[pct-l] quick question on my hiking performance

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Oct 26, 2010, at 10:22 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> it could be said that I need to
> pick up a pace a bit to try to get to a 20 mpd range

If by piking up the pace you mean walking faster, you really don't  
want to do that. Unless you really are lollygagging about, trying to  
walk faster could lead to an injury because you will be overstriding  
or pushing yourself in a way that could tear a muscle or give you a  
stress fracture.

My pace actually went down on the PCT. I walked at a comfortable pace  
that I could maintain all day. A few times I would be in a hurry and  
would push myself to walk faster. It rarely ended up increasing my  
mileage or speed.

Ray Jardine has an interesting chart in his book illustrating the  
fallacy of trying to make up for slow walking up hill with faster  
walking down hill. He shows that on a trail with no hills, at a  
moderate pace, you can get 10 miles in in a fraction of the time  
compared to if you walk slowly up the hills and then race down them.  
Adding speed doesn't really work. Your context is slightly different  
in that you want to add speed over the entire distance, but you may  
find it hard to keep it up for the entire day, so the result would  
probably be similar. Not much gain.

Also, if you are the one who was considering starting March 1, it may  
be pushing the earliness a bit. There is not just snow on the trail  
but dangerous, precipitous drops. People die regularly on Mt. San  
Jancito and on Baden Powell. If you do start this early, be prepared  
for very slow going and difficult, if not treacherous conditions. An  
alternative would be to hike from the border to Highway 74 and then  
do the desert walk across the Mojave to Tehachapi after that. Then  
return to Highway 74 and continue on. Still be prepared for difficult  
conditions because the snow lingers through May in the San Jacinto  
range. In 2008 it snowed during the entire Memorial Day weekend just  
when I was about to hit Baden Powell. Remember, the mountains of So  
Cal do get above 10,000 feet.