This is for all the middle aged folks or older who want to get out to do your first long hike. I don’t know what brought you to this place of wanting to do a long hike. It could be anything. An awakening of some sort. A bucket list item. But whatever it is, don’t ignore it. Embrace it.
We know by now, because we’re old enough, that life has taught us a few things. One thing is that we can’t just get off the couch and go do anything we want anymore. Somewhere along the way we’ve come to understand that doing crazy things can hurt us. It’s going to take a little prep these days to do crazy things. As for doing a long hike, we can do this, but we will need to do a few things to get ready.
I’ve been doing long hikes every year for the past 8 years. I’m not talking about the AT or PCT. Although, if that’s your goal, great! My long hikes are in the neighborhood of 100 miles each. Your long hike might be 50 miles. It could be 200, 500, or even 1000 or more miles. But no matter the length, the same principles we’ll go over today will apply.
Let’s break this down into four essential preparatory elements for a long hike, which we will go through one at a time in detail.
If you do well with each of these, I promise you will be giving yourself the best shot at completing your first long hike.
Physical and Mental Readiness
Many of us, when we were younger, could physically do anything we wanted, or we broke something trying. We were invincible. Then life happened. We learned a few things about our limitations, probably the hard way. And now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. But for some of us it has swung to a place of doubt, discouragement, and demotivation – to a place where we don’t even want to try.
Some of that is because with age our bodies and minds work differently; it’s harder, physically and mentally to get motivated to do hard things. It’s just easier not to try and to not put in the extra effort to do something we’ve convinced ourselves we can’t do. Well, unless you have a serious medical limitation, I’m here to tell you that you CAN still do hard things. It’s a hurdle, no doubt – but it’s usually not something impossible.
My mother is 93 years old. She has one leg. She’s lost a good portion of her sight; she can’t drive any more. She’s a multiple-time cancer survivor. And she also has other medical issues. She lives alone and up until very recently, aside from ‘heavy lift’ kinds of things around the house, she was doing almost everything that needs to get done. Gardening, mowing the 1 acre lawn, laundry, house chores, etc. She’s had a hard life and one that has demanded that she push through those hard times. She’s a survivor. She has mental toughness.
She’s probably a good part of the reason why I don’t let most obstacles stop me from doing what I want to do. Do you have anyone in your life who is an overcomer like that? Call it stubborn or tenacious, but mental toughness is a super power that we all need increasingly as we age.
So, how do we get there from here. One thing for sure is that we need to consistently and daily work hard at it. Sorry if you didn’t want me to say that. But, we just need to dig deeper. We CAN and we SHOULD, because it’s exactly what we need to do for longevity and to help maintain good health in these years and for the sake of the years to come.
Let’s talk about mental toughness, specifically as it pertains to doing a long hike. There’s a pattern with the vectors of physical and mental challenge over time while on a long trail.
In the beginning while we are still mentally excited and motivated, the challenge is typically more physical, but over time that diminishes and you get your “trail legs”. That is, your body adjusts to the challenge as you get stronger.
As the physical challenge decreases, the mental challenge begins to increase. The day to day grind begins wearing on you. You might start missing home. The toughness of the trail may cause you to start questioning your reason for doing this. The hard days seem longer. Your motivation will start taking some hits.
So, now that you know this ahead of time. How can you prepare for it?
It’s in your work outs. You need to train your brain to push through times when you are unmotivated and discouraged. On those mornings when you are making excuses for not doing your work out, remind yourself why you are doing this. Then get up and go do it.
Don’t break your scheduled training hikes if it’s raining or snowing or the wind is blowing. Stay safe, but practice what it will take for you to push through those tough days.
Discovering and doing what it takes to pushing through your worst training days will build your mental toughness in ways you won’t realize until you get out on trail. These are training days that matter most. Hiking on a bluebird day is easy. Hiking in the wind or cold rain is actually what your training program should get you ready to do.
I have a publicly available template that can be used to develop your own physical training program. But, I always recommend at lease a session or two with a local certified trainer. They will assess your specific needs for training and teach you what specific exercises you should be doing and show you the proper techniques.
Other elements:
Shakedown hikes and Support System