Rest Days

[oreotragus]

I was wondering...

I am a personal trainer and I love to work out, but I know to give myself a rest day every week to give my body a break to rebuild itself. I feel better and stronger the next day (I rest on Sunday, and Mondays are one of my strength training days).

I am planning on thru-hiking after I graduate college. My question is, does this one-day-a-week scheduled rest apply to a thru-hike? Do most people pick a day to rest, and if not fully resting, do minimal hiking? I see the benefits of regular rest myself because I exercise regularly, so I assume that resting while thru-hiking, which is strenuous enough, would be very beneficial in warding off stress and fatigue.

Or, is time and miles lost because of rest too worrisome to bother?

I will most likely give myself one rest day a week either way. I do think of the miles and time lost, but I think giving my body a regular break will be one of the best things I could do for myself while attempting something so physically challenging.

Thanks!

[hopefulhiker]

Hikers take "zero" days every now and then, usually in towns or hostels, take showers, eat big meal, do laundry and ressupply.. Usually you are still pretty busy.....

[Pedaling Fool]

I wouldn’t worry about sticking to a strict one-day-a-week rest schedule. Basically just take a rest every time you hit a town. Sometimes, after you get your hiking legs, you won’t even feel like taking a zero day. But you always can if you want to be prudent, you’ll only know once you get out there.

When you say "minimal hiking", in hiking parlance the term "NERO" (Near Zero day), is more widely used; as opposed to a "ZERO DAY" (No hiking day). What constitutes a NERO, well that’s a relative term. When I started my thru-hike last year, my first NERO, was 3.2 miles into Neel’s Gap. However, as time went on, my definition of a NERO changed, I never really "drew a line", but I know I considered ~10 miles a NERO, but it also depends on the terrain and other factors.

[Panzer1]

My question is, does this one-day-a-week scheduled rest apply to a thru-hike? Do most people pick a day to rest, and if not fully resting, do minimal hiking?
Or, is time and miles lost because of rest too worrisome to bother?


At your age, one-day-a-week is probably plenty. But no one actually picks a certain day, like sunday, to rest. You will probably pick a day to rest when you are somewhere you can enjoy you day off and do your choirs like laundry, food shopping, ect.

Most people when they are done their hike will probably wish they took more zero days and not less. I don't know anyone who wishes they had hiked in less days. If you got the time and money you should take more zero days and not less. Take some time to "stop and smell the flowers".

Rest days are also good because you can eat in restaurants and vary your diet from "trail food" to "town food".

Panzer

[Jim Adams]

Most people when they are done their hike will probably wish they took more zero days and not less. I don't know anyone who wishes they had hiked in less days. If you got the time and money you should take more zero days and not less. Take some time to "stop and smell the flowers.

Panzer

Oreotragus,
If you want to avoid stress and fatigue, don't plan rest days, just take them when you need them.
You are young and will probably be able to hike fairly fast. If that is the case, I would definitely take Panzer1's advice.
I was 37 years old on my first thru and I found that once I was in shape that I could hike all day at 3-3 1/2 mph...4mph if I would jog alittle. As a result, I took 71 zero days on my 191 day hike.

Zero days are wonderful but heed this advice.
1. Do not try to start out fast on your hike or you will injure yourself.
2. Unless you take most of your zero days in the woods or you are independently wealthy....you will run out of money in towns.

The key is to go as fast as you can and take as much time as you can to do that. You will then get to see and do everything along the trail but you will have plenty of rest.
:)
geek

[oreotragus]

Thanks for all the input!

[SGT Rock]

FWIW (since I haven't thru-hiked yet), I plan to take about one day a week as a NERO or ZERO, I just haven't tried to plan where or when. Add to that I have added some general fluff into my "schedule" and plan to take off a few days around specific events to visit with friends like Hardcore and Trail Days.

[Time To Fly 97]

An excellent hiker rule is "Listen to your body." Everyone is different and the way their bodies react to fatigue and the change from fit to super athlete varies wildly from person to person. You will get a town stop every 6 or 7 days to resupply that will allow you to access your fatigue level and rest - this is the funnest rest you can imagine so take advantage of this : )

When you feel tired, it could be from a lot of facters: hydration, caloric intake, elevation, sodium deficit in the Summer, etc. You will automatically begin to "level-check" all these things early on, so no worries. My advice is to just make sure you are giving your body good food, plenty of water, vitamins, electrolytes to adapt...and listen to your body. If you need a rest, stop and rest - don't worry about where everyone else is headed if you feel like you're going to pull a muscle, etc.

Your physical therapy background will be very helpful and you should have no trouble getting your trail legs.

Happy hiking!

TTF

[out-n-about]

i always give my self a rest day to take care of things like laundry , shower ,food drops ,etc. but like one of the guys said listen to what your body tells you.

[7Sisters]

I sectioned hiked the AT and my last section was from Gorham to Katahdin. I covered from Gorham to Katahdin Stream campground in 17 days. The only time I took "off" was a couple days when I got to town early and would only hiked 10-12 miles during the day.

There were times when I was very mentally fatigued. I would say that you will need this for mental refreshing more than physical refreshing. However once a week would have been much more than I would have wanted to do. For me the purpose of backpacking is to be in the woods and experience the journey that way.

As someone earlier said - the more time in town, the more money you'll spend. I would consider that as well.

Your body and mind/spirit will tell you when you need a day off - I wouldn't schedule them before hand.

[JAK]

The body has lots of natural cycles for different things of course. Years, Months, Days, and even certain cycles within a day like your breathing, or your walking pace, or a sprint and recovery interval.

