Pace, Intervals And Rest

[DayTrip]

Here are my somewhat disjointed thoughts:
1. I rarely plan rest stops at set intervals. But there are two exceptions: a) Bigger mountains (Rainier, for example), where the altitude or the excitement of the moment might cause me to be less in tune with what my body would otherwise be telling me; and b) harsh conditions (winter Presi-traverse, for example) where even a moderate loss of energy, body heat or focus could have severe consequences. In these situations, I plan a 5 min (pack still on) rest every hour. But on normal trips, even very long days, I eat when I'm hungry and I drink when I'm thirsty. These generally amount to short stops every couple of hours, and longer stops every ~6 hrs (mostly for the purpose of mentally recharging). On long days, I'll take off my pack once, maybe twice, max.
2. Pacing. There's a pace I can keep up indefinitely, and there's everything faster than that. On longer itineraries, I keep a pace I can stay at indefinitely. I don't really have to think about it much, I just know what that pace is. I rarely, if ever, stop for a break because I'm winded. I adjust my pace well before that happens, even on steep uphills. I feel like I actually hike at an overall faster pace using this strategy. Plus, for me personally, the sprint-stop-sprint-stop cycle is mentally and physically draining; I just don't enjoy it, and it makes me sweat a lot.
3. Hiking is more fun if the uphills don't actually tax you that much. Conditioning is key to achieving this state of nirvana. It's useful to remember that in the northeast, you'll rarely have more than 4k' elevation gain at a time, and this usually translates to a 2-4 hour interval. For me, getting my conditioning to a state where I can perform 1 hour of hard aerobic training or, alternatively, 2 hours of moderate aerobic training, makes a 2-4 hour 'sustainable pace' uphill interval feel pretty easy.

[I don't know if this adds any value to the post, but for me, some example workouts that are worth trying to get to: a) 1 hr on step mill w/ 25 lb weight in your pack right at the pace you can barely keep up for the whole time (or small intervals just above and below that pace); b) 2 hr run at any pace; c) 1.5 hr challenging trail run (think big ups and downs, insecure footing, etc); d) 1 full hr of challenging spin? (I have very little experience with this one). If I can do any of those 4 and still walk afterwards, I know my conditioning is in a very good place, and any issues I have are likely due to something else.]

My "off field" conditioning program needs to improve for sure but it has gotten better. I am notoriously lazy mid week and just cannot get myself into a gym setting, crank away on some monotonous machine, etc. I could take a 4 hr hike every day if it were possible but 5 minutes on a treadmill is a loathsome thought. I've been alternating between days with a 4 mile loop around my house and going up and down my cellar stairs for a 100 flights (both with a 19lb pack -similar to my Summer pack). My pre-hike hydration and eating played a big role in my gains this year. I take advantage of the 3-4 drive to the trail head to be primed and ready so I really don't feel the need to eat or drink for quite some time (usually 2.5-3.5 hours unless I'm doing something truly difficult and even then I find I eat and drink a lot less without the adverse effects I used to get like cramping on the ride home). Being able to hike more last year also was huge. Even from one week to the next you can feel the difference. So this year I'm turning to my on-trail technique and time management for additional gains.

I love taking big breaks when the weather is comfortable to take in the views. That's really the main reason I'm out there so I hate to rush it. What I want to do now is absolutely minimize the time and effort it takes to get me up to those views. While I feel like I've progressed a lot it seems more and more I get passed by hikers. I still marvel at the general fitness level of the typical hiker out there now. I did Flume a few weeks back via Osseo route and although I was about 45 minutes ahead of book time literally everyone I saw on trail passed me on the way up. I know I carry a heavier pack than most people but damn. Last year on the Webster-Jackson loop I actually had a trail runner LAP ME on the trail. The thought of leaving the trail head and arriving at the summit of a respectable peak without stopping once seems impossible to me now. Thus my post. Clearly there is room for improvement. Thanks for the detailed reply.

 

[DayTrip]

Maintaining pace is the opposite of stopping. If you need to stop and rest more than once or twice a day, you've been going too fast and/or your pack is too heavy. Food and water don't require stopping. You should be mindful of how often you're eating and drinking, but the exact intervals and amounts will depend on how much you're sweating, how well you ate the day before, etc.

You can plan a nice long lunch break into your itinerary (I usually do when I anticipate a good view, which is most of the time) but that's for enjoyment, not stamina.

On winter day hikes I almost don't stop at all - saves me a lot of time messing with clothing changes In summer I'll plan on three short pack-off breaks a day where i can take off my shoes and change my socks, one of those being the aforementioned scenic lunch break.

