I’d like to hear the experiences of those who’ve hiked the AT without any prior physical conditioning efforts; people who simply started slowly, listened to their bodies, and let their bodies strengthen and adjust as they went along, during the course of their hike.
I did this many years ago and had no physical problems whatsoever.
Nunam
Nunam
Thru Hiked it and made it, here is how I trained.
Poor diet (ate once a day, usually cereal, bad hydration, lazy single guy what can I say)
Desk exercises: mouse and keyboard workouts for year after year of crushing Office Space like work. Cramped desk at work, similar desk at home, usually seated with bad posture (hyper extended right leg with right foot crushed under left thigh with right knee extended at 90 degrees with my next to zero felxibility). This would come back to haunt me.
Bad sleep pattern
Was 35 years old at the time.
Started the trail in Springer with a heavy 45 lb pound pack full of stuff better defined as single-over-nighter gear.
At Neels Gap I nearly fell out due to what turned out to be an inflamed IT band (runs from knee to hip). It hurt like nothing before…ouch. Was out five days. Ibuprofen and the rest time fixed it. It was my right knee (see #2 above, go figure!)
Spent a fortune at Neels Gap on new gear. Scaled down the pack weight, walked slower and more carefully (watched how I threw my leg around objects).
Then came the blisters…ouch. 7 blisters at one time between the two feet.
Then came the fallen arches or somethimg messed up with the bands under my arch–they balled up like golfballs. omg…pain.
In the end I, made it. Oddly, I was never really tired while hiking–not out of breath (was a thin guy)–no diffulty on climbs (though downhills made my blisters scream).
And truthfully I made it to Khatadin pretty fast given my problematic start. 4 months 10 days, with about 21 zeros.
Yes I got into shape on the trail. But it was not easy. I recommend training–even if it just walking and stretching.
The endurance part of hiking simply came as I hiked. The knee weakness and injury occurrded due to weak muscles and bad posture.
I recommend people train if only because it’s a good thing to do in general–for life or a hike.
But beyond training, it’s the hiker’s mental toughness which will see him thru; I have succeeded and failed in that regard in various hikes.
In four days I leave for New Zealand to do the Te Araroa trail…gird your mind!
Jason
Thank you to everyone who responded.
Jason, despite not training, you nonetheless hiked an average of 19.6 miles per hiking day by my computations. Pretty impressive.
Nunam
Nunam