Question for people who have thru-hiked: recovery

[sbhikes]

I finished my 1800 mile section on the last day of August. Now it's mid-February. Whenever I go for a hike, after the ride home in the car, I can barely get out of the car. I can barely walk. My feet are killing me, my legs and hips are stiff. It's really got me bummed out. I can't hardly do anything without getting sore. I'm certainly not doing the big mile days I used to. Just a 5 mile hike does this to me. Even taking a long walk window shopping downtown has all my foot pain come back, and then once I sit down and try to get back up again, I feel like I'm 100 years old.

Did anybody else have this happen to them? How long until you were back to normal? Anything I ought to be doing?

P.S. I'm 45 years old.

[Dogwood]

I don't care what good or bad advice you may or may not ultimately receive here, based on just the little you shared here this is not the place to seek professional health care. Based on what you said, it's time to seek expert medical knowledge.

[wtmntcaretaker]

my feet are still not 100%. I still creek and crack. and my feet are still sore in the mornings. and I am 25!

[Blissful]

Sounds like something is wrong. Could also be your footwear throwing you off? If shoes are worn, I ache much more. But I recall aching for quite a while after the trail. Be sure you are in a running program and have good shoes. Andf you need to stretch well before and after any kind of exercise.

[Lostone]

So did you go home and put your feet up and continue to eat 6,000 calories a day. did you stop working out completely

Yep not enough info.

44 years old here. I walk 5 miles a day in a couple of metro parks around town. I can do it in just over an hour. not bad for an old man.

When I hike with the scouts 10 or more miles I still hurt. sucks getting old

[Spirit Walker]

Sounds normal to me - as long as you can still hike, I wouldn't worry about the stiffness afterwards. If you find out otherwise, please let me know.

[Snowleopard]

I don't care what good or bad advice you may or may not ultimately receive here, based on just the little you shared here this is not the place to seek professional health care. Based on what you said, it's time to seek expert medical knowledge.

Absolutely, see your doctor.
It may not be anything serious, the fix may just be stretches and exercise, prescribed by a doctor. I've had various joint problems that were made 90% to 100% better by physical therapy.

[Gladiator]

How's your diet when you hike? Maybe some nutrient or electrolyte deficiencies could be catching up with you.

[sbhikes]

I'm walking to work about 3 miles round trip. I hike on the weekends. I try to jog every other day for about 20 minutes. I'm not a runner, so I'm trying to work my way up. I'm just a beginner right now.

So I'm still trying to get regular exercise. I don't just sit on the couch eating 6000 calories a day. But I do sit around a lot because I went back to work.

I just wanted to know if it's normal to feel this way still. If it was, then I wouldn't bother with a doctor. In my experience, doctors have no idea about things like long-distance hiking

[Sir-Packs-Alot]

I'm 47 and did my hike in 03 - my knees were never quite the same - but I do strengthening exercises and take a liquid glucosamine/chondroitin that's great.

I do multi day backpacks a few times a month.

See a doctor - then see what your workup says. Lot's of folks just aren't eating right and excercising regularly. (Swansons Health Products - online - has great quality dietary supplements.)

[AggieAl]

Find a doctor that is experienced with distance athletes, preferably a doctor who is also an athlete. Most doctors won't understand.

I have had similar problems after marathons, but not for more than a couple of weeks.

My guess is that you need a lot of rest. No running, no hiking, just some easy walking for at least a month.

But see someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Soon.

Let us know. We do care about you.

[grayfox]

You are right about doctors having no clue, especially for 'women of a certain age'. Even so, what you are experiencing is not good even if others here say they have the same problem. When you see your doctor, be sure to ask for a blood test for Lyme disease. In the meantime, you might try some over the counter glucosamine-condroiton products if you haven't already. Yeah, old sucks, but it shouldn't stop you from enjoying hiking.

[Compass]

Old? She is only 45.

As previously suggested; Find the right doctor. While looking get the blood workup and a copy to take with you. Lyme test also. Old shoes can cause problems, I agree even though I do not understand why.

