Do that for like 120 - 150 days and....Welcome to Maine - The Way LifeShould Be
Originally Posted by dervari
My training for a section hike had the following side effects:
-Lost an additional 50 lbs over the 90 I had already lost
-Got taken off blood pressure meds
-5K time dropped from 44:02 3/15 to 37:57 5/16 (5 days after I finished)
-I can run over a mile on a treadmill without gasping for air
-Can hike up Stone Mountain in 22 minutes instead of 45
And I had no issues on a short 23 mile section over Sassafras and Justus.Wish I had more time to have gone farther.
Absolutely a believer in training beforehand.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T337A using Tapatalk
Way to go.This is what I'm talking about. SHWEET. That's progress That's development.
All I am trying to get at is that training before a thru-hike should be one priority people think about. It was a big mistake that I made. I know people have hit the trail out of shape and made it all the way. I am just giving my opinion after failing a thru-hike myself. I do not want to discourage anyone from trying. I myself plan to try again. I just hope people will think about their health and conditioning to have a better chance at a successful thru-hike. I hope I did not offend anyone with that thought.Hey, if you planned on an AT thru hike it's not rocket science to understand going in its' called Long Distance Hiking because it's about the long haul, about however you wish to chunk it down: step upon step, moment by moment, laugh cry complain, push on, snack, drink, morning after morning, snack, drink, walk, walk, stop have that WOW this is GREAT moment, snack, snack, this is great food moment, drink, drink, have that WOW that's the best water I've ever drank moment, sunset after ohh this is a more beautiful sunset, wow this is GREAT, rain, rain, have that Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain crazy in love moment, more rain, mud, mud, hey that was't mud moment, slap, slap, slap another skeeter, resupply, laugh, laugh, slip, trip, catch yourself, walk, laugh, get hot, try to cool down, WOW this is another GREAT moment, walk, walk , laugh, laugh, laugh, water........
All cool. Your post was ^^.
I always appreciate it when one shares how they have learned from their experiences and demonstrates a greater fortitude and wisdom on the rebound. Wish the best for you.
Like the evil ZPacks...does she put warning labels on her instructions?
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
I'm working on my 48 4000 footers in NH. Thankful to live in this state to get ready!!!
The payoff of hiking is always worth the price of admission ~Galligan
Don't forget the mental aspect of it. How many people start a thru hike without having spent seven nights in a row in the woods in the last 20 years? Solo thru hikers must be prepared to deal with the solitude, no matter their experience level.
While I am of the opinion that most people "grow" on the trail, if they just pay a little attention, some do not. They don't complete thru hikes, IMHO...just sayin...
Great posts RE mental training. Clearly #1 priority, and I have nothing to add. But the posts on physical training have mostly been about endurance, and I think that's only half the story. This is my routine:
Strength day: warm up with 15 minutes on the treadmill: 3 mins walking uphill, 12 mins jogging flat, 3 mins walking uphill. Workout: squats, leg presses, leg curls, leg extensions, hanging leg raise, bench press, arm curls, hanging knee raise. Each exercise is 3 sets of 12 reps.
Endurance day: Treadmill for an hour: 3 mins, 3.3 MPH, 6% incline; 54 mins, 2.2 MPH, 30% incline; 3 mins, 3.3 MPH, flat.
My goal week: strength, endurance, recovery, strength, endurance, recovery, recovery.
I've been doing this for a year or so and it has made a world of difference on day hikes and weekend backpacking trips. I like the idea of "hiking yourself into shape" on a long-distance hike, and I certainly wouldn't put off my hike for a month to train. But I don't do much hiking in the winter, and spending these months building a little leg strength and cardiovascular endurance seems like a good idea to me.
bblankin, this looks very much like what I am doing to prepare for my 2017 thru-hike. There is one exception, though, as the treadmills at my gym max out at 20% (do you tie yourself to the machine at 30%?). I fully realize that none of this is a replacement for actually backpacking, but here in (flat-hot) Florida, I believe it beats no physical preparation at all.
If anyone is interested, the details of my routine can be found at http://dennisonthego.com/training-appalachian-trail
There is no real good way to train for an AT thru other than the first 2 weeks of your AT thru.
