Tales of 20 miles days… or how to do 20 miles and make it effortless.

25 miles, even at a 2 mph average is 12 1/2 hours of hiking.
So you first need to designate that time for hiking with only those 10 minute breaks ever 1.5 hours.

If you are not able to sustain either the pace or the time, you just need to work on improving your physical fitness.
Once you're in better shape, a 2.5 mph pace for up to 25 miles per day should be easy.
that's only 10 hours of hiking.

>- in my next experiment I'm going to pack food for 1 extra day to be on the safe side. Until I get a feel for how many carbs I need.

Extra cooked food won't help much, unless you want to stop and cook. Pack more snacks you can eat while hiking – I eat one Larabar every couple hours.

>- I actually started getting blisters!

Blisters usually mean you have hot damp feet. Try sitting down (butt at same level as feet) to lower blood pressure in your feet, changing socks, and letting your feet air dry for a few minutes at each rest stop. Try thinner socks which don't hold as much sweat, and shoes with mesh uppers, if you haven't already. All this might help with foot pain, too.

>- I might look at getting glucose tablets for a faster sugar rush.

And sugar crash a short while later. If you go for glucose or other simple carbs, eat complex carbs, fats, and/or protein at the same time to prevent crashing. Or find trail mix or an energy bar with all those things in one.

Also: 20+ mile days are about slow and steady. I average 2 mph all day long, including breaks and lunch. Others move a little faster, but not by much.

EDIT: We posted about the same time!

— Rex

I get up between first light and dawn and get hiking quickly as I find I do my best miles in the morning. If the day will be really hot, I may get up while its still dark and hike some via flashlight to get my miles in during the cool of the day. I take breaks through the day and snack often. My lunch breaks are long; over an hour, sometimes over 2 hours, which gives me time to digest the large lunches I eat (often bigger then dinner) and nap due to getting up early.

I find that I hike strong after lunch as I'm full of energy. Only the heat will slow me down compared to my morning pace. I usually stop between 7 to 8pm though I will stop earlier if I hit my mileage goals early which often happens. If it was a hot day where I took long breaks to avoid the heat, I will hike into the night some.

I never run out of food on a trip nor do I experience strong hunger since I will eat before it gets that way since I have the food. Even when I thru-hiked the PCT, I only lost 10 lbs as I never run out of food early on a trip. Going with a sub-10 lbs baseweight means I can carry the necessary food.

Carbs are good and important, but so is protein and fat. I eat good quantities of all 3 though protein is more important on longer trips then a 2-3 day one. Fat gives you a good long burn during the day, while eating carbs shortly before a climb helps power up it. If I feel tired, I take a break and eat. If I'm bonking, I'm not eating properly or not taking long enough breaks or I'm pushing too fast a pace. Slow and steady does work and you can easily get your miles in if you hike enough hours. That's my experience anyway. One of my favorite trail snacks is a large snicker bar covered in spoonfuls of peanut butter. It really helps power up those big climbs.

I stopped getting blisters on backpacking trips when I started wearing larger shoes then what I normally wear at home or for day hikes and got rid of those thick hiking socks for thinner ones. And at breaks, I always take my socks off and try to rub the dirt off while they are still sweaty and then put on my other dry pair of socks hanging on my pack. Many long trail thru-hikers go 1.5 to 2 sizes large though some of it is to deal with the swelling and foot expansion that starts to happen after a few weeks of hiking.

Kevin,
Sounds like you are well on your way up the learning curve. What I found as I kept pushing is that I would hit a new breaking point and this would be the next issue to solve. Also, some of the things that work well at lower miles aren't as effective as you move up in effort or can actually be counterproductive. case in point for me is breaks. I used to have to take breaks to allow my body to catch up on energy production and due to overall fitness. As both of these items were resolved I found that breaks only allow my body to stiffen up so I do a lot less. Just one example. Couple of questions.
1) what did you eat at the end of day 1? It sounds like you started day 2 with yourbenergybtanks half full.
2) day 2 was a classic bonk with your body only allow you to expend energybatbthe rate it is being produced. This is incredibly frustrating and why it is far better to stay away from the Wall.
3) I believe as you continue doing these type of hikes that your body will be able to respond more efficiently on the energy front. Also, as your overall fitness improves then you wouldn't see as many issues like you saw at the end of day 2.
4) did you meter the calories in on day 1? If so at what rate.?

