PACING FOR TRAILING THE LONG HAUL

• With consistent effort, not too fast and not too slow.

• Stick to an appropriate pace.

• Stay fed and hydrated, you can keep trailing all day. If you try to go too fast, you’ll tire quickly.

• You can travel at a pace below what you could actually sustain and be slow,

• Somewhere in between is the perfect pace for the trail.

Different Energy Systems

The length of time you can continue on the trail depends on which system you are using.

• At lower intensities, the Aerobic System is most active. It relies on fat for a substantial part of its fuel, at least in trained hikers, and can sustain several days of effort.

• The Anaerobic System kicks in at higher intensities. It burns stored carbohydrate, called glycogen, along with any sugar you can absorb from food or drinks as you hike and can sustain you only for an hour or a bit longer.

Comfortable trail hiking requires that you have some stored glycogen left. Physiologists say, “Fat burns in a glycogen fire.” Once you use up your glycogen on the trail, you’ll slow down a lot, even if you keep eating and have plenty of fat left.

Holding a Good Trail Pace? Pay attention to your breathing!

You don’t need fancy equipment or blood tests to know whether you are burning carbohydrates or fats. Your breathing will tell you.

• If you are breathing calmly enough that you can sing or make speeches as you hike, you are definitely holding a fat-burning, all-day pace.

• If you can chat but not sing, you will be able to continue for a few hours, but not all day. If you attempt to hold a pace on the trail where heavy breathing makes chatting impossible, you have less than an hour left no matter how strong you are.

So, if you are attempting a trail hike of more than an hour or two, periodically sing a few bars or give a little speech to see if you are still “in the trail zone”.

Steep Trail and the Rest Step

On the steepest trails or at higher altitude, even the strongest hikers will adopt a mountaineers’ rest step.

• Rest stepping means taking one or more steps on the trail and then pausing with your weight on your straight, back leg, while using your front leg for balance.

• Adjust the number of steps between pauses and the length of the pause to keep your breathing calm. Don’t wait until you need the rest step but take it with a rhythm that feels comfortable.

• On moderate grades, the pause should last about as long as one step. When you get to the point of pausing every step and still need to slow down more, make the pauses longer. That’s the ultimate expression of the “mountaineers’ step” and is typical of steep, high-altitude ascents.

Stay fed, stay hydrated, adjust your effort appropriately as the terrain changes and communicate with your companions. These are four keys to keeping hiking enjoyable and completing trails at a reasonable pace.

Trail on and Trail Well!

Your Trailulive Collaborator and Trainer,

Scott Saifer