Physical Prep - Sand Dune Hiking

[Tatum]

I have a local national park that has a 3mile trail through sand dunes. I have been hiking it for weeks now to prepare for the AT. I usually hike it twice with about 25lbs on my back. Has anyone else trained this way and become successful the first few weeks on the AT? I figured that plowing through loose sand would be good practice!

[Scooby99]

Before a section hike from Springer to Newfound Gap, I hiked 6-10 miles/day over a couple weeks, maybe 100 miles total, in soft snow, made that hike very easy. I've hiked the southern section 3 times, and found it much easier than I expected. Was easily doing 13-16 miles per day right from the start.

[fiddlehead]

I did it a few years ago on a beach in Thailand.
I ran it barefoot and worked up to about 20 miles a day in preparation for a speed hike i later did. (of course it didn't help much getting acclimated to 12,000 feet!)
I thought it was great training and really toughened my feet as well as my leg muscles.

[Tatum]

Yeah, the one thing I am concerned about is the higher elevation...

[Pedaling Fool]

I run barefoot on the soft sand of my local beach; the city bulldozes pathways for emergency vehicle access and leaves piles of sand up to ~8 feet high, which I always run over (artificial sand dunes, without the vegetation).

It's a very good workout, especiallly for the calves/ankles. when I first started I hadn't had shen splints for well over a year and thought they were a thing of the past -- I soon got shen splints from running on that soft sand.

[Ladytrekker]

I work out at a high intensity center doing boot camp workouts and we do once a week workouts in a sandpit doing sprints, lunges, squats, relays, etc. The sand is soft and about ankle deep and my legs are dead by the time we are done, but it is a good hard workout.

[Tatum]

I run barefoot on the soft sand of my local beach; the city bulldozes pathways for emergency vehicle access and leaves piles of sand up to ~8 feet high, which I always run over (artificial sand dunes, without the vegetation).

It's a very good workout, especiallly for the calves/ankles. when I first started I hadn't had shen splints for well over a year and thought they were a thing of the past -- I soon got shen splints from running on that soft sand.

Thats so funny you live in Atlantic Beach, FL cause these pictures were taken in Atlantic Beach, NC.

[double j]

i live close to the at so im always hiking. But i do like to go run stadium steps

[Crazy_Al]

I think the DURATION of training is very important. For example, training very hard for 1 hour a day will not prepare you well for hiking all day. Exercising mildly for 4 hours a day will prepare you well. I discovered this from long distance running. For example, for running a 13.1 mile race, training at 10 miles workout, will leave you exhaused from mile 11 through 13.1.

[Blissful]

Its helpful but the only way to truly be ready is to go out there with a good mental attitude and hike every day