Michael and I will be starting the Pacific Crest Trail on April 18. I can now say that we leave next month. It’s crazy!
You can read about our PCT goals here.
I realize that we have pretty big goals, so I’m trying to train for it as much as I can. Preparing my body to hike 25 miles a day for 4-5 months is a big ask. A lot of people say that your PCT training is basically the first month of the hike; however, I want to start the trail as prepared as possible in order to feel strong and minimize risk of injury.
My minimum goals for each week are:
- Hike x1
- Run x2
- Stairmill or incline walking x2
- Strength training workout x2
- Stretch!!
Running trumps the stairmill and hiking trumps both the stairmill and running. If I get in an extra hike, but only squeeze in one run I’m totally fine with that.
I recently deleted yoga from my weekly goals. I haven’t been doing it and I probably won’t. I am going to focus on doing a little stretching after every workout. If I do get some yoga in it’ll be bonus points for me.
I also just added incline walking as an alternative for the stairmill. The walking will probably help me just as much (if not more). I need to prepare for all of those climbs!
PCT Training Week 9
- Sun February 24: 30-min stairmill + 3.2-mile run
- Mon February 25: 13-mile bike + this strength training pyramid workout
- Tues February 26: 2-mile incline walk + 3-mile run (alternating between the walking and the running on the treadmill)
- Wed February 27: Mount Galbraith hike
- Thurs February 28: 17.5-mile bike + 1-mile incline walk
- Fri March 1: this leg workout + 3.1-mile run
- Sat March 2: this upper body workout + 15-mile bike + 2-mile incline walk
My mom, sister, and I are all pretty into Nourish, Move, Love workouts. She just shared a free 30-day workout calendar and we are all going to try to do it. Her workouts are great, because they can be done at home, range from 10-40 minutes, and, most importantly, are good workouts! I will probably trade out days for longer cardio sessions/runs/hikes, but I’m excited to do this with my mom and sister.
PCT Training Week 10
- Sun March 3: 3.1-mile run
- Mon March 4: 2-mile incline walk + this strength and HIIT workout
- Tues March 5: 3.1-mile run + this power yoga workout
- Wed March 6: 3.1-mile incline walk + this 30-minute HIIT workout
- Thurs March 7: 5.3-mile hike in Walker Ranch Open Space Park
- Fri March 8: 2-mile inline walk + this leg workout
- Sat March 9: rest day!
It was a great week of workouts! Two weird things about this week: I didn’t do any biking and I took a rest day. The last full on rest day I took was January 1, so I was overdue for one. After Friday’s leg workout (my butt is still sore!) I felt a little burnt out and knew that I should probably let my body rest a little more. The timing worked out well, because Michael and I spent Saturday in Golden attending the ALDHA West Ruck to talk about thru-hiking and connect with other hikers.
PCT Training Summary
Week 9
- 1 hike, 3 runs, 4 stairmill/incline walk, 3 strength training, 3 bike
Week 10
- 1 hikes, 2 runs, 3 stairmill/incline walk, 4 strength training
Have a great week!