There's really no secret to how you manage the steep sections. As I've been emphasizing, it's generally better to go at a steady pace than to be the hare in Aesop's fable. You improve that steady pace by... doing lots of hiking up steep and rough trails. I don't know what your training options are like in Connecticut but you could get a job on at least the 10th floor of an office building and never use the elevators. (I did this in Boston for a couple years, it works!)

I do have a few options reasonably close by but not with challenging vertical. Bigelow Hollow is about 20 minutes from me and I can do some good loops mileage wise but there are few steep hills and it's more up-and-down so you don't get that constant lung-taxing breathing like you do in the mountains. I'll likely just continue to increase the weight of my training pack until it is well beyond what I''d have in Winter so actual hikes, in comparison, will feel easier. But I'm going to do that slowly over several weeks.

 

[jfb]

My "off field" conditioning program needs to improve for sure but it has gotten better. I am notoriously lazy mid week and just cannot get myself into a gym setting, crank away on some monotonous machine, etc. I could take a 4 hr hike every day if it were possible but 5 minutes on a treadmill is a loathsome thought. I've been alternating between days with a 4 mile loop around my house and going up and down my cellar stairs for a 100 flights (both with a 19lb pack -similar to my Summer pack).

If you don't have a bicycle, you should get one. Northeast CT looks like an area with excellent terrain and good roads for cycling.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I don't know what your training options are like in Connecticut but you could get a job on at least the 10th floor of an office building and never use the elevators. (I did this in Boston for a couple years, it works!)

I'm on the 10th floor in Manchester, but we are moving down to the 7th, so I'll lose 60 steps a day

Take a look at what Joe Friel has to say about interval training... works to improve cycling and running and almost certainly hiking: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/07/intervals-part-1.html

Tim

 

[nartreb]

19 lbs for a day trip in summer? I think we've found your problem!

Off the top of my head, you should be packing about five pounds of clothing (including emergency tarp), four pounds of water (more for long dry routes on hot days), a pound of food, that's about it. Add a water filter, misc small items (sunscreen, bug spray, headlamp, first aid kit) and the weight of the pack itself, and you should still be easily under fifteen pounds without skimping on anything. OF course that's not counting a big SLR camera

 

[Neil]

Best book ever if you want to up your game. It's written for alpinists but it extrapolates for hiking very well.

Bottom line IMO for hiking: build aerobic power, especially in the quadraceps muslces! Building a big aerobic base takes months and months of dedicated and intelligent work. You have to be sufficiently motivated to put in the time. Knowing how much time you are ready and able to realistically spend weekly, without compromising your health and the rest of whatever your life is made up of, is probably the most important step in the process.

 

[jfb]

Best book ever if you want to up your game. It's written for alpinists but it extrapolates for hiking very well.

Bottom line IMO for hiking: build aerobic power, especially in the quadraceps muslces! Building a big aerobic base takes months and months of dedicated and intelligent work. You have to be sufficiently motivated to put in the time. Knowing how much time you are ready and able to realistically spend weekly, without compromising your health and the rest of whatever your life is made up of, is probably the most important step in the process.

Although I have not read that book, I'm familiar with the concept of building a strong aerobic base and agree that it's important. However, I think it's much more important for those climbing big mountains than the smaller hills found in the Northeast. It only takes a few hours to hike up a peak like Mt. Adams, so somebody can do that anaerobically without bonking. Consequently, there's not much incentive for the average weekend day-hiker to spend time building an aerobic base.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Joe Friel's book, if not those articles linked above, help you lay out the best use of your limited training hours. So, you budget 8 hours/week for training, and you can get a formula for how best to spend it. In reality what happens for recreational athletes is that the "hard days" aren't hard enough and the "easy (rest) days" aren't easy enough.

Tim

 

[Neil]

It only takes a few hours to hike up a peak like Mt. Adams, so somebody can do that anaerobically without bonking. Consequently, there's not much incentive for the average weekend day-hiker to spend time building an aerobic base.

I agree about someone going out and booting it up one NE peak. And, if you're young enough you can cruise on youth and feel like sh!t tomorrow!

But, a lot depends on what's big or small to the hiker and how good one wants to feel during and after. For 10-12 plus hour hikes stringing multiple peaks together with 5-10k elly at age 59 I found that in my particular case aerobic power was the key. Feeling chipper through the last hours is but one benefit. Anecdotally, once I got my aerobic power up to snuff (mostly via weighted hill climbs 3x/week totaling 5 hours and carefully keeping my HR under control using a HR monitor) I was able to do bigger and bigger hikes comfortably and, most importantly, feel good enough the next day for another hike and then another the day after. Doing something like Adams you're going to be deriving energy from a blend of aerobic and anaerobic systems. The more aerobic power one has the less one uses the anaerobic system and the slower one drains the tank, the less acid you expose your muscles to etc. Using purely anaerobic power (not what you meant) one can only last for seconds due to acidosis in the muscles.

