot set up a tent in these parks, which is really interesting to me. And I did not know that until we were really planning this. So because of that, you're bringing a sleeping bag and a liner, but you aren't having to pack like a tent and a ground pad and all these things because you're paying to stay at a refugio. And so instead of needing any other reservation, you just need reservations at these refugio. And the process to get them is kind of funny because you basically have to like, look online, look on blogs, get links, and then you have to like email them and ask in Italian and you wait to hear back. It's not very streamlined the way that it is with like the recreation.gov. So that's been definitely interesting, but thankfully we were able to get our two refugio booked. So that was a big part of our prep, was looking into first the route that we wanted to do based on the amount of time that we wanted to commit to this. You know, some people go and like I said, they do 7 to 10 days. That just doesn't really work with our schedule of what all we want to do on this trip as well as like our daughter, you know, we're not going to leave her for a week straight and go and not have service and not be able to contact my parents who are watching her. So that's just what worked best for us. So decide on your official route. And then you're going to want to do some research, start reading some blogs, start looking into, okay, what are people saying about this route? What do I need to do? Do I need a permit? Do I need to book a hut? What do I need to bring? So watching YouTube videos and reading blogs have been one of the top ways that we've planned this and kind of figured out what route we want to do, what we need, booking the refuse, all of that. Um, also, we're downloading the maps of this particular route to our Garmin inReach. So this is something that we can use when we don't have service so that we have the maps readily available. We're also going to be printing physical maps and also trying to acquire extra copies while we're there, so that we are for sure covered and we know exactly where we're going to be going. Another nice thing about this is we are going to be stopping at the Refugio. So, um, you know, as long as we can get to the refugees, we can get some help, we can get some guidance. And we're not just going to be, like, out in the wilderness with with no, uh, you know, sense of direction. If something were to go horribly wrong and we lost our maps for some reason. Um, also looking into what we need to pack based on the weather that time of year. You know, it's probably going to be a little bit different than what you could expect here in the Rocky Mountains, depending on the elevation, because it is lower and we are sleeping inside these refugio structures. So we're probably not going to need to pack quite the most extensive cold weather gear like I would if I was backpacking in the Rocky Mountains, even in the summer. Um, so that definitely makes a difference where where you're where you're hiking elevation wise, even if you're in July, August, you know, I hiked in the Canadian Rockies in August and it snowed. You guys, it was so cold. And I wasn't as well prepared as I should have been because I just assumed, you know, it's August. It was one of my first backpacking trips. I had a lot to learn. So definitely always looking into what the nighttime temperatures are of the exact location where you're going to be, not just like the general area, not just the town closest to that hike. Um, okay. Also looking into things that you need that are required for this particular hike. So one thing that we learned through our research was that we needed to buy sleeping bag liners because they actually provide the sleeping bags at the refugio. But you have to bring your own liner so that you're not just sleeping in this sleeping bag that hundreds of other people have slept in. So it's just kind of a sanitary thing. So we had to order sleeping bag liners as something we actually didn't have. So look into what you need. Certain backpacking trips tracks are going to require like bear bins or bear spray or, you know, these certain equipment, um, that might be different from what you've done in the past. So looking into what's required for that particular truck, um, also looking into the water situation, are there water sources along the way? Do you need to bring water purification? Is there going to be water at the refugio that we're stopping at? Um, and then locating our other gear? So because like I said, we don't need to pack like tents and sleeping bags and ground pads and things like that. Um, we don't have to worry about that for this particular backpacking trek, but we do need to locate other things like, um, our jet boil headlamp, bear spray poles, packs that we're going to be using, different things like that. If we were not doing a backpacking trek where we were sleeping in Refugio. Here are a couple other things that I would do. I would practice tent setup. We did this actually this past weekend, because we were camping in a tent that we hadn't used in years because we've had the van, and so we've really only done like backpacking treks with smaller tents, or we've slept in the van. So we were using a massive tent that I haven't used in years, and I wanted to set it up and make sure that everything still worked well, that we had all the parts after moving a couple times over the years. So practice your tent setup, make sure you know exactly what you're doing, because the last thing you want is to be in the backcountry and realize, oh crap, we don't have these poles, or we don't have tent stakes, or there's a hole in our tent and all this wind is coming in, or we don't have