Comment by hsitz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hsitz | Hacker News Reader

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No, although I've done many days of more than 18 miles in the mountains, including 50 mile single-day mountain races. (The elite runners complete those in around 6 to 7 hours, over terrain of similar difficulty to Colorado Trail.) I don't mean to downplay their achievement, but the article is about a pair of average thru-hikers, out for a relatively short thru-hike. It is something that the average person can do, if they set their mind to it.

It doesn't really make sense to compare that effort to a race of any kind, let alone a mountain bike race -- since the thru-hikers we're talking about were not doing it as a race. Of course their effort was done at a lower level of intensity. For some perspective, a fellow recently set the Colorado Trail record with a time of 9 days 12 hours, almost three times as fast as the thru-hikers in the article: http://johnzahorian.com/coloradotrailfkt

For anyone interested, here's a youtube video documenting the record effort. The guy is kind of a celebrity in hiking circles, in large part because of high-quality videos he makes of his adventures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6CrWJdRto

(Zahorian's effort set the "unsupported" record, which means he carried everything, including all his food, from the start, and didn't stop at any towns along the way to resupply. Most hikers carry only enough food for 3 to 5 days at a time, and resupply along the way -- understandable because it's much easier than carrying everything from the start.)

"No, although I've done many days of more than 18 miles in the mountains, including 50 mile single-day mountain races."

With a pack? I ask because running over this terrain is hard. Hats off hard. But with a pack, things are different. You don't move as fast. Thanks @hsitz for the video.

"Most hikers carry only enough food for 3 to 5 days at a time, and resupply along the way"

Unsupported. I did't see if the original was unsupported - can't imagine carrying 30 days food. Even the PR1M I've used is pretty heavy. [0] Possible but you'd strip out all but the useful food. With re-supplies, do they have access to water?

"lower level of intensity."

Totally agree with this. Still hard yards.

Reference

[0] https://flickr.com/photos/bootload/4549780731

But 2.25 miles per hour is not fast. And you get 16hours to rest.

btw @hsitz I ask this question not to be rude, but to work out if overconfidence is driving the answer cf: ~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13620745

No worries about offending me. To give you some idea of where I'm coming from, I run, hike, and backpack over 3,000 miles per year, much of it in the mountains, and I'm in my fifties. I have good amount of personal and theoretical understanding of human physiology and psychology in endurance events.

Yes, some people are overconfident. I would suggest that the main problem in the context of endurance activities, though, is that people tend to be underconfident. People never get started because they think they can't do it, or that it would be too hard for them. They hear about people doing something like a thru-hike and they think these people must be gifted, special, or athletic in some way that they aren't.

That thought is almost entirely misguided. Certainly everyone has different abilities. But the vast majority of people out there doing these things have fairly average physical abilities. (For perspective, 2,000+ mile thru-hikes have been completed by children under 10 and people over 80.) They do probably have more motivation and dedication than most people, which are by far bigger determinants of success in these kinds of endurance endeavors than physical ability. But part of getting this motivation and commitment hinges on believing that they have the physical ability to do it (and/or that they can build themselves into physical shape to do it). Hence my post.

BTW, this is pretty much borne out by the guy who wrote the original article we're talking about. He didn't claim to be in great physical shape or have special physical ability, saying:

"Before the hike, I was fit but not training for anything. I ran five miles a couple times a week, went mountain biking about once a week, and periodically lifted weights. Like most Americans, much of my day was spent in front of a computer. I was 35 years old, 5'9" tall, and 150 pounds, with a BMI of 22.2 and body fat composition of about 13 percent."

thanks for the great reply @hsitz. One thing I did notice that as a fitness marker was the authors heart-rate (BPM). His resting heart rate measured at 48bpm. This is unusual and is in the range of ^endurance athletes^. In fact, soldiers are tested on carefully for this marker. It indicates no matter how fit you may be, resting heart-rate is an indicator of ^endurance^ capability. That resting heart rate means he can push a lot further, longer than most people.

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