Recovering

[q-tip]

I just finished my hike from GA-Harpers Ferry. Would like to find out what folks are doing to recover. I find myself pretty exhausted and my feelings seem to be running amok. Any experience helpful.

[Tuts]

Your body is now used to the endorphins firing four hours upon hours every day. The absence of that has a large impact. Also, your body is used to being extensively used and turing out certain amounts of energy at a steady rate for hours. Without doing this, your body will want to rest in preparation. Finally, your body is reparing itself from all the abuse it just took from all that hiking.
My advice, rest, relax, eat healthy, get a little active during the day. The energy will come back soon.

[Pedaling Fool]

By recovery, I assume you mean recover with respect to physical recovery?/.

I generally don't need to do anything special to physically recover from a LD hike because I tend to pace myself well, since I never go out to break any records. But I do make sure I start exercising parts of my body that were neglected during the hike.

The only time I feel worn down is when I do daily workouts, because I tend to push it a little too hard on occasion. And when I do it really bad I get that awful numb feeling and all I can do is lay down and suffer. That's probably why I don't push myself too hard during a LD hike, because I know what it does to me and you really put yourself in a predicament on the trail in that condition.

P.S. If you're talking about mental recovery, then disregard my previous rambling

[Tenderheart]

Your body is now used to the endorphins firing four hours upon hours every day. The absence of that has a large impact. Also, your body is used to being extensively used and turing out certain amounts of energy at a steady rate for hours. Without doing this, your body will want to rest in preparation. Finally, your body is reparing itself from all the abuse it just took from all that hiking.
My advice, rest, relax, eat healthy, get a little active during the day. The energy will come back soon.

That's good advice. And remember, your body is really wanting to pack on the pounds because you have just scared it to death. EAT HEALTHY!! People ask me all the time: How long does it take to get over a long distance hike? My response: I'll let you know.

litefoot 2000

[Iceaxe]

I get the blues after a Long Distance Hike. Some advice I got from my fello hikers... "Start Planning your next hike!" - Works for me!

[Spokes]

Your post-hike regiment should include drinking plenty of water, maintaining a good multi-vitamin, and supplement diet with a natural/herbal anti-inflammatories like natural omega-3 EFA, white willow bark, turmeric (curcumin), green tea, and Boswellia.*

Learned this from my marathon, ultra running, and thru hike experiences.

*Always consult your doctor first before taking any supplements.

[emerald]

I would have posted the New York Times article linked below as the opening post of a new thread, but it wouldn't have amounted to much because it would have gone in every direction at once.

It's relevant to long-distance hiking in many respects including the build-up and the let-down phases. One aspect of what's being called recovery is the attendant unhappiness brought on by idleness at least in a relative sense which causes the mind to wander. Happy hikers find new focal points in their present surroundings and lose themselves in them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/science/16tier.html

[Spokes]

.........Cool.........

[sbhikes]

It is worrisome that you say you feel exhausted. Perhaps you were vitamin deficient? Maybe you should see a doctor or maybe take some OTC iron or other vitamins for a couple of days and see if you feel better.

I had the jimmy legs when I stopped hiking. And my feet hurt. After a few days, my knees started to hurt. It took a year for the creakiness to go away. I still feel creaky for a day after a day hike.

Mentally I feel like I'll never recover. It's been over a year for me now and every day I get up and go to work and feel like I'm dying. I want to tattoo on my chest "Pull the Plug No Heroics" because I can't see any reason to save me if the paramedics come. What are you going to save me for? So I can sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life?

[Luddite]

It sounds like you need to get back on the trail sbhikes and qtip.

[Tuts]

Woah sbhikes... I'm way more worried about you if that's your outlook. Being away from the trail after a thru-hike can be depressing at first, but what you're talking about is a bit more than that. Perhaps, a career change? Do something to make yourself happy man.

[weary]

It's been 18 years since my longest walk began. I'm still in a recovery mode. I'm hoping it won't end as long as I remain conscious.

[Luddite]

I want to tattoo on my chest "Pull the Plug No Heroics" because I can't see any reason to save me if the paramedics come. What are you going to save me for? So I can sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life?

I know I'm only 23 and don't know much about life, but you don't have to sit in a cubicle the rest of your life. Maybe find a seasonal job that will allow you to work only 6 months of the year, and for the rest of the year you can be on the trail or up in Alaska or in the himalaya trippin' on acid trying to change your whole perspective on ****. (Hansel)

Life is short!

[emerald]

It's been 18 years since my longest walk began. I'm still in a recovery mode. I'm hoping it won't end as long as I remain conscious.

It's been 30 since mine. Maybe I'm in a state of denial, but I think I recovered many years ago when I realized a through hike ends with new and even better opportunities. I no longer crave the experience.

I'd rather spend Tuesday mornings outdoors with a new local group of like-minded individuals I've been invited to join who desire to celebrate the natural world by exploring local opportunities and becoming involved with conservation projects.

[Tinker]

Eat like a pig, drink like a fish (water, that is ), and sleep like a baby (as much as you can). R&R, in other words.

[Tinker]

It is worrisome that you say you feel exhausted. Perhaps you were vitamin deficient? Maybe you should see a doctor or maybe take some OTC iron or other vitamins for a couple of days and see if you feel better.

I had the jimmy legs when I stopped hiking. And my feet hurt. After a few days, my knees started to hurt. It took a year for the creakiness to go away. I still feel creaky for a day after a day hike.

Mentally I feel like I'll never recover. It's been over a year for me now and every day I get up and go to work and feel like I'm dying. I want to tattoo on my chest "Pull the Plug No Heroics" because I can't see any reason to save me if the paramedics come. What are you going to save me for? So I can sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life?

I recently left an indoor job to work as a landscape laborer (less money) because I felt the way it seems that you are feeling. I agree with the other posters above. Get a job outdoors that will provide you with enough money to live day-to-day. It makes life more real in many ways.

[sbhikes]

I had an outdoor "job" when I got home from the trail. I volunteered in an organic demonstration historical garden. Sadly, I am not a strong man. I'm a wimpy lady and there's no way I can work like these young guys in an outdoor job.

I just get all depressed like that when I have some kind of project that isn't finished and I try to figure out when I'll get a chance to work on my project again and it turns out there won't be any time for a couple weeks and that's mostly because my stinking job gets in the way. And then I think about how I have to go there every day and it's like when will it ever end?

[Tuts]

I had an outdoor "job" when I got home from the trail. I volunteered in an organic demonstration historical garden. Sadly, I am not a strong man. I'm a wimpy lady and there's no way I can work like these young guys in an outdoor job.

I just get all depressed like that when I have some kind of project that isn't finished and I try to figure out when I'll get a chance to work on my project again and it turns out there won't be any time for a couple weeks and that's mostly because my stinking job gets in the way. And then I think about how I have to go there every day and it's like when will it ever end?

Likely whe you get another job. One that you love doing. Find it and go for it.

[Carbo]

I just finished my hike from GA-Harpers Ferry. Would like to find out what folks are doing to recover. I find myself pretty exhausted and my feelings seem to be running amok. Any experience helpful.

All of the above is good advice. One more thing to consider is a vitamin D deficiency. It could affect you physically, which can affect the mental part. Coming off the trail and the constant bit of sunlight, now reduced since you're no longer out there, can alter the D in you. Just a thought, ask your doc.

[weary]

Likely whe you get another job. One that you love doing. Find it and go for it.

Such jobs are available. I was lucky. I looked forward to going to work for most of my final 30 years of earning a living. I did finally have to take slightly early retirement when I sensed my bosses thought our readers were no longer interested in reading about the outdoors and the protection of wild lands.

I like to think that it was the managers' bad judgment not my leaving that quite quickly plummetted the newspaper to the brink of bankruptcy.

Not that I've stopped working; just stopped earning money. Life is successful when one can get up most mornings worried about all the pending work needing doing.