Having had about a five week enforced absence from SOTA activating, due to illness, it’s quite surprising how quickly one can lose fitness. Activating even the easy G/SP-004 with about 25 Kilos last week, was a real shock to the system 
73 Mike
2V0YYY
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Fitness - what’s that?
I spent a whole day climbing, activating and descending Moel Siabod last month, it used to be just an afternoon stroll to the summit and back after spending the morning working on the climbing club hut near Capel Curig!
Once you’ve lost it, it never comes fully back.
73
Brian GV8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Fitness - what’s that?
I spent a whole day climbing, activating and descending Moel Siabod
last month, it used to be just an afternoon stroll to the summit and
back after spending the morning working on the climbing club hut near
Capel Curig!
There’s little disputing, age plays a big part, Brian. Basically, 30 years of very little excercise before taking up SOTA, is what done for me…
Once you’ve lost it, it never comes fully back.
Indeed Brian, indeed 
73 Mike
2V0YYY
In reply to G8ADD:
Once you’ve lost it, it never comes fully back.
I disagree. I am significantly faster on my bike than I was when I was 23 and fit. All that it took was 2000+ miles of practice.
In reply to G3CWI:
Ah, but can you keep it up (the speed, that is) for as long?
73
Brian GV8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Longer!
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Activating even the easy G/SP-004 with about 25 Kilos last
week, was a real shock to the system
I find that fitness slowly, but noticeably, starts falling off after a week of inactivity. On the other hand, if I do two rigorous hikes per week then I can stay in top shape.
Mike, you need to lighten that load. Lately I’ve been activating with about a 5 kilo pack and really happy to unburden myself. Of course that means a light wire antenna tossed in the trees and a pissy little KX1, but they do get the job done 
73, Barry N1EU
In reply to N1EU:
Of course that means a light wire antenna tossed in the trees and a pissy little KX1, but they do get the job done
We don’t have that many summits with trees in this country, Barry, few above 1500 feet and virtually none above 2000 feet: they would probably grow but I think the sheep ate the seedlings!
73
Brian GV8ADD
In reply to N1EU:
Mike, you need to lighten that load. Lately I’ve been activating with
about a 5 kilo pack and really happy to unburden myself. Of course
that means a light wire antenna tossed in the trees and a pissy little
KX1, but they do get the job done
Thought so, too, on Thursday while using the straight way up DM/TH-015 with 250m height difference over 900m path… But was happy then to have the bigger pole and some extra kilogram current with me - allowing to work Barry and at least a handful of DX. Isn´t suffering part of the game Hear you tomorrow when the 20kg backpack followed me up. Alps are too far away to think about lightening the load
In reply to 2E0YYY:
2E0YYY > the easy G/SP-004 with about 25 Kilos last week
DL8MBS > the 20kg backpack followed me up
Gluttons for punishment! Only once did I ever carry that sort of weight - when I was changing over from one set of kit to another and I took both up Great Rhos GW/MW-002 to do some comparisons. Never again! I have carried my big 150W 2m linear up a few summits, but not many. Nowadays it’s strictly 12 - 14kg including the liquid refreshment.
Basically it all comes down to whether the legs are working or not. As I get older the percentage of non-working days seems to have increased. 
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
Basically it all comes down to whether the legs are working or not. As
I get older the percentage of non-working days seems to have
increased.
There is a guy in my climbing club who goes trekking, skiing, fell walking and rock climbing in the middle grades still at the age of 82. I look at him and think to myself “hm, Norman can still do it, so with luck I can still do it too for another decade!”
He’s like me: eventually they’ll take us out of the mountains, they’ll never take the mountains out of us. Be heartened!
73
Brian GV8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Losing the excess lard is a huge help. I’m about 8kgs lighter since Christmas 2012 and I can notice the benefit. Or I can carry another 8kgs on my back to be exerting the same effort to climb hills as 7 months back.
I’m not sure it’s legal to consider climbing Gun or Cloud (no matter what the load) as exercise! Shining Tor is not much better.
Andy
MM0FMF
Not even some of the biggest in the Lake District compare with the kind of stuff Barry and Tommy dragged me round in the Cairngorms Andy.
However, I can report that doing The Cloud five times a week does make a positive difference to fitness. But it has to be five times a week every week. I’m leaving too many gaps to get the benefit at present. When Mickey is in his MO, he keeps the regularity up on the local summits, so will notice distinct improvement in fitness.
Tom MV1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Yes, the regularity helps hugely. Even a little is better than none. But there is a big advantage to the period of exercise extending well beyond 20-30mins.
So 1x Shining Tor plus 1x a 1.5hr climb per week would be better than 5x Shining Tor.
However, any Shining Tor is better than sitting inside smoking 
Andy
MM0FMF
The round trip for Shining Tor even via the easiest route is 60-70 minutes for most people.
Tom MV1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
I can’t be that fit Tom, I’m 20kgs above the correct weight for me. But it took me and Brian 23mins from the tea room to the trig. That was after date&walnut cake and a cup of rosy. We weren’t dawdling but we weren’t in 3 Para VP8 yomp mode either!
Andy
MM0FMF
I said the easiest route, not the shortest…
Tom MV1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Not even some of the biggest in the Lake District compare with the kind of stuff Barry and Tommy dragged me round in the Cairngorms
I wish it was possible right now! Fighting to get walking fit (then hill walking) after a two year hiatus is an uphill struggle with the State Pension in clear sight! Managed our local walk yesterday (5 miles on gravel tracks with a swim at the half way point (for Tommy)and a couple of steep ascents) so my target of activating on, or before, my birthday is feasible.
Hill fitness soon goes, it is really surprising how unfit you can become even with the determination not to lose it; and how hard it is to recover.
Then there is the waistline…
73
Barry GM4TOE
Before anybody else says it: “What waistline?”
In reply to MM0FMF:
I’m 20kgs above the correct weight for me.
Define correct weight! I’m currently around 3kg above what I consider to be my ideal weight and although I keep chipping away at it, it is so easy to put it back on. I have been down to the weight that the medical profession say my weight should be and quite frankly at that weight I look thin and drawn and I get fed up with people asking about my state of health. Maybe I just have heavy bones.
I don’t entirely agree that weight carried in the body is the same as carrying the equivalent in your backpack. Wearing a coat always seems to be a lighter load than having it stuffed into the backpack. Maybe it has something to do with weight distribution or maybe it is just psychological.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to GM4TOE:
Then there is the waistline…
Alas for those far-off days when I could see my toes without stretching my feet out!
73
Brian GV8ADD