[at-l] fitness and hiking and "training" and such...

[nealb at midlandstech.edu (William Neal)]

I know of a guy who walked upstairs and downstairs and swore by it.  Of
course he was living in a city with lots of tall stairwells.

William, The Weak-kneed Turtle

-----Original Message-----
From: Sloetoe [mailto:sloetoe@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 11:58 AM
To: at-l@backcountry.net
Subject: [at-l] fitness and hiking and "training" and such...


In seeming response to THE MYTH ("Nothing will get you in shape
for hiking a pack over mountains and hills except hiking a pack
over mountains and hills."), Our Man Wisperlight notes the
following real life wisdom: 

"something else that is interesting being in better shape from
the beginning will help you spend less money.  if you are in
better shape and can hike farther without needing to take so
many slower days... you will save a lot of money and generally
be in less pain and much happier. the first few weeks were hell
for me and my out of shape-ness... I would imagine if the in
trail-shape curve was less steep I would have completed much
more trail much faster!

now I have been running, climbing, biking and "cross country
skiing" it has me in a comfortable fitness level where I can
hike for about 17 miles "comfortably" in a day, day after day.
it is also some reason to go outside and stay active or else I
would sit around playing video games all day eating carrots,
apples and peanut butter! yum it is dinner time start training!
Wisperlight"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rather than suggest "how-to's" at this point, I'll instead
recount additional examples.
1) Georgia AT:
1979: Thought it was impossible as a throughhiker at age 18 --
but although I'd tried to train, I wuz still a grunt factory
worker who spent most of my time standing before various
machines and then going out to bars.
1993: Thought Georgia was nothing -- a walk in the park. I wuz
running 5 slowwwww miles a day with the wife, then we would hit
a nearby park and practice walking parking lot curbs and fence
posts and things. We hit one-plank bridges on the AT without
breaking stride -- hmmmm just like throughhikers "amazingly" do
a thousand miles up.

2) Snowbird Mtn -- northbound out of Davenport Gap in the
Smokys, 200 miles up.
1979: Thought it was *hard*.
1998: Hiked it with the Boyz (4.5 years old) and their mum. Had
warned the Boyz that it would be hard. Meant it, too. They
trained all summer; we hiked Labor Day. All the way up, they
asked tremelously "Daddy, whenz it gonna get hard?" I said, with
growing surprise, "Dunno!"

3) More recent example: Fontana->Russell Field 13? miles,
on Smokys AT, 2003
March: Hiked north with throughhikers (started March 1) -- I was
four weeks away from having run Mt. Mitchell (40 miles, 7+
hours, a "PR"), and while it took us a day and a half to hike
up, it took me 5 hours to hike out. (It was kewwwlllllll!
Fontana Dam at night, with the leaves off the trees, is SO
kewl.)
July Fourth Weekend: I've not run much since May, almost nothing
in June except to pace another runner at 100-miler June 21.
Hiked Newfound->Fontana (39? miles), including Russell
Field->Fontana in eight, not five hours. And my pack was
lighter, to boot.

BOTTOM LINE: You should no more imagine you'll do well on an AT
hike without training than you'd imagine driving a car without
training.

WISPERLIGHT: Thanks for a great post.

Sloetoe
(leaving "the how-to" for another post...)

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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