[pct-l] Preparing for a Thru Hike

[Jon Smith]

Regarding preparing for a through hike:

There was a post a few years back that made a lot of sense with
respect to conditioning for a long hike.
It was a post by Brick if memory serves correctly.  He delineated
fitness into three catagories:  1.cardio-
vascular, 2. musculature and 3. bones/tendons/cartilage, saying that
each has its own time increment to
obtain fitness proficiency.  Every body has it's own unique needs,
undoubtedly.  His observation went
something like this:  4 to 8 weeks for Cardio-Vascular, 3 to 6 months
for musculature and 1 to 2 years
for bones/tendons/cartilage.

The injuries experienced by unprepared thru hikers seem to emulate
those injuries experienced by
unprepared marathon runners.Lots of marathon runners experience
physical stress injuries as a result of
pushing themselves too far, too fast.  And many of the significant
injuries are related to bones/tendons and
cartilage, which take longer to heal.

Therefore, if you are unable to hike regularly, a reasonable
substitutue is running, because it emulates the
repiticous impact and stress to the bones/tendons/cartilage
experienced by long distance hikers.

Considerizer