I might sound like a broken record stuck on aerobic power but after doing the winter ADK-46 in 10 days my takeaway was that if time is limited you'll get more bang for the buck from training aerobic power than from resistance training. Also, for me the goal of doing resistance training is not so much to increase muscle strength but to enhance neurological mechanisms that further boost aerobic power.

On another note, aerobic training in a gym is obviously way better than doing nothing but due to the perfectly flat surfaces and unchallenging ease of using, say a treadmill, every step is pretty much the same and none of those accessory foot, ankle and leg or trunk muscles get solicited to say nothing about challenges to balance. Therefore, there is a limitation to the transfer of benefits from the gym to the rugged and steep trails in the NE.

 

[jfb]

carefully keeping my HR under control using a HR monitor

That's probably the most difficult part. How do you convince someone who just drove 4 hours from CT to walk as slowly as possible for the whole day?

 

[DayTrip]

If you don't have a bicycle, you should get one. Northeast CT looks like an area with excellent terrain and good roads for cycling.

I have one but don't trust the roads, at least in my area, with the narrowness and all the traffic. And in Winter it's not an option for me. When I owned a truck I used to take my bike to work every day and hit the bike path near my office. Was fairly flat but I would crank as fast as I could go up and back (about 18 miles) and it did help quite a bit. I drive a tiny Hyundai now and the bike, even with front wheel off is quite a project to stuff in and out of the car.

 

[DayTrip]

19 lbs for a day trip in summer? I think we've found your problem!

Off the top of my head, you should be packing about five pounds of clothing (including emergency tarp), four pounds of water (more for long dry routes on hot days), a pound of food, that's about it. Add a water filter, misc small items (sunscreen, bug spray, headlamp, first aid kit) and the weight of the pack itself, and you should still be easily under fifteen pounds without skimping on anything. OF course that's not counting a big SLR camera

I definitely over pack stuff because I hike alone. I filter water a lot more now which saves quite a bit of weight and in all but the warmest days I usually carry a bivy for emergencies (which I believe is 2.7 lbs or thereabouts). A full blown, above treeline pack for me with 3L of water runs about 20-22 lbs. I don't think it's as much the items I carry as much as the items I have could be lighter. As an example, I prefer a larger headlamp with AA batteries versus the smaller units (which I of course carry as a back up). And my current backpack I know is significantly heavier than many models but I like a larger pack and the better suspension. And then there's the batteries for all my electronics - never realized how much they weigh! I find at 15-16 lbs I don't really notice the pack at all. And lately I've started taking my Jetboil on nice days and having some pretty kick ass lunches while I'm out. When I know I'm doing very long hikes I scale back most of these things.

I'd rather get in shape to easily carry the things I want to have rather than have the lighter pack and not have those things. And it's nice practice for the weight of the Winter pack (whose weight I will not disclose so you don't get a brain aneurism).

 

[DayTrip]

Thanks everyone. Some good article and book references for me to review.

 

[DayTrip]

Joe Friel's book, if not those articles linked above, help you lay out the best use of your limited training hours. So, you budget 8 hours/week for training, and you can get a formula for how best to spend it. In reality what happens for recreational athletes is that the "hard days" aren't hard enough and the "easy (rest) days" aren't easy enough.

Tim

Are you referencing a specific book? I went on Amazon and he has quite a few and they all sound similar. There is one specific to heart rate training. Is this the one?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

They should be similar. I personally followed his plans in http://www.amazon.com/Cyclists-Trai...TF8&qid=1452648193&sr=8-2&keywords=joel+friel when I was racing.

Tim

p.s. Winter is always an option

 

[DayTrip]

Yikes! Thanks.

 

[jfb]

Thanks everyone. Some good article and book references for me to review.

Here's a simple description of aerobic base training: http://www.active.com/articles/aerobic-base-training-going-slower-to-get-faster

 

[Bushwhack]

Hey there Daytrip,

My advice would be to bring a book with you. When I did longer trips such as a hut traverse or double presi, it was nice to sit down and read for five minutes once an hour. I find that if I am trying to eat up miles, I don't rest long enough unless I have a book to hold me to my seat. It gives you something to think about while you hike as well.

I would say that a good book adds about 40% more distance to my capacity for one day.

Good Luck!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

You could just hike 40% longer, leave the book home, and get more exercise I wouldn't recommend sitting for long periods of time in winter either.

Tim

 

[DayTrip]

Here's a simple description of aerobic base training: http://www.active.com/articles/aerobic-base-training-going-slower-to-get-faster

Great article. Thanks.