Training thoughts ...

I would say go at speed with heavy weights. The stronger your leg and back muscles are, the less you will have to exert yourself, therefore your endurance improves. I used to do a walk up the Port Hills every week (12km), and over 2 months decreased my time by 30 min and increased the amount I could carry by 5kg. Now I don't have time for that and just run but do a leg workouts (mostly squats and lunges) at the gym. This seems to work ok.

Just lots of walking for me, I guess. I can never be bothered to organise any sort of fitness programme -- all that detail confuses me when I'd rather be eating chocolate. The only time I've ever been to a gym was when a university course required we go and see one was to design some kind of training software. But I try to eat reasonably well and arrange things in my life to keep me fit(ish) in an ad-hoc sort of way. eg. Whenever we look for a flat (in Wellington), I try to arrange things so we're up a hill from where I work, between 30-50 minutes away. Then I stick to a policy of walking to work and home every day (being too stingy to like paying for buses helps)... and I always have a daypack mostly full of storm gear (because it's New Zealand), some kind of library book to sit down and read when I feel like it, water, etc, and that takes care of carrying a bit of weight. Other than that, I often set myself little challenges like seeing how quickly I can get up and down sets of steps along the way, and all of this seems to mimic the sorts of issues I come across when tramping. With the place I live presently, I have a nice scenic option well off the road and through the town belt. It's a nice bonus and means I get to tramp through mud and find new routes now and then. Obviously it's just me though. I've ended up generally walking fit, at least. :)

As I am only away once a month I need to keep up a walking and gym routine to fully enjoy the trip when I take it. I walk over a hilly course at a quick pace for at least an hour every other night and spend an hour and a half in the gym 3 nights a week. The gym work is an hour of aerobics with half an hour of strength work mixed in. I dislike every minute in the gym but its done wonders for the hill climbing especislly the incline cross trainer. Unfortunately not everybody lives in Wellington central izogi and not all of us are blessed with natural ability so its to the gym we go.

Cheers guys. Yeah, I was a gym bunny for many years but dont enjoy it now that Im back in to my tramping. I think I will carry on with my evening walks in the Port Hills and just try and beat my time each time I go (and do a few lunges and squats at the top!)

bigpaul: I appreciate lucky with my current circumstances. Well I think I am, anyway. There are also down-sides, but it makes the rent cheaper. :) I didn't mean to criticise gym use, but right now I guess they're not for me, and I'll do what I can to arrange my life to avoid them. I realise this isn't practical for everyone, and it may change for me one day if and when my circumstances change. I can't imagine what this would be like, but who knows... For the record there seem to be no shortage of people to fill a wide range of gyms that seem to have sprung up in Wellington Central over the last decade or two.