Overall, it sounds like a very solid couple of days. I have hiked that route a couple of times and it is a cool place to play around with higher mile days.

Very much depending on trail quality and total elevation gain … I don't think it's that complicated. Many (most?) long distance hikers pay little attention to nutrition; I certainly don't and I'm in my mid-50's.

If you're in reasonable shape, not (or no longer) prone to issues like blisters or chaffing, then it's just a matter of either being pretty strong (relatively fast average pace) or disciplined (not a lot of time spent in camp or at breaks) or both.

There are all kinds of ways to optimize your mileage. One thing to pay attention to is changes in terrain. Know your route beforehand (especially the elevation profile) and plan according to your body's likes and dislikes. I almost always camp somewhere near the start of a big climb, because my body tends to handle the uphills a lot better early in the morning, which makes for a more efficient day (and, sometimes, a nice sunrise breakfast when I hit the summit).

Hiking pre-dawn and post-dusk, however, isn't always a good way to bank miles. I often find the reduced visibility slows me down more than the mid-day sun/heat, especially on rough terrain, slick rocks, etc. Depends on where you are and the time of year. Again, know the terrain.

My stops during a typical hiking day are minimal. Maybe two fifteens (morning and afternoon) and a half-hour siesta sometime early afternoon. I don't bother cooking during the day, and never cook for breakfast in the woods except on laid-back "camping" trips with other people. Budgeting about an hour of breaks, give or take, a 20 mile day ends up being an 8-hour work day for me. That varies, of course, but then, some 8-hour work days are more exhausting than others in "real life" too… :)

I also find it's very important–for me at least–to budget a nice long "recovery" break each day. My rule of thumb is that if I spend more than 12 hours on trail and less than 12 hours in camp, I feel more tired, hike less efficiently, and have less fun. If I hike til 8 pm, whether due to foul weather, an extra-long break, or a hitch into town, I don't start walking the next day til 8 am. Those 12 hours work wonders for me. Sure, you can get up at 5am and slog along til 9pm in the summer months without even breaking out your headlamp, but unless you're the kind of person who can thrive on 6 hours of sleep per night it probably won't help you increase your mileage over the long term.

Oh–and it never ends. Once you start doing 20s you'll start thinking marathons, then 30s, and on and on.

" Too many simple carbs and the body spikes your insulin which in turn depletes the sugars from your body before you get a chance to use them for trekking."

This is true if you are on the couch, but not so much if you hiking. What Insulin Response? (2nd to the last paragraph.)

But, regarding simple sucrose, glucose, etc. sugars, be careful with how much you take in. Sucrose leaves the gut Only when a certain "dilution factor" (osmolality) is met. To much sugar and your gut will pull in water to dilute things. Taken to far this is known by the highly technical term as "the squirts". You don't want to go to there. (More info in the above link.)

Also, the above link has a LOT of good information for endurance endeavors. It's worth the time to poke around a bit. You might not be running, but you are putting out a lot of effort over long periods of time.

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Im in the camp that it doesnt really require too much thought.

Start early, end late, rest when tired, drink plenty , snack often.

I usually average 2mph including breaks. 20+ mile days in the mountains are normal.

"I'm in the camp that it doesnt really require too much thought."

True after you've figured it out, but those first big days can be intimidating.
I don't think very many just packed up and pounded back-to-back-to-back 20's out of the gate.

I didn't.

It's easy now because I've made all the mistakes in the book. And that's OK.
But I won't make them again. ;-)