Hike the crap out of the trails that are around you. That's good training.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
IMHO this is terrible advice, and it's why so many people quit with injuries or just due to severe aches and pains early on. 2 weeks isn't long enough for real adaptation from a training stimulus, but it's plenty of time for injuries from overuse and poor flexibility to arise. There's a lot you can do to prepare and severely lessen, if not completely alleviate, the initial shock to your system from jumping into 10-15 mile days on the trail. For those who don't already train in some manner, a good progression after getting cleared by your doctor would be:
First off, get fit for a good pair of running shoes at a specialty store. DON'T buy something because it's a certain brand and expect it to work for you...get expert help in choosing the correct shoe for your biomechanics.
6 months out
* Daily walks which gradually increase in distance until you are comfortable walking 8-10 miles for at least 2-3 days a week. Do some of these in the rain...
* If you can tolerate it without injury, an easy jog of 1-2 miles 3 times weekly would be great.
* If you have access to a treadmill, start doing some uphill work on it but increase the grade gradually, don't start at 15% right away, your achilles tendons might not like lit.
* Start doing core work 3 days a week. Planks and side planks, crunches, flutter kicks, etc.
* WORK ON FLEXIBILITY! This always seems to be the one thing people ignore and it will do more to ward of injury than anything else. Stretch daily...
* Give yourself one relaxing day weekly to recover from your training and remember, Rome wasn't built in a day so don't overdo it. The motto should be "Train hard, but rest even harder".
4 months out
* If you were able to tolerate the running, increase the distance to around 3 miles but remain watchful for signs of injury.
* Start wearing your pack with at least 20 pounds in it for at least 1 of your weekly walks and make every effort to do this on a trail. It doesn't have to be mountainous, but at least some hills are helpful.
* Add some bodyweight resistance training to your core work. Exercises like bodyweight squats, toe raises, pushups, chinups, and climbing stairs are excellent.
* Try to get at least 1 hour a week on the treadmill at 15% grade
* Keep stretching!
2 months out
* If you were able to maintain a running schedule without any signs of injury, you can increase daily mileage to 4-5 miles for 3 days a week. But, it's critical you not ignore any pains which signal a problem, you're too close to the start date for a stress fracture to heal in time.
* Some of those weekly walks should be getting up into the 12+ mile range and the pack weight should now be equal to what you expect to carry.
* This is a great time for a shakedown hike, try to get out for 2-3 days on trails similar to the AT and test your gear. This will be an excellent indicator of what's working and what isn't in your training program.
* By now you should be comfortable for 1 1/2 to 2 hours on the treadmill at 15% once a week.
* Flexibility...nuff said
2 weeks out
* It's time to back off on the training, let your body recover and finish adapting to all your efforts.
* Keep stretching!
* Decrease your running distance to 2-3 miles a couple of times weekly.
* 30 minutes weekly on the treadmill is enough during this stretch.
* 1-2 walks weekly with the pack on for about 90 minutes, just so your muscles stay used to it.
The last 3-4 days before you start
* Take it easy and eat plenty, let your energy stores build back up. Maybe a 30 minute walk in the evening...
* Keep stretching (got the point yet?)
The first couple weeks of the hike
* Stretch daily, at least a little at lunch and in the evening. This should continue for the entire hike.
* GO EASY the first couple weeks, don't try to set any speed records.
* EAT, you have to refuel and you're burning massive amounts of energy.
* If you feel an injury is occuring or has occured, take a day or two off. Studies have proven that hikers who rest their injuries have less problems with them in the long term.
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
It helps to be in as good a shape as you can prior to hiking the trail but even so your conditioning happens mostly on trail.
If you've backpacked before you have an idea what you are getting into and will be well set up. If you haven't backpacked before, I highly recommend doing a few short trips first.
I am surprised that everyone is assuming a traditional NOBO. If someone is short on training time and terrain the flip flop out of Harpers is way to go. There was a T shirt with a graphic that showed a caricature of an AT profile end to end. It showed a steep decent from Springer to the middle Atlantic with a long flat stretch with a steep climb towards Katahdin. There is some nice easy walking in the middle Atlantic from about Duncannon PA south to the Troutville VA. Sure there are a few steep climbs but most of it is easy going. Get a few weeks of terrain under your belt and it get you ready for more interesting stuff on either end. This also gets out of the bubble and if you luck out even skip a case of Norovirus.