I have an old pair that I need to throw away even though they look and feel OK ish(used thru PA rocks).

[Appalachian Tater]

I had similar problems to the ones you are having but not six months later. My knees never quite fully recovered but everything else did, including the weight I had lost. I do feel tired and my feet hurt after walking eight miles on pavement but that doesn't seem abnormal. I am about the same age you are and unfortunately the effects of aging are starting to show up.

Lyme disease tests are notoriously inaccurate. Check out the symptoms to see if you have or had them, especially a bout of flu-like symptoms during your thru-hike. Not everyone gets a rash so not having had one doesn't mean you're clear on that.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lym...CTION=symptoms

There are doctors who specialize in sports medicine if you want to go that route or if most of your problems seem to be joint-related you could see a rheumatologist. Are your symptoms improving at all, even slowly? If not, you should see someone.

Your main concern should be the small chance that you do have something like Lyme or an auto-immune disease and don't have it diagnosed and treated because you attribute it to aftereffects of your thru-hike which will improve or not, no matter what you do.

One suggestion I would make is to make sure you stay well-hydrated because it does make a difference in how your body feels.

Also, swimming is a great exercise that limits stress on the joints while promoting flexibility.

Good luck and don't forget to update your status so people don't worry needlessly!

[The Will]

I had a similar experience.

Two weeks following my thru my knees just shut down completely. What was paradoxical was that I had no joint pain whatsoever during the hike. It was around 6 weeks to two months before I could so much as get out of a car without pain. I was only 23 at the time.

[10-K]

You are right about doctors having no clue, especially for 'women of a certain age'. Even so, what you are experiencing is not good even if others here say they have the same problem. When you see your doctor, be sure to ask for a blood test for Lyme disease. In the meantime, you might try some over the counter glucosamine-condroiton products if you haven't already. Yeah, old sucks, but it shouldn't stop you from enjoying hiking.

Definitely get checked for lyme. I got it and the test confirmed it just before the bullseye rash appeared.

[JAK]

Something is wrong here, and this seems to be a common thread. There seems to be a bit of a mindset that something like a thru-hike should be really hard on the body, that it should be a very tough ordeal, and leave you in rough shape. This is wrong.

The intention of a hiking should be to make yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally STRONGER and FITTER. Rest, recovery, active recovery - these things are important. You don't get fitter from exercise and activity, but from the recovery that takes place immediately after the activity. Because hiking takes most of the day, and a thru-hike takes 100-200 days, or whatever, most of it actually needs to be taking place at a pace which allows active recovery. You also need rest, every day, and more rest on some days, perhaps even total rest on some days. You also need a really good diet, and you need to take really good care of yourself, in terms of injury and illness prevention and treatment.

The value of this thread should be to find out what went wrong.
Maybe things went wrong from the very beginning. The purpose.

[JAK]

Just to clarify that it wasn't my intention to beat up on the OP.
I have never done a thru-hike, and I can easily see myself ending up the same way,
even if I thought I was pacing myself and taking care of myself all along the way.

So other than Lyme disease, are there other possible explanations. It sounds very similar to what can happen without lyme disease, when you go from long periods of a relatively sedentary lifestyle, into say 3-9 months with alots of running and such, followed by more sedentary again, for several months or a few years, and back on again and so forth. I've sort of been there and done that. So what are the lesson here?

How fast can we ease back into an active lifestyle?
How do we maintain a consistently active and healthy lifestyle?
Is there any way of really knowing when something is going to creep up on you?

[JAK]

Another good questions, like sbhikes refered to...

What are good sources of information for self-diagnosis and treatment of minor and major everyday back and hip and knee and shins and ankle and feet pain when we can't rely on our doctors and other health and fitness professionals to be useful or helpful all the time?

I think it is very true that we are all an experiment of one.
Also, people don't like to hear from the roadkill, until they are one.

[JAK]

Some other related questions I have:

1. How do we strengthen our feet/ankles, and protect them at the same time ?
2. How do we select our own daily preventative/recovery exercises/stretches ?
3. Should we be doing this on the trail during our section hikes and thru-hikes ?