[pct-l] Break Strategies

[Scott Williams]

Breaks are really an individual preference and can change day to day.  On
the PCT I usually got on trail by 5:30 to 6 and often didn't stop till
noon, fueling every hour as I walked.  My pockets were filled with crackers
and cheese or candy bars and other high energy foods.  And I was always
starving.  I remember a few days where I simply walked on through lunch and
ate while walking.  It gets to feel really good to just keep on walking.
 It wasn't over doing it as it was at a rational pace and I didn't feel the
need to stop that often.

On the CDT I took more breaks, mid morning and mid afternoon, but was
hiking with others and we all kind of stayed together most of the time and
that was the pattern.  But I did a totally different food strategy.  This
time I ate no junk at all.  Through New Mexico and up until the snow of the
San Juans, I only ate breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The meals were huge,
but made up of lots of dried veggies, rice or potatoes, meat, nuts, dried
fruit and seeds.  Nothing but nutrient dense foods.  I never hit the wall
and wasn't hungry until about the last half hour before a real mealtime.
 Way different.  I felt much better and couldn't believe that I wasn't
starving all the time.  There was no need to fuel on the hour as I had done
on the PCT where the crackers and candy bars just seemed to go through me
in about an hours time.  When we hit the San Juans I needed to up the
calorie intake even more and added blocks of cheese and sausage and it was
simply too much to eat at one meal and I broke my breakfast up by eating
half of it at 6am, the second half at 9am, then half my lunch at 12pm and
half at 3pm.

Although the food was very different on each of the hikes, the pattern of
breaks seemed to more or less figure itself out.  I never thought of it as
a strategy.

Sometimes there is a certain lethargy that sets in on a break for me and it
is just more easy to keep going.  I didn't notice any undue consequences
from not breaking.  Part of thru hiking is finding a pace that you can
maintain all day with minimum wear and tear on the body.  Too fast and
you'll need the break, too slow and you won't make it to Canada.

Hike on and great question.

Shroomer


On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 9:54 PM, Michael Irving <michaeljirving at gmail.com>wrote:

> OK, here's an actual hiking question to mix things up.
>
> To provide some context, I'm not a thru-hiker but a MYTH (multi-year thru
> hiker) hopefully.
>
> When I hike I tend to want to power through with pretty short breaks that
> may not even involve taking my pack off or sitting down. I usually have a
> short lunch but that may only be 20-30 min. I read/hear about thru-hikers
> often times having more formal breaks. (I tend to eat steadily through the
> day rather than set eating/break times).
>
> So, my question is if there is any info or opinions on how a break
> strategy or lack thereof impacts the average persons body in ability to
> hike longer miles and/or the same miles more comfortably. Sometimes it
> seems that breaks can make it even harder due to tightening up.
>
> Any experienced thoughts on this one? I don't recall it being discussed
> since I've been reading about the PCT over the last few years.
>
> Thanks!
> -GoalTech
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