[pct-l] Drop-out, decompression, and conditioning

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

When I got no responses on this list regarding how to keep my conditioning
from the thruhike, and how long I should allow for recovery, I went to the
ULTRA site and asked the same questions.  What I got there was very
informative, and eventually all the bells and whistles started blowing in
my head.  I believe some of this information answers a lot of the questions
and problems I was having on the trail, as well as giving some rational on
what to expect afterwards.  It also relates directly to how you should
train for a thruhike.

I subscribed to the ULTRA running site through Kevin Sayre's very helpul
site ( http://fred.net/ultrunr/ ). I recommend that anybody contemplating a
thruhike take a look at some of the information there.

No, thruhiking is not like running an ULTRA race.  But it it is usually
trail running, much of some of the ULTRA races for many people is walking
(one guy finishes Hardrock only walking) has many of the same problems, and
there are a lot of people who have been doing it for a long time, and are
walking a very fine training edge in order to get optimum performances in
their races.  There has been virtually no research on how to train for a
thruhike.  And I think that much of the information out there does not take
into account the people that decided to stop their thruhike midway, nor the
quality of the thruhike in the last half - I have come to suspect that
these two last pieces of the puzzle are just as important in trying to
evaluate training, and in assessing how fast or slow to go on a thruhike.

Please consider the following:

  Rate of recovery from a thruhike should tell you how well trained you
were and how much you beat your body up (overtrained).  Muscles, tendons,
knees,feet, energy, and an upbeat attitude may all return at a different
rate.  

The best indications of overtraining are not blood tests but a
pyschological profile.  Overtrained persons report tiredness, malaise, and
disinterest in the exercise that they formerally found satisfying, and
subsequently usually discontinued that activity for one reason or another
either temporarily or permanently. It also became more difficult to
continue performing at an accustomed rate, and performances started to fall
off.  Mental attitude and recovery are the best indication of overtraining
and of how good the training program was at avoiding overtraining,  and
ultimately of success.(which may only be a continuation of the activity)

Beyond  Campo and the first month when most thruhikers bit the dust, my
experience is that the next area of high attrition occurs between Echo Lake
and AShland on the PCT.  I have little experience of those well in front or
well behind me, but I can tell you of those who I was leapfrogging with or
who passed me, 10 thruhikers dropped out in this area.  This is probably a
quarter of the people that I knew and that were moving in my "sphere",
that's a lot.  MOre importantly, most of these people said they were
leaving because they were tired and "weren't having any fun anymore".
Interesting also that many of these people were traveling faster than I
was.

From Sierra City, I wrote that I had the "snowfree, blisterfree, sexfree,
hot day Sierra City Blues".  This was actually part of a blues song I
wrote.  Another verse was "Don't know what I want, Can't tell what I need".
 From Tahoe on, I had very little energy, and many of my posts mentioned
trying to find out what was missing.  This was not unusual, a lot of people
felt the same way.  I think the people that came off at Ashland,
perservered through to that point to "finish California". The tiredness, of
course, colored the whole hike, and certainly affects my life now that I am
home.

When I was home for the two weeks after Crater Lake, I had not recovered 
when I got back on the trail.  I have been home for 3 weeks, and am still
walking down the stairs one a time.  I am still in what feels like a mild
depression, and have very little energy for new projects.  I think that
most of us feel like we will have a lot of energy when we finally stop
walking, and gets some good sleep, and eat more balanced food. It may be
that the last obstacle of a thruhike is the one waiting at home - and it is
one that is just mystifying, completely unexpected, and seeming beyond the
range of one's experience .  It finally only made sense when I read Karl
King's words on endocrine recovery. 

I will forward two posts from Karl King that were posted to me on the ULTRA
site (I asked his permission to do this).  These are about recovery rates.

Again, I do not want those on the list to feel that "finishing",
thruhiking, having an"incomplete" thruhike, section hiking, doing day
hikes, being a weekender, etc, etc,  constitutes some kind of  hierarchy of
good and bad . I value all the people on the list, and certainly feel that
each persons experience is valid and appreciated.  I too have been in the
position of longing to be in the wilderness and not having the nickols or
time or too many obligations.  I want to make sense out of the experience
that I had and am having (it is not over!). I want to know how to train
well for a thruhike, and enjoy it all the way to the end and afterwards as
well.  I want people that did a month or two months of hiking to know that
they may have the best training under their belt for a longer and more
enjoyable hike.  And I also think that some of the most valuable
information for training for a thruhike should come from those persons THAT
FOR WHATEVER REASON decided to finish earlier than anticipated, not from
the ones getting to Manning.

Goforth
		
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