Hiking: Conditioning plan for Boy Scouts Merit Badge 20-miler

This summer I have been doing a bunch of hiking both locally in Philadelphia's Wissahickon Gorge as well as in the nearby Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont. Most of my hikes have been fairly intense - meaning they were usually greater than 7 miles and included some moderate elevation change (1,000+ feet) - but I haven't been exactly conditioning for my first "Boy Scouts Hiking Merit Badge" qualifying 20-miler, which has been a goal of mine for about two years now. Now that I've finally become accustomed to East Coast high-humidity hiking once again, though, it's time to get at it!

Recent conditioning hike, Lover's Leap Trail, Wissahickon Gorge

So, without further ado, here is my conditioning plan for preparing to do my first 20-miler.

1. Attack the core. When I first started hiking two years ago I had a core of steel. I had been focusing on my core for more than a year before, doing medicine ball exercises five days per week and planking every chance I got. These excellent habits have waned greatly over the past year, so step one is to get back into near-daily core work. I will return to doing my former medball workout every day except Tuesdays.
2. Hike with a mission. I am able to get to the Wissahickon Gorge to hike on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Normally I do about five miles each time I go, but now that I'm going to be focusing on conditioning or a 20 miler I've got to amp it up. That being said, I will begin hiking a minimum of eight fast miles at each outing. This means I'll hike with no significant rests for contemplation, picture taking or anything hippy dippy at all. I'm going to book it through those woods!
3. Hike for fun. On Saturdays, I have been in the habit of hiking with friends. This will be my opportunity to slow it down a bit and just enjoy being outdoors for the sake of it. I'm still going to hike fairly quickly, but I'll take time to stop and smell the Hemlock.
4. Hit the gym. After one full month of adhering to the first three steps outlined above, I will add strength training at the gym. I really miss lifting weights, but I know I don't want to bite off more than I can chew right off the bat. Besides, if I do too straight away I'm prone to injure myself, and that would be entirely counterproductive.

Hiking the north slope of Philadelphia's Wissahickon Gorge

Well, there it is. My conditioning plan for completing my first "Boy Scouts Hiking Merit Badge" qualifying 20-miler is fairly intense, but it is totally do-able. I just need to be focused on my goal and intentional about creating the habits over the next month that will prepare me to handle hiking 20 miles in one day between sun up and sun down.

Hiking Update: Still working on accomplishing 20-miler

I recently relocated to Philadelphia from Albuquerque, and while the hiking offers little in comparison to the mountains of the Southwest there are still many excellent opportunities to explore. Just this week I did a five-mile hike a section of the Orange Trial in the Wissahickon Gorge, located in northwest Philly. In the morning I will return to hike the trail's entirety, which is about seven miles*. And I will be paying close attention to time as I hike the gorge tomorrow as I'm still seeking a 20-mile route to finally complete the last requirement of the Boy Scouts Hiking Merit Badge.

Training hike along Wissahickon Gorge Orange Trail, east of Lincoln Drive

Those who follow this blog may have noticed that I've already outlined a couple of options along the way for my 20-miler - one, an urban hike in Albuquerque, and the other, a wilderness hike in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California. Unfortunately, I did not accomplish those plans. The hike in Albuquerque didn't happen as a result of the dangerous pedestrian conditions the city has become notorious for, while the San Jacinto hike was scrapped after I did the upper portion of the trail and realized degree of difficulty would be an impediment to its safe completion, especially considering my current weight, still dangerously in the obesity zone.

I'm still researching options, but what I'm thinking I may do for the 20-mile hike is to hike from downtown Philadelphia through Fairmount Park East and into the gorge, doing a loop of the Orange and Yellow trails, then returning to Philadelphia via Fairmount Park West. I don't have an exact plan yet, but I will be posting one sometime during the next month as I continue to lose weight and train.

Over the winter I packed on 20 extra pounds, and I will need to take that weight off before considering such a long hike. In fact, my goal is to get my weight down below 260 pounds again. After losing 165 pounds a couple of years ago I made it to 255 pounds before slowly putting on weight again. Now I weigh between 280 and 290 pounds, and I have recommitted myself to achieving my goal of overcoming obesity by achieving a weight of less than 227 pounds.

Thanks for reading this blog and my two related blogs, MyFitLife2Day and HikeyHikey. Also, I welcome and invite all your comments. Either leave a comment below or Tweet me @MyFitLife2Day.

*NOTE: To reach the start of the Orange Trail for tomorrow's training hike I'll take the Broad Street Subway from South Philadelphia to Olney Transportation Center in North Philadelphia, a 30-minute ride. From Olney I will transfer to the L Bus, which heads west toward Plymouth Meeting, and I'll get off at Germantown Pike and Northwestern Avenue. The trailhead is just beyond the southeast side of the bridge that crosses over the Wissahickon Creek on Germantown Pike, east of Harpers Meadow and Dewees Rock. I'll hike the entire Orange Trail, including the old section on the east side of Lincoln Drive, which ends somewhere under the rail bridge along Ridge Avenue. At this point I'll catch the 27 bus back to the Broad Street line.