[pct-l] Fitness

[Scott Williams]

I did the same, starting with a light pack and upping the lbs as April
approached, and hiking between 12 and 20 miles.  When I began the trail
however I backed off and did only 10 mile days the first week, 15 the
second, and hit my first 20 mile day in the third.  I'm older, and prone to
overdo it when the endorphins kick in, and I didn't want to start off with
an injury.  Three older folks I hiked with later had begun at 20 mile days,
and had quickly spent time healing overuse injuries.

For me the training before hitting trail was more important than any of the
individual gear or food selections I chose to start with as the trail up
Laguna and later in the desert was not overwhelming in the least.  The
biggest change being simply hiking everyday instead of 3 or 4 days per
week.  Hence the lower mileage when I hit the trail.

I began with 3 others at Campo, and one other who joined us at Kickoff.  One
of those had trained hard, and was only stopped from completion by the snow
and blow downs she encountered south of Dunsmuir.  Given any reasonable
trail, she probably would have made it all the way.  The other 3 had not
trained sufficiently and one lasted one day, another, 3 days, and the third,
who had trained by hiking 3 miles per day in a city, a week and a half.  The
exertion of the trail was simply too much for them.  Some people are fit
enough in general, or young enough, to get in shape on the trail, but the
biggest cause of early drop out for folks I met, even beyond those 3 I
started with, was that it was physically simply too hard.  My advice, and
it's only my take on it, is to train, train, train before hitting the
trail.  And nothing trains better for any sport than the activity itself.
So hiking with a 25 lb pack is a great start.

Shroomer