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What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

outsideonline.com

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Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#2

Post by justinator »

I've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice.

I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to the author's was a slight bit of fat loss. Every other part of my body was wrecked, which took months to recover from.

One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races, where 5 hours of sleep is spoiling oneself. I guess the moral of the story before doing a, "thru hike for fitness" is to not to overdo it. It also seems like the author was in pretty alright shape to start out, with a fairly low pulse and overall bodyweight.

[0] http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/ [1] http://longranger.justinsimoni.com/tour14er/ [2] http://tourdivide.org/

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#4

Post by nicolashahn »

justinator wrote: post #2

I've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice. I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to…

I'm willing to bet money that the single determining factor that led you to different results was the amount of sleep. 5 hours is not even enough for a sedentary person, much less someone riding a bike all day. The more you work out the more sleep you need. I'm guessing the author got at least 8 hours a night, or however much was enough to fully recover.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#7

Post by bootload »

justinator wrote: post #2

I've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice. I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to…

"One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races,"

Really. Carrying a 20kg pack for eight hours over rough terrain is less strenuous than bike riding? Do this for over 500 miles? Ever done this before? Hike on foot with 20kg packs on consecutive days? Make camp, make food, rest, break camp. Everything on your back. This is a lot more strenuous than you think. Hands down racing on a bike is much easier ^physically^ than hiking on foot carrying weight over broken terrain over long distances.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#10

Post by joeframbach »

After doing 2000-mile treks on the AT and PCT, I can say that hikers generally get their "trail legs" after roughly 500 miles or one month. Damascus VA and Tehachapi CA are big spots for zeroes and recalibration, and then you're off to the races. This post is excellent in showing the changes in those first 500 miles, but doesn't go on to show much about what happens after. That peak performance is maintained very well.
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