My Fitness Journey

I was in good shape when I was younger. Like many of us, by my mid-40s, my career, family, and the stresses of life took their toll. I got slow and squishy. I happened so slowly I never perceived it. It was a decades-in-the-making slow, insidious slide into a sedentary lifestyle with a diet rich in simple carbs and fast food. A health scare at 44 got my attention and gave me the convictions I needed to get healthy. I gradually started making important changes to my diet. I cut out the sugar and the bad carbs and lost 25 lbs. I started hiking – mostly because I just hated going to the gym. Surprisingly, hiking became therapy for me. Within a few years, I found myself hiking hundreds of miles a year. I even hiked the John Muir Trail and climbed the Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador. I found a hobby that keeps me fit, and everything else flows from that. I find joy in my hobby, so I work hard at it, do it with other people, and keep score so I can improve. And it pays huge dividends in every other area of my life. What’s your hobby? What could it be? What’s stopping you?

How I Train

In this season of my life, I’m not training to look better in a t-shirt. At my age, I can’t get motivated by that. I’m training to DO things. And what I want to do is climb steep elevation with weight, scrambling on Class 2, 3, 4, and 5 terrain at high altitude. I’ve got a real job, so I’ve got to be smart about where I put my limited time and energy. Here is my routine…

Aerobic Base – I spend time in ~80% of my time maintaining my aerobic base. This involves staying in heart rate Zones 1 and 2 and carrying a weighted pack up steep terrain. When I can’t get outside, I use a stepmill at the gym.
Intensity – I spend ~10% of my training doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This maintains a high VO2 Max, which complements my aerobic base. As we age, our VO2 Max declines rapidly – unless we continue to train at intensity. Joe Friel’s research makes a compelling case for not abandoning intensity as I age, and I follow his advice as best I can. Twice a month, I do a HIIT session on the stepmill, 5 minutes low intensity, 5 minutes max intensity for 4 rounds.
Strength – I spend ~10% of my time on strength training, mostly bodyweight (pull-ups, push-ups, dips, single-leg squats, and ab work). If I am winning at my strength routine, it shows up in my body composition when I get a DEXA scan – typically every 6-8 weeks.

Here is a typical week for me. As you can see, it’s not that complicated. Think of me as the “Triumph of the Average.” Nearly anyone can do this, or something like this, only tailored to their own sport.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
HIIT Training (1 hr)	Strength Training (30 min)		Very Early Morning Fitness Hike (4 hrs)	Recovery	Hike (Twice a month)	Strength Training (30 min)

What I Measure

I can only improve what I measure, so I take measurement seriously. Most of my data comes from a chest strap heart monitor I wear with my Garmin Fenix watch. This ensures I get accurate data. My Garmin data imports automatically into TrainingPeaks, where I can do more detailed analysis. I track peaks on Peakbagger, and I track my body composition at BodyMetRX in Redlands, using a DEXA scan. Here are the stats I track annually…

Aerobic Base Stats

	Total Ascents	NEW Ascents	Elevation Gain/Loss	Backcountry Mileage	Total Fitness Hours	Training Stress (TSS)	Average Weekly TSS
2025	98	2	183,470	587	411	16871	324
2024	70	22	181,515	628	425	18889	363
2023	52	14	119,594	393	358	16475	317
2022	18	8	84,200	245	259	12766	246
2021	39	13	127,005	529	405	18616	358
2020	23	12	109,526	422
2019	12	5	49,930	125
2018	38	27	132,250	412
2017	17	6	67,380	202
2016	26	7	111,980	338
2015	6	5	24,280	67
Total	399	121	1,191,130	3948	1858	83617

Total Ascents – Total number of named peaks climbed during the year.
New Ascents – Total number of new peaks climbed during the year.
Elevation Gain/Loss – Total elevation gain from all hiking activities during the year.
Backcountry Mileage – Total backcountry mileage from all hiking activities.
Fitness Hours – Total amount of recorded fitness hours captured by Garmin Connect.

Training Stress (hrTSS) – The Heart Rate Training Stress Score in TrainingPeaks measures the physiological stress of a workout using your heart rate data. One hour spent at your lactate threshold heart rate equals 100 points. It estimates training load based on time spent in heart rate zones.
Average Weekly TSS – Total TSS divided by 52 weeks.

Intensity Stats

	2026*	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021
5 sec	205	200	202	201	198	198
10 sec	204	200	201	201	198	198
12 sec	204	200	201	201	198	198
20 sec	204	200	201	201	198	197
30 sec	203	200	201	201	197	196
1 min	202	199	200	200	196	196
2 min	200	198	199	199	195	195
5 min	196	195	196	196	191	191
6 min	193	193	194	195	190	190
10 min	184	185	186	186	186	188
12 min	186	186	187	188	185	187
20 min	183	184	185	184	181	184
30 min	181	181	184	183	176	178
60 min	167	163	179	174	168	175
90 min	157	160	164	162	164	170
3 hrs	153	150	156	160	157	157

Body Composition Stats

	7/20/26	6/26/26	11/10/25	2/15/25	12/16/24	8/20/24	5/8/24	2/5/24	11/20/23	9/5/23	5/31/23	3/1/23	11/21/22	8/31/22	5/25/22	11/19/21
Weight (lbs)	179.3	181.9	185	181.7	182.5	176.7	179.3	177.1	171.5	175.9	179.3	176.9	177.1	176.8	176.8	183.2
Muscle Mass (lbs)	67.3	70.6	70.7	66.5	67.2	68.2	71	68.5	66	67	68.4	67.5	68	69.1	68.2	70.1
Fat Mass (lbs)	34.3	32.8	36.7	40.6	38.2	31.3	28.5	31	30.8	32.6	34.2	31.4	31.4	28	33.5	35.4
Body Fat Percentage	19.13%	18.03%	19.84%	22.34%	20.93%	17.71%	15.90%	17.50%	17.96%	18.53%	19.07%	17.75%	17.73%	15.84%	18.95%	19.32%

My Benchmark Workouts

Effort and work capacity are two different ideas. Measuring heart rate-based data is useful, but the point of cardiovascular fitness is to do work more efficiently. In other words, it’s not about how high I can get my heart rate; it’s about how low I can keep it while doing more work than I did the time before. Doing benchmark workouts over time answer this question. To this end, I do two benchmark workouts: A loop to the summit of Mount Baldy that gains ~4,000′ in ~8 miles, and another workout near my home that I call the 5 Peaks Traverse. The traverse gains and loses ~2,000 feet in ~4.5 miles. In addition to these workouts, I also track max reps of pull-ups, push-ups, and dips as a baseline for the efficacy of my strength program.