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What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

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

#161

Post by ObeyTheGuts »

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…

When i walk all day i sleep 12 hours, in morning i feel like i want to continue this way instead of noooooo no more walking! Sleep deprivation is just ridiculous, water sleep and food should be plenty in any of long strenous things or else its just self destruction madness

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

#162

Post by Lio »

bootload wrote: post #7
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 stren…

To my mind the key difference here is the word 'race'.

Your body will definitely be stressed differently if it's spending a lot of time near (above/below) lactate threshold as might be the case in a long bike race.

In the cycling world that might be called power zone 4(ish).

You'll probably also have to throw in a number of VO2max efforts for small hills; zone 5.

In the case of hiking with a 20Kg pack, in a non-race situation, for 8 hours a day I would guess you'll mostly spend your time at a lower heart rate doing tempo work, which would mostly be zone 2.

This is somewhat similar to the long, slow, steady training winter bike training that was popular before current practices of interval based training became popular. It is designed to improve muscular mitochondrial density.

Another way to put it, if the through-hike had been a race against the clock the hiker might have been much more degraded by the end of the race because he wouldn't be able to pace himself the same way.

I'm not a qualified sports scientist so would very much appreciate someone with more knowledge than me clarifying or correcting anything I've written.

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

#163

Post by solnyshok »

mahyarm wrote: post #99
mrfusion wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60 lbs in 35 days is really dramatic! Is that even possible? Are results like that typical?

That is 12lbs/wk! 2lbs/wk (-1000 cal/day) is considered a harder weight loss diet to maintain! That means he had a 6000 calorie deficit per day. Backpacking all day can give you a 4000-6000cal burn per day[1], so if he kept up something like a 2000cal/day diet and not conk out, then I could see that. [1] https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/how-many-calo...

something happens to metabolic rate too. you keep burning more calories even resting and sleeping. After camino, I lost another 7kg in 10 days doing mostly nothing, sleeping a lot.

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

#164

Post by notspanishflu »

jon_richards wrote: post #112
Dowwie wrote: post #36

I came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.…

The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density at about 70% fat. Toblerone actually comes surprisingly close (even compared to other chocolates/candies). Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weig…

I don't think is a good idea to feed a healthy activity with unhealthy palm oil.

That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure.

Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.

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

#165

Post by PacketPaul »

yupyupp wrote: post #68

A long thru hike is something I've always wanted to do. I was planning on hiking the AT or PNT after I finished university. But, now that I'm a few weeks away from graduating/starting my job, its not something that's financially possible for me. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to find time for something like this later in life?

Do it now. Every year it will get harder to find the time.

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

#166

Post by parito »

I am suspicious he was not at 5 % body fat after the hike. 5 % is extremely low, like really really low, and he used impedance scales as he said in his post.

I use them every day and the fluctuations can be massive due to the water content in the body. And obviously long hikes do mess up hidration a lot.

He should try weighing himself / checking fat % for 5-6 days after the hike on different times of day.

I am not saying his hike sucked - I am envious, I wanna do it ! :)

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

#167

Post by gog »

andr3w321 wrote: post #108
frio wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get new footwear :). Get some flavour from somewhere like outdoorgearlab.com, then find a proper outdoor store that'll fit you properly. You'll find that you probably won't end up in whatever reviews best, but you can use the knowledge of what to look for in those reviews to make sure your choice is right. Basically, everyone's feet (and walking style) are different. I discovered this when I started skiing last year;…

Thanks for all the comments. I have a pair of keens - https://www.rei.com/product/772930/keen-targhee-ii-mid-hikin... - probably 5 years old and I haven't replaced the soles yet and put a good amount of mileage on them. I've only actually lost one toenail once, but it took about a year to grow back and my big toes do hurt like hell after most hikes and get some small bruising on the big toes after long hikes. I've ne…

It's not just the swelling (the swelling mostly makes your feet wider, not longer) but when you are going downhill your toes are hitting the front of the boot and this is something most of the people don't test when they are trying them out in stores.

This should not happened if you sized and laced them correctly.

Also, keeping your toenails short is an important thing to do.

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

#168

Post by tluyben2 »

mprovost wrote: post #143
tluyben2 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Acquire the free time and money to not have to work, I do a lot of work while walking and hiking; as a programmer, most my time is spent thinking which I do not need a computer for. Well, I need a phone or tablet to find stuff on internet to think up a solution, but I can do that during walking. And I do. It won't give me a month of 8 hours / day, but it does give hours of walking per day. I did hikes of 4-6 hours /…

That's really interesting did you document any more about your process?

I was going to do that but did not yet. I must say that I generally try to do not do any 'frontend' stuff. So sure I do prototypes of the frontends but someone else does a UX/UI and the coding of that. So my thinking is architectural, the different components, algorithms and low level implementations. All of these I can work out in my head with some Google + paper which means I can walk during that. If I would have to do HTML/CSS it would not work; I am not sure if that's because i'm just not that fast with it, but it's way too much iteration to not make me sit in front of a (large) screen for too long. For instance, when I have to do embedded work, thinking up the coding, let's say for a RISC chip, can be worked out to quite a lot of detail before typing 1 line. Worse; if I don't work it out in detail, I'll just end up frustrated behind a debugger and a lot of crashes. I have done that since I was young as assembly or low level C never worked well for me while iterating; only in recent years I realised that this applies to other projects as well.

Another thing that has to be said is that peripheral vision is important; when I walk writing or staring in my phone, I don't have issues tripping, walking into things etc. I would be very handicapped if I did not have that. And another thing with my eyes is that I read very very small print which is why I can work quite comfortably on small tablets / computers (I am looking forward to receiving the Pyra).

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

#169

Post by amelius »

BadassFractal wrote: post #124

Now if only we could replicate this somehow in the 21st century knowledge worker world without actually dedicating 8 hours a day to walking in nature. Any tips?

Perhaps install a treadmill, with a desktop setup attached to it? [1]

Or, better yet, [2].

[1] http://thehumansolutionblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/t...

[2] http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/201...

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

#170

Post by BattyMilk »

munificent wrote: post #45
stuckagain wrote: post #3

Secrets to fitness revealed! 1: Stand up 2: Go outside 3: Walk around a lot

Those are the easy steps. You forgot: 0: Acquire the free time and money to not have to work, take care of others, etc. for extended periods of time.

Run, walk or cycle to - or part of the way to - work. Problems solved
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