“How do I train properly for my upcoming multi-day hike?”  This is a question that both novice and seasoned hikers ask quite often.  In fact, part of my pre-hike ritual involves me asking myself the very same question.  If you are a novice hiker, there are some basic constraints that will hinder your ability to enjoy a multi-day backpacking trip:

1. Fitness
2. Recovery
3. Mental
4. Gear

I have expanded on these threads below and I hope the information is helpful – please feel free to get in touch with me with any questions/comments, I’d be happy to help you plan your hikes!

Fitness Constraints

Assuming your base level of fitness is the hurdle to completing a multi-day hike, you would likely want to work on your muscular and respiratory endurance.  This can be accomplished by:

• Hiking increasingly greater distances at more frequent intervals.  For instance, if you usually hike once a week for 10 miles, perhaps you can work your way to hiking 20 miles in a day with a time constraint (within 8–12 hours).
• Alternatively, you could attempt to make your exiting 10-miler more strenuous – by putting a time constraint on it or by adding weight to your pack.  You can see an example of how I incorporate training even on days when I have only a few hours to spare (not enough time for a “proper” training session) here: Training For Altitude at Sea Level? | Adventures in Roamance

If physical fitness is not your hurdle, you would likely want to work on your recovery or any mental hurdles associated with a multi-day backpacking trip.

Recovery Constraints

Assuming you can handle a strenuous hike but find yourself sore and broken the following day, you may find the prospect of a multi-day hike rather daunting.  To overcome this, your recovery needs work and there are ways to facilitate this:

• Warming-up/cooling-down before/after your hikes.  This will help keep you muscles loose and fluid, decrease the chance of injury, and increase bloodflow to increase your rate of recovery and keep you feeling fresh.  This will help you sleep better each night as well!
  • Before hiking each morning: personally, I like to stretch dynamically as a warm up.
  • At the end of the day: static stretches after setting up camp/before bed.
• Pack for recovery! Make sure you are packing nutritious foods that will energize your hikes during the day and aid in recovery during the night.  I personally like to pack calorie-dense foods for my overnights such as:
  • Eggs, peanuts, peanut butter, cashews, cranberries, raisins, apples, beef jerky, pb sandwiches, and precooked meals of rice + chicken or rice + beef.  Rice is your friend!
  • Water!!  Pack plenty of water and make sure you drink it throughout your hike! I’m a bigger guy and drink 2–3 gallons per day regularly, to put it into perspective (I’m highly active in my everyday life). On a hike, make sure you get a minimum of what you require daily, plus a little extra since you will be dehydrated from the activity.  I also like to add amino acids/gatorade to my water (I carry these in small pouches and mix).
  • A water filter to purify water from streams.

If both physical fitness and recovery are not holding you back, then you are probably being held back by either your state of mind or your gear.

Mental Constraint

• Identifying the reason for your unease.  Unsure about overnights in general? Bugs? Hygiene concerns?  I had the very same concerns when I was starting out.
• If you are new to overnights, practice by doing shorter, 1-night or 2-night backpacking trips to build your comfort.  Once the mental hurdle is addressed, a weeklong trip should be a breeze!
• Find ways to keