First Time In April :) – Am I Fit Enough?/tips

[Danielle]

Hi everybody,

My name is Danielle and I am going to be walking the kokoda track in April.
Officially my first time out of Australia to do something I've always wanted to do.

Pop is a veteran, and thats why I've decided to walk kokoda. I'm a young pretty active individual,
I work and ride horses for a living and I am up walking at work almost 3-4 hours a day lugging horses around and the like.
But, I am unsure as to what I have to be doing as far as training goes. Currently, I am working three days and on days I have uni, I go to the gym and do a class, an hours walk in the arvo and then a hike somewhere on the weekend (mount tamborine, mount barney, mount warning)

What can I expect at Kokoda? and I am currently buying all my gear, and am trying to find some god quality hiking shoes.

any tips and tricks appreciated, in regards to the treck and overseas travel

[Waza]

Hi Danielle

I presume that you are trekking in April 2012 as you wrote your enquiry on 29th April 2011?

I'm surprised also that you have received no responses.

If you are still trekking next year and still require advice, please let me know and I can help you out.

Also are you in the Tweed Heads area, with your training schedule?

regards

Waza

[Mrs Moo]

Hi Danielle

The best advice that I can give is to walk up hills, hills, hills – the steeper the better. When they are too easy, start adding weight. By the time I did the track, I was walking up a steep track on Mt Archer (Rockhampton) with a 16kg pack without difficulty. While I didn't really struggle on Kokoda (well, there WERE a couple of places that were exceedingly tough), I was glad that I had trained with a pack, even though I hired a porter. You need to build up your "hill-walking" muscles, and you won't do that in a gym.

Mt Barney and Mt Warning are a good start. You need to find a close hill (doesn't have to be high but steep is good) that you can walk up every single day for about an hour. I did that, and Mt Archer once a week, and I was ready.

Waza sent me his training regime before I left, and while I didn't follow it, it was good to see how others trained.

Good luck.
Mary

[peterh13]

There must have been a problem with this post. I check this forum all the time and have only just noticed it.

[Author]

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