On The Road Again -Well on the Bike Anyways

I love that song. Every road trip we ever takes starts out with me humming it.

We're just about eight weeks away from harvest starting for us. It's time to open training camp. That's how I'm going to think of it anyway. I actually wrote a blog about 49ers training camps when I was growing up. The 49ers start training camp next week so it seems like a good parallel for Harvest Training Camp.

We had done pretty good through the spring and early summer with staying up on the gym. July we took a lazy break of about three weeks. I'm not sure how lazy it actually was, we had vineyard work and winery work during that time, but we hadn't visited the gym in 3 weeks.

Starting this past Monday though I was back on the exercise bike. My plan is to ride it every day until September 8th. Just taking off Sunday each week. Not long rides, just 30 -60 minutes each day. We've started up the hike schedule as well and are trying to get in 2-3 a week.

The goal is to build up the endurance we'll need for harvest. I've been focusing on heart rate while I'm on the bike and trying to keep it at 120-125. Leg strength and stamina is really what gets you through harvest so the bike and hiking are perfect.

Usually its not a good idea to exercise every day. The body really does better with some days off to recover, but I think this training camp approach. like the NFL uses, should work well. We start traveling on September 8th, about the same time NFL teams will get out of their training routine and into regular season routines. We will do the same. We'll cut back on gyms and hikes then and use our energy for harvest days. The rest will be in between those busy days and we'll only hike or gym when we see stretches longer than 3-4 days between the busy harvest days.

My hope is that I personally come out a little less tired in November than I did last year. We made it through the harvest great, and I never felt worn out, but by late November we were worn down. I hope this approach, planning on building continual endurance, then planning on rest periods during harvest, will mean less fatigue at the very end.