Off Season training? How much do you REALLY do?

[az_gogetem]

I was just curious what some of you do to stay in shape during the non-hunting months. I was a 4 sport athlete in high school so I was always in pretty good shape, after high school I spent the summers working on the farm and did a lot of physical work. Don't do much of that anymore. But I do hunt a lot more these days. I feel like either I'm gettin lazy or just worn out at the ripe old age of 23. I can't even justify taking the dogs out for a run to keep em in shape when its 97 degrees and 20% humidity at 10 oclock at night. Check the weather for Eloy,AZ you'll see what I mean. I'm not gonna risk overheating a dog it's not worth it.

I'm interested in what you do for yourself AND the dogs. What type of temps will you train in?

[arizonabeagle]

i played ball in high school like you
lifted weights like it was the only thing around and went to coach workmans wrestling camp in round valley during summer..graduated and just kinda stopped haha
most excercise i get in summer is playin my guitar ...well i do play in a mens softball league wednsday nights...
and as far as dogs go..only one i got now is the beagle..we all now they dont do the huntin like your hounds..the only excersice ol gunner gets is in the pool..its been a good 110-115 around here for awhile now...like you said, even at night its still too damn hot..
but he stays in alright shape i guess..works for me anyway

[Mike Leonard]

I usually have enough work around the place with horses, hay chores fencing and such to keep pretty active. But that is not enough or physically demanding enough to really keep you fit for running with the dogs. I have been a runner and really enjoy it but time and heat and other factors make it easy at times to not go. When you get over 50 like me it is even more important to keep a steady regime of excercise going so I Incline train.

Minimum 5 days a week I do 45 minutes on a Nordic Trac Incline Trainer. This device can go up to a 40% incline and adjustable speeds. I use the I-Fit programs that you insert and it works you thru progressive levels each level taking 8-weeks. I have completed thru level 3 which will have you burning about 1250-1500 calories per session with speeds of running up to 9 MPH and ever changing inclines. The great thing about it is it is easy on your joints and burns up to three times the calores of running on level ground. It is tuff training and I am now at the Boot Camp level which will kick you butt and you will really have to put out to complete each session but it is amazing what it will do for you physically and mentally. My 17 year old is a distance runner in school and he can really cover the ground. Awhile back he and i had the dogs and we were hunting some pretty steep country on foot. We went many miles and heading back he started lagging behind so i challenged him to a race back to the truck. Now he tried to shortcut and i went to running off some pretty steep places and sliding down banks and jumping washouts. Well long story short i beat him to the truck and was setting on the tailgate drinking a bottle of water when he got there. He said dang that machine you run on must be working i better give it a try.

It really is a good program for the houndsmen and it is actually pretty fun and you can watch hunting shows or videos while you are working out so it keeps it from getting too boring.

the old saying is true: if you don't use it or move it you will lose it. LOL!

[Grizzly_Adams]

im with mike on the equiptment. though i quit my gym cause there too damn expensice i did alot of the stair machine and tred mill set to hills before last season and could feel a difference. i don't have big dogs but the wife and i walk her lil terror and my beagle as offen as possible and i hike every chance i get. i also try to carry extra crap when i hike/walk the dogs just to make it a little more diffacult. also i jog when it's not too hot.


i cut out the 12oz curles from my diet (im not saying all of u should just saying i did cause it wasn't a healthy part of my life) and its amazing how much extra baggage you can drop just from that.

[Ike]

I hate the heat, and just won't let my dogs get out from under me if it's too hot. It's pretty cool around here at eight or nine thousand feet at daylight, but things warm up by nine or ten. If the track isn't hot or they don't get it moving pretty quick I cut them off and call them in, cause I'm not gonna loose a good dog to exercise. When it feels too hot to me it's too hot for my dogs, and it sounds like you're looking after those dogs as well.......

ike

[ChasinTail]

First things first Mike Harris... Get out of Eloy.

One thing that I've done is do my running before the sun comes up. It's light enough to run at 4:45am and where I live it's been in the mid 70's just before sun up. Eloy it looks like gets down to about 80 which would most likely be right before sun up. I can't stand running on any kind of machine...works for some people, I'm just not one of them.

I try to run 4 days a week when I'm not on the road for work. If I am on the road then I'll just use the hotel weight room.

on Fridays we take the dogs, start at 4:30 and we're home by 8. This is sometimes just to run, and a couple of times we've let them run a tap trail of Grawe's. We take the horses on Fridays too, just to keep them from getting too fat.

Definitely takes some extra motivation during the summer... stepping on the scale occassionally works for me!

[az27lion]

I live in unit 27 , it has two areas still open year round so I just keep hunting