a rain cover for our tent, and it's raining and sleeping, right? You want to make sure you have what you need. Also, make sure the zippers work. That was the one thing we did not do this weekend. We set it up, but we did not check the zippers and sure enough, the zippers were broken. Um, and we may do. We figured it out, but it's not ideal, especially if you're in the backcountry and the weather is severe. Um, ensure your ground pads don't have any holes and that they inflate easily, that you know how to inflate them. See if you want to bring, like a blow up pillow if you're comfortable just sleeping in your sleeping bag without a pillow, great. But it's good to know. Like what things are necessary for you. Personally, I like having a pillow. For me, it's worth the added weight to bring a blow up pillow. Um, because I hate sleeping without a pillow. Um, look into animal threats in that particular area. What type of wildlife is near you and what precautions do you need to take? What do you need to bring based on those threats? Um, and then also looking into waste disposal protocols for that particular area and planning your food. Um, like, what are you going to have access to? Are you going to bring dry meals and a jet boil, or are you going to pack peanut butter and jelly? What are you going to do, um, for your food? And then also how are you going to plan for food storage, especially if there are a lot of bears in the area, especially grizzly bears. That's something you don't want to take lightly. Bringing a bear in is really important, and making sure you store it far enough away from your campsite and understanding how to keep your campsite scent free so that you aren't attracting wildlife to your site. So these are just the types of things that you want to start thinking through, and making sure that you are showing up as prepared as possible, especially if it's one of your first trucks. And if you are new to backpacking, I absolutely recommend going on like a guided trek. There are so many amazing women now who are hosting guided treks, and I've done guided treks. When I've gone to other countries and felt way out of my element. Sometimes it's required. Like in Guatemala, it's actually required. That you hire a guided service if you're going to go backpack the volcanoes, because it's very dangerous to try to do it by yourself. Um, from a crime standpoint and a weather standpoint, just getting lost. And so, um, it might actually be required in certain countries, but it can be so helpful to just kind of learn the ropes and really pay attention to, like, don't just go and let everyone do everything for you. Pay attention, look at what's going on, ask questions, make sure you understand how to do the setup and tear down, um, and make sure you just know how to handle all the outdoor equipment that you would be using if you were doing it on your own. Even just going with people that you trust that have done this sort of thing before. Um, I think that makes a huge difference. They know how to maybe plan the routes and they know what equipment to bring, and they can give you some recommendations. They can send you a list on what to pack, and then they can kind of show you the ropes. Um, but just know that you're going to have a learning curve, like you're going to make some mistakes if you go back and listen to, uh, one of our first episodes. Um, I had a couple guests on, and we chatted about all the biggest backpacking fails that we've had. And you can learn a lot, even just by listening to that episode about things that you might not think about and learn from our mistakes instead of making them yourself. Um, but I hope that this has been helpful for you guys to kind of understand how I'm personally prepping for this. It doesn't have to be something that takes over your entire life. Like I said, if you already have a pretty established workout routine, um, then you're just kind of. Toying with it a little bit, adding a little bit of extra. I'm not perfect with this by any means. There have definitely been weeks where I have not been getting in 62 100 minutes of cardio and I have not been getting, you know, four workouts in, um, and that's that's life. Like, I'm not holding myself to a perfect standard, but these are some of the metrics that I'm shooting for so that I can show up and feel really excited and and know that I'm capable, feel confident in my body's abilities. And, um, you know, that's one of my favorite things about the Mountain Metabolic program. We have so many ladies who are planning these big bucket list trips, like tour de Mont Blanc or Machu Picchu or, um, Kilimanjaro. Like, it's so cool to talk to these women who are planning these big epic hikes. And that is they're why that's why they're showing up for their workouts. They want to feel their absolute best and and be confident when they show up for these things and know that they can do it. Um, so if you are, you know, maybe planning something like this for yourself and you want some guidance and you really want to be held accountable, you want a plan that makes sense for what you're doing and what your life looks like. Definitely check the show notes for our Mountain Metabolic Coaching application. Um, this is the best place to start if you're interested in learning about what our program has to offer and if it makes sense based on your goals. And I will reach out based on your application and book a call with you. Um, so I hope this has been helpful, you guys, thanks so much for tuning in. I will probably do a follow up episode after our trip to the Dolomites and tell you all how it went, and kind of give you the scoop on how the training paid off. But thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.