The other observation is there is little training that anyone from Ohio and pretty much outside of the northeast can do to prep themselves for the first day of a SOBO thru hike starting at Katahdin. Unlike Springer there is no drive up option up to the summit of Mt Katahdin. Most first timers describe the Hunt Trail (the AT) as half hiking and half bouldering. Sure general fitness is great but just resign yourself to being somewhere far out of your comfort level while making this climb. Its not inherently dangerous unless the weather is bad, its just something that most folks just haven't seen in their hiking careers. 8 year old kids and seventy year olds do it and you will to. Best idea is try to con someone into joining you in the park and doing the summit as a day hike then taking a day off and then heading out the next day. Otherwise you will have a real rough next day compounded by hauling maximum gear weight and many days of food. Not sure if AT Lodge offers a day hike option but might be worth given them a call.
I would argue that if you have prepared adequately and have a high level of generalized fitness, then "most" of your conditioning doesn't happen on the trail, nor should it. Under those circumstances most of your conditioning has occurred prior to stepping onto the trail. What you then achieve in the first few weeks would be a training stimulus specific to the task at hand, but not injury inducing, since you arrived at the trailhead with a solid fitness base.
To show up for a LDH with the "plan" to achieve all of your fitness during the first few weeks is somewhat akin to toeing the line at a marathon and hoping for the best. Some people will manage to finish and some might even do so without injury, but for most it would be a horrid experience.
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
+1 on the above.
Hiking yourself into shape on an AT thru hike is a fool's errand. Unless you are able to exercise extreme self-control and limit yourself as you "hike into shape"(which means lower mile totals and watching everyone who is in shape wave bye-bye), you will injure yourself. No "ifs", just "when". You won't be allowing your body any significant down time to regenerate muscle fibres that you have torn down. You will have excessive inflammation in your connective tissue which will lead to some "itis"(tendonitis, fasciitis, etc..) that won't go away because you won't take consecutive zero days....I could go on and on about why not to embark upon any LDH with the goal of "hiking myself into shape". This is especially true if you are over age 45.
Why would anyone plan for months, prepare gear for months, quit their job, leave their family and friends and embark on a 4 or 5 month adventure, whose hallmark is DAILY CONSTANT HIGH-LEVEL PHYSICAL EXERTION FOR EXTENDED PERIODS WITH FEW OFF DAYS, without physically preparing for it as well? Who does that? Nobody who bothers to think things through...which from experience seems to be....about 3 in 4 thru hikers. Wait. Don't only 1 in 4 thru hikers make it? Hmmmmm.....could there be a correlation here?????
It's sad but, i dont think ill be able to get in any real training where i live unless i want to drive 4 hrs to the nearest park with trees. best i can do is walk around the town with my pack on. which may get me robbed more often than not. that or walk straight for 10 miles on a country road to the middle of no where. I live in the high plains area of the US. nothing but dead grass and and flat as far as the eye can see. You could probably count the trees with one hand if you stood anywhere here.
Im not in poor shape but the lack of real world practice with my gear may get me. I may just need to go with the taking it slow option when starting my thru-hike. Hope for the best it doesnt bite me in the ass.
Hit the Stairmaster. Or, hit the stairs. Seriously. Go up and down stairs non-stop for an hour every other day to start. Then every day. Then when that is easy, go to two hours every other day, then every day. You will get in trail shape sooner than you think. Your body will tell you when to up the frequency/duration...
Best training for backpacking is "mindset". Hiking long distance is not easy-but it should and can be "fun" and of course, its great for you physically. Hike in rain-snow-wind-mud when you can and for long distance (say 8-10 miles to start). Eat the same foods each day-but were does mindset comes in? You enjoy that lifestyle.
"I told my Ma's and Pa's I was coming to them mountains and they acted as if they was gutshot. Ma, I sez's, them mountains is the marrow of the world and by God, I was right". Del Gue
Actually, it's the only sound advice out there. I received this question over and over again and it's the only real answer that people agree on up and down the trail. To be honest I'm shocked you would even dispute this if you thru hiked.
Even after doing all the above stuff you mention as I did, it does very little to train you for an AT thru from a mental and physical standpoint.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
