Southern California - Cross Training In Socal

Anyone ever do any hiking around so cal? My Mom, yes, my mommy :D , wants me to train for a hike at the Grand Canyon. One day 20+ miles. It's a one day event in the fall! She is a machine. She walked 50 miles last week and she's pushin 60 yrs old. She puts me to shame :eek:

She wants me to hike on Sunday, so I see it as cross training. Maybe it will improve my cycling...At least I hope so..

I do and I love to hike! Here is a link to 100s of hikes that you will find helpful. :D
http://www.localhikes.com/MSA/MSA_4472.asp

I used to take Gina to Claremont Hills Wilderness Park to walk up and around the hill on the trail. Many mtb'er too. Park is located at the top of Monte Vista Ave. Or is Padua, or Mills. Once you are up there it is ez to find. Many hikers and nice tough walk UP!

5 mile loop, takes about 1 1/2 hours to complete. Chipped rocks so need hiking boots or you'll slipnslide!:D

I did a bunch of hikes above 6000 ft last summer to prepare for some races in colorado springs by getting a lot of low intensity time at elevation.

I do and I love to hike! Here is a link to 100s of hikes that you will find helpful. :D
http://www.localhikes.com/MSA/MSA_4472.aspI'm sorry. How on earth do you plan to go on hikes when you're riding 230 miles a week?

I'm sorry. How on earth do you plan to go on hikes when you're riding 230 miles a week?


Easy. Don't carry a pump.

I do and I love to hike! Here is a link to 100s of hikes that you will find helpful. :D
http://www.localhikes.com/MSA/MSA_4472.asp
M.E. the other machine.

It's hard for me to go hiking when I'd rather be riding, but I'll look at it as valuable time spent with my mom..I'd like to get her on a bike. She claims the seats look to small and painful. HMMmmm there must be a way...

I'm sorry. How on earth do you plan to go on hikes when you're riding 230 miles a week?

:lol: No, no. I USED to hike - as much as I cycle, in fact. I planned to climb Whitney, Half Dome, etc. I have hiked Mt. Wilson from Chantry Flats many times. But then I bought my bicycle, angered all of my hiking buddies (who now ignore me when I ask them to hike :( ) and took off on this cycling obsession. HOWEVER, I do like to hike from time to time and if anyone on here ever wants to hike, I'll post one off of Lake Street in Pasadena. It could be the So Cal cross-training hike. It's up by Mt. Lowe and it's a butt burner. Gorgeous to do around sunset (with flashlights!).

M.E. the other machine.

It's hard for me to go hiking when I'd rather be riding, but I'll look at it as valuable time spent with my mom..I'd like to get her on a bike. She claims the seats look to small and painful. HMMmmm there must be a way...


Actually, hiking will greatly improve your cycling. Please don't take it lightly as it can be an amazing workout. I bet your lovely 60 year old mother can beat my butt up any hill (especially since I haven't been hiking in a couple of months!). Look at it as a benefit to your riding! :D

M.E. the other machine.

It's hard for me to go hiking when I'd rather be riding, but I'll look at it as valuable time spent with my mom..I'd like to get her on a bike. She claims the seats look to small and painful. HMMmmm there must be a way...
Get her a recumbent...

Well it's one of those depends type of things. If the hike is going to be relatively flat or with a few minor hills, you should be fine. But if it's like up to Mt. Wilson or something similar, be prepared for some seriously trashed legs for a few days afterward. Cycling helps your hiking muscles a lot for going up hill, but no going down. Since with cycling the majority of your weight is supported on the saddle, you don't load up your quads and calves like you do hiking down hill. So when you do, the muscles are in no way used to the impact and loading that downhill hiking puts on them.

I've done the GC hike before (South Rim round trip in 8 hours) and on the good side, you're going downhill first, so your legs will be fresh and won't kill you for the 2nd half of the hike. But since the way out is up hill and you've already worked your legs over pretty good, it can be a bit of a death march on the way out if you're not up to the task. That being said, I would suggest you start your practice hikes in small doses and work your way up to what your goal is.

Just to put it in a bit of perspective, I was a professional mtn. guide for about 15 years and did a more then my fare share of hard/big hikes and my legs were for the most part in mint condition afterwards. But when I started cycling a lot and then would do a hard day in the mtns. my legs would be completely trashed for the next four or five days afterward.

Everything is relative of course and it might not affect you like it did me. But my advice would still be to start with smaller efforts and see how your body feels after each one and then keep bumping up the length and difficulty of the hikes until you are near your stated goal. You have until Sept. to get ready for it, so there's no need to kill yourself right away.

Good luck

I think my wife was thinking of doing the same hike, if it's the one for MS or some other cause. The same organization has a bike ride in Tahoe or something. My wife doesn't like bicycle seats either, so I hike with her from time to time. I don't think I've ever done more than 5 miles a day, though.

I was big into backpacking and hiking in my younger years.
I highly recomend hiking up Icehouse canyon on Mt Baldy.
Once you get past the fist 2-3 miles, the amouont of people drops quite a bit.
It is very nice forest, running creek, and like a true wilderness experience.
One of my very favorites is going up Ice house to an old helipad. you'd never find it if you didn't know it was there, and it's only a hundred or so feet off the trail...
You can also do an overnight pack trip up there, but it is wilderness, so you need to bring everything
you'll need.
Oh the memories....

I would recommend any of the Chantry Flat hikes including the Mt. Wilson trail. Also check out the trails near Mt. San Giogornio (sp) - such as Momar and Vivian (although right now it would be cold and snowy!!!).

But locally there are a couple of great training areas. Go hike Santiago Oaks (or O'Neill). Once in the park take any number of trails up the hills and you can literally hike for almost 40 miles - some tough ups and downs. My favorite is to warm up to the "3 B*tches" trail, take that up until the big tree (this all makes sense when you are doing it) take the singletrack to the right (also great for MTbiking) and then go right and take the trail down and start climbing back up again. You can go up and down all day. I used that to train for my Grand Canyon hikes. To make a Grand Loop take the ridge trail from Santiago Oaks, to Chutes and into Weir Canyon/Irvine Park and then back to Santiago Oaks. I think the full Loop will give you about 15 miles which you can extend by doing some "ups and downs".

I've done GC 12 times. Twice up and back Bright Angel in one day and then generally down Kaibab, stay at Phantom Ranch and back up Bright Angel. For a 20 mile hike the best thing is just to get out and walk the miles. I used to walk up from my house in Tustin to Newport Blvd. Walk that up to Santiago Blvd, across to Jamboree and then down Jamboree to Irvine Blvd and home. About 15 miles. Did that every weekend to prepare. With CG there is no way to really prepare for the trail other than getting your feet in shape. I do recommend hiking poles - helps take the weight of the knees while descending and helps climb back up the trail, and the big waterbars on the way up. It sounds like Mom is either doing a rim to rim or Kaibab to Bright Angel hike?

Get her a recumbent...

I like that idea.

As always, thanks for all the great advice. Man, you guys are a wealth of knowledge and insight..:D