[pct-l] What do others do to get/stay in shape

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

Granted I think I still have residual "in-shapedness" from my two big  
hikes, but I'll answer your question. What I do is walk to work. It's  
only 3.5 miles round trip with an overpass as the only hill. I will  
also walk to run errands when I can. In addition to that, I hike with  
the Sierra Club on weekends at least one of the weekend days. Usually  
that entails about a 2000 foot climb on average. I've continued to do  
some backpacking whenever I can.

I have found that I can still do 20 - 25 mile days in northern  
California PCT and a two 20 mile days in a row in the High Sierra on  
the JMT including Muir Pass. Helps that I have a light pack and I  
think wearing Chaco sandals is a miracle. Also, there's something  
about that high altitude air. It's so fresh and clean.

Diane

On Aug 17, 2010, at 10:54 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> I'm wondering what others do to stay/get into shape for section or
> multi-section walks (on a daily or weekly basis)? Assuming most  
> people have
> 9-5 jobs, what do you do? I've been walking either before or after  
> work, at
> least a 4.5 mile up, over and down the ridge fire road loop 5 or 6  
> times a
> week; and if I can find the time, especially in the evening, try to  
> do a
> longer 8 mile extension to the shorter loop once or twice a week.  
> Sometimes
> I can especially go walking on a saturday or sunday - 15 to 20  
> miles, but
> generally weekends are taken up with family-time.From reading  
> various trail
> journals (for thru or longer section hikers), I see more weekend  
> warmup
> hikes, but don't notice much daily walking. Is this the norm? What  
> works for
> other people? Your input, please...
> thanks...  TheDuck

Books I've written:
~ Piper's Flight
~ Adventure and Magic
~ Santa Barbara Hikes
http://stores.lulu.com/dianesoini

We're not here for a long time, but we are here for a good time