How fit is "fit enough"?

[DeepMauka]

Caveat to my post. At the moment, I'm in the worst shape of my life. I am very athletic though, so that may be an extremely relative statement.

Fit enough to hunt? Yeah, fitness matters, but don't let that be a reason to not get out there and hunt. Get off your butt, load your pack, and get it done. Go hunt. See an animal, and it might not be "easy" or "wise" considering your physical condition...don't listen to that voice and go. So what it took you longer than your friends. At least you got there. Or if hunting alone, you're by yourself, why you care it took more time to get there. Just nut up and go.

Now after the hunt you realize how much it sucked to get from point a to point b. how much it sucked to get your meat off the mountain. Good. Now you know what you gotta work on before you get out there next time. Focus on your weakness before your next hunt, and try to improve. But by all means, don't let some physical "standard" stop you from hunting. Just get out there, let the mountain kick your lazy but and show you what you gotta do before next time.

I've found it's more mental than anything else. Just learn from your mistakes, and work on them before your next time out. It's easy to find an excuse on why you shouldn't. Just go, and take that experience to make you better for the next time.

 

[sodaksooner]

I want to be able to spot an elk on the next mountain/ridge over and not even think about going after it because it is too hard.

Two years ago we walked 84 miles and climbed 26000 feet on an 8 day hunt. we were tired, We hunted hard, but not necessarily smart. Had some decent opportunities though so it was worth it.

We are now trying to hunt smarter,not that we cant do it, as we are in pretty good shape for people in their late 40's. We want to get in closer, stay closer and limit the 2 to 3 hour hikes in every day at 4am. Finally have all the gear to make that happen.

That said i am way behind where i usually am at this point, but our hunt is later this year, and I "officially" start training for another marathon next week. Guess my off days will weighted pack hikes for a couple of months.

 

[KHNC]

I am 46 and train with a 40lb ruck on a regular basis along with kickboxing 2-3 days a week for cardio. I did 18 miles overnight this past weekend. I read the earlier post about MET needing to be around 15. Best I can calculate , mine is around 11. This was tested by resting heart rate, walking a mile fast as possible, and running 1.5 miles. Heart rate was checked at 20 secs, 10 secs and 15 secs per formula I found online. Not sure how im gonna get it any better. Just for curiosity, I changed my age in the formula to 25. The number went up to 15-16. Not sure why this would be the case. Why is age a factor on this calculation with the same damn heart rate and times?