[pct-l] Calling all Women Hikers!

[yogihikes at sbcglobal.net (yogi)]

When you train for your marathons, do you sleep in a bed?  (I'd guess you do)
 
Do you live in a comfortable home with air conditioning and heat?  (I'd guess you do)
 
Do you have grocery stores available every day where you can purchase, prepare, then eat the proper foods required for your training?  (I'd guess you do)
 
Do you train every single day, doing *nothing* but that training, with say maybe 12 days off during a 5-month period?  (I'd guess you don't)
 
Marathon training/running is certainly taxing on the body.  But it's not the same as thru-hiking.  One is not better than the other; they are simply different.
 
But gee, it sure was nice of you to point out: "If all the ladys that even think of answering this type of survey would do a little research....just use google-- really easy and
fast . . . . "
 
Wow, thanks, I had never heard of google before.  I bet *none* of the women on the list had ever thought about googling anything . . . or done a little research . . . 
 
HYOH.
 
yogi
www.pcthandbook.com

 
 
 


calliger@infolane.com wrote:
Thank you for your (very kind) explanation.

However, having done my thru hike and several marathons...they are very close!

I trained for example, for 12 months for the SF marathon and the Santa 
Cruz tri plus a ton of 10k's inbetween (training races really). My dr (Dr 
Wang)
and my coach concur with me...it is kinda weird - many many studies have
been done they both have heard of...and my female marathon training partner,
Kitty, agrees... we actually trained **MORE** for the marathon than
hiking! 'simply 'cause we are after sub 2:50 marathon!!! andnot sub-anything
on the trail!!! :-)

Your courtesy is respected and appreciated. Factually, however I disagree
as the real studies show different than your opinion. I therefore hold my 
position
and remain a skeptic. The nicest people have been proven over and over
again to have ulterior motives.. AND YOU NEVER know until Dr #$#@
murdered his wife and 2 patients...and another Dr took advantage of 
an anesthized (sp??_) patient...etc etc..there is reason for concern,
albeit it may be minor with your wonderful character reference!! I know
one or two MDs ruin if for all..but hey..that is life-- on the trail and
at home...

But we should take this offline as it is getting far afield and not really
germaine to completing a thru-hike. My female friends just deal with it
as it occurs and they say no biggie-- women are all over the map...
just as men are in their changes of food/bodily/other functions change
under long distance/thru hiking conditions.

HYOH and my most sincerest regards for your answer!

Richard


PS

In addition- I noticed the following:

"Osteoporosis is a real threat to the thru-hiker, as it
can predispose to stress fractures."


Which is totally strange as it has been proven clinically, as told to
me by my MD associate at JH, that the efficacy (sp?) of (extended) exercise
is essentially a "cure" for and actually predisposes one against
stress fractures caused specifically by osteoporosis; as opposed
to stress fractures from RPI/RMI, for example. In addition, it is very
fishy becasue the average age of the thru hikers come no where near
the age, nor portend to cause, it in later age; of being anywhere
close to that age of susceptibility. I think any legitimate study
memo would realize this! The milieu of the target study group
is clearly quite an important datum which seems to have been seriously
overlooked here to possibly achieve (undue?) credibility.

Richard


dsaufley@sprynet.com wrote:
Richard,

I can understand and respect your skepticism, but I would like to vouch for 
Dr. Michele Toms as being very legitimate, and not some nut job soliciting 
personal information. 

Thru-hiking is NOT like marathons or any other sports activity that have 
relatively shorter windows of training and event. We're talking about doing a 
marathon every day, carrying 25-35+ lbs., every day for months. While there 
are some corollaries , there are also differences. How many marathoners do 
you know who sleep on the ground and eat trail food at the end of every day? 
Very few other sports go on for five or six months, and I'll wager that no 
one has studied the effects of thru-hiking (specifically) and it's effects on 
women. 

As a woman, I'd like to know what Michele learns, so I heartily endorse 
Micheles quest for information and encourage female long-distance hikers to 
participate. Michele is the real deal. 

Donna Saufley
aka L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: calliger@infolane.com
Sent: Oct 30, 2005 8:43 AM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Calling all Women Hikers!

hmmmmmmmmm...if I were a woman I would take this with
an HUGE grain of salt...not to be pesonal..just a healthy
educated (PhD type) skepticism...

If all the ladys that even think of answering this type of survey
would do a little research....just use google-- really easy and
fast you would see this is a well-worn research topic
in the field..starting way back in the 50's when women
athletics were in the germination stage so-to-speak for
the "modern" era. this includes the first woman's marathon
and olymic games entry, women in the western states 100 foot
race,...etc etc etc...

Be very skeptical..sounds pruirent? (sp) prurient?? (fishy!)
(sp?) to me!!

Richard

PS-

HYOH and again, nothing personal..just be cautious..
Caveat emptor on giving away pesonal information to an
unknow internet person..MD or not...this stuff is
none of his business especially with so much data
already out there about the topic...has he sent the
same thing to my runner's list? NO! To my mountain
climbing lists?? NO! Has he published this before?
NO..not to my knowledge...has he done other studies?
Nope..not that I can find...

NOR DOES IT MATTER...sounds like physhing to me!


PPS-

All typoes and mispellings are the respobsibility of the
author (me!) 'casue my spell checker is acting up!

Ok..I am off my soapbox...and nothing again personal to
the sender of that note. It is just that there is soooo
much weirdness on net as you know!





On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 21:41:27 +0100 (BST), Michele Toms wrote
> Calling women thru-hikers! For squeamish men, read no
> further :-)
> 
> As a doctor and a thru-hiker, I have been interested
> in the health of hikers while on the trail.
> Anecdotally, it seemed that some women stopped having
> their periods, probably due to weight loss and
> excessive exercise. There is a recognised condition
> called Female Athlete Syndrome that comprises a triad
> of amenorrhea (lack of menstrual period), disordered
> eating and osteoporosis. I wouldn?t exactly consider
> that hikers have eating disorders in the conventional
> sense, but they can have a rather irregular diet.
> Osteoporosis is a real threat to the thru-hiker, as it
> can predispose to stress fractures.
> 
> I?m interested in collecting data in the form of a
> questionnaire from any female hiker who has hiked all
> or sections of the PCT, in any year. The more data I
> can collect the better. I am just as interested in
> replies from women who had no problems as well as
> those who did, so as not to bias the data. The
> information will be kept confidential and anonymous. I
> intend to write up a report which will be discussed
> with fellow doctors, and will make it available to
> hikers on request. It may help future women hikers
> intending on embarking on a long hike.
> 
> Please respond directly to me off-list if you would
> like to help with this study; it will involve
> approximately 10 minutes of your time filling in a
> questionnaire.
> 
> Dr Michele Toms (half of Dave-and-Michele)
> PCT ?05
> 

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