[pct-l] Physical recovery from thruhike

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

I have been reading some of the training at the ULtra site  - for a hard
Ultra (Hardrock) one person was talking about 6 months of 25 miles/ week
and a bunch of ultras, and than 6 months of 10-15 miles per week before the
big plunge.  These guys are tuning their training down to a gnat's eyebrow.
 And their recovery.  And they were not doing 20 miles per day for 5
months.

Yesterday I went on my first hour long walk-run, as a pre emptive strike to
keep from loosing all that conditioning that it took 9 months to build(4
months before the hike and 5 + months during the hike).

And today, I thought I haven't got a clue to what I am doing.  I remember
the two weeks at home before I restarted that last 1 1/2 month of the
thruhike - I didn't feel a lot different than the day I got home.  After a
week of being home now, I feel just about as tired.  And STIFF.  If I sit
for very long at all, it takes a couple minutes of moving around before I
get past the shuffle stage.

How do I recover and still keep my conditioning?  What kind of activity and
timeline are we taking here?  What should I be doing now if I wanted to do
another thruhike of the PCT next year? If I wanted to run a 50 mile race
next Spring? Or if I just wanted to be conditioned and healthy and go to
campground bar-b-ques all next summer( total PLan A stuff)?

I have come to the conclusion that it really takes years to become a good
thruhiker (maybe at my age).  I am a faster hiker than I was to began with
- the surprise was that it took more than 2,000 miles to get that "speed"
and it wasn't an impressive gain, but hey I am nothing if not persistent. 
I am just a total innocent about where you go from here, and I can easily
see that I might still, still be impatient  and scrimp on the recovery end
and than pay later.

All input and information appreciated!

Goforth
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