The week is an interesting one, being a fixed number of days roughly 1/4 of a lunar cycle but otherwise seemingly arbitrary. I read somewhere that with all the calendar adjustments that have been made through the ages nobody seems to know when we started the current seven day week cycle, and nobody has ever messed with it the days of the week, other than renaming them. There have been cultures in the past that have used something other than a 7 day week though, such as 5 or 6, for things like market days. In the mid latitudes synoptic weather patterns of highs and lows and warm fronts and cold fronts tend to repeat themselves, but this is somewhat pseudo-periodic, sometimes 3-5 days, sometimes up to 13-15 days. It's almost as though the weather patterns are deliberately intended to sometimes disturb and sometimes comply with our travel plans, but always pseudo-predictably.

A 7 day week seems to be a comfortable length of time for travelling on foot between two resupply points, including doing your business and resting before your return or carrying on your way. So a fortnight seems a natural length of time for a round trip. Also when travelling by sea, when timing the tides were more important, the fortnight is roughly the length of time when the tides repeat their cycle. For hunting trips the full moon was important, but such trips often required travel on either side of the full moon to meet a migrating herd, which amounts to a round trip. Before faster means of transportation when people went on a trip the travelling itself took up most of the time and energy compared to today. Of course there are varying lengths of trips and always some need for flexibility, like when places are open for business, or not. But whether the 7 day week is a political/religious response to one of our body's natural cycle, or out body's natural cylce has adapted to this somewhat arbitary political/religious cycle is perhaps lost in time.

There is always a need for some flexibility, but 7 days seems like a natural period of time for a day of rest. When travelling listen to your body by all means and keep an eye on the weather, but keep also in mind; Time and Tide wait for no man.

[Marta]

There are a lot of different possible hiking patterns. I tended to do moderate miles almost every day, with few zero days, instead of killer miles for several days in a row, then take one (or more) days off. It's partly a function of age--I don't have the recovery/healing power of a younger person and never wanted to push myself to the point of injury, if I could avoid it.

It's also temperament. I preferred to hike a sort of business day--start around 8 and finish by 5. I like to loaf around in the morning and evening, but keep hiking all day with only short breaks.

Another personal policy I had was not to take zero days unless it was raining. That didn't always work out, but I tried.

It's a very long hike. If you keep hiking, you'll have plenty of time to experiment and find out what works for you.

Good luck!

Marta/Five-Leaf

[Footslogger]

During my 2003 thru I found that felt better physically and mentally when I took a day off about every 2 weeks. In addition, I often tried to plan some of my in-town resupply trips so that I could arrive early in the day. That way I could get my supplies and spend most of the day relaxing around town and then hike out about dinner time. That gave me some time off but avoided the expense of an overnight in a motel.

Like some said, age plays a big part in how your body/mind recovers from the trail. In my 20's I could go pretty hard and get by with minimal downtime. Now, in my late 50's I find that the downtime is far more important in terms of my ability to keep on keepin on.

'Slogger

[DavidNH]

First off.. irrespective of what some might have us believe, a thru hike is not a race. I'd plan for around a rest day (ie a zero day) or a NERO day (mid day to mid day) per week. Since most carry 3-5 days of food (I usually carried 4-5 days worth) you are going to get into town at least once a week anyway. I found rest days a huge help to me both physically and emotionally.

As someone here already mentioned.. you aren't just resting when you spend a day in town. there are plenty of chores to do such as pick up mail drops, shop for food, laundry, eat eat eat, possibly buy extra gear etc etc etc. Free time can evaporate very quickly in town.

David

[JAK]

Perhaps I should qualify that 'Time and Tide wait for no man' can mean different things to different people at different stages of their lives. You don't neccessarily need to be in a hurry. You can always stop and watch the tide come and go, and the seasons pass. My only point is that there are such things even in the natural world that will not stop and wait for you. From my stand point here on the sidelines, I would be more inclined to say that 'Time and Tide wait for no man' means that we should each hurry to start our thru-hike, not to finish it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqQlfFuQFXo

[Lone Wolf]

we should each hurry to start our thru-hike, not to finish it.

the reality is most hurry a thru-hike. they hurry to get to shelters, to hostels, to towns and hurry to finish then they look back during the winter and wish they'd slowed down.

[Jim Adams]

the reality is most hurry a thru-hike. they hurry to get to shelters, to hostels, to towns and hurry to finish then they look back during the winter and wish they'd slowed down.

:-? Lone Wolf hit the nail on the head perfectly. I have never heard anyone complain that they took too long!

geek

[Footslogger]

the reality is most hurry a thru-hike. they hurry to get to shelters, to hostels, to towns and hurry to finish then they look back during the winter and wish they'd slowed down.

=================================

Amen brother ...

Just got back from hiking Rangeley to Monson and pretty much took our time. No more than 14 miles/day. Saw and enjoyed MUCH more than I did going through that same section during my thru in 2003.

We're talking about re-hiking the AT ...maybe in 2010 and have decided to allow 6+ months for the hike, primarily so that we can afford to keep our mileage lower and see more.

'Slogger

[7Sisters]

the reality is most hurry a thru-hike. they hurry to get to shelters, to hostels, to towns and hurry to finish then they look back during the winter and wish they'd slowed down.

This applies to my section hikes as well. I got caught up in my schedules and my inner drive at times and missed some opportunities to do some things. However, not matter how you do it, there will be regrets and there will be great memories. The key is just do it and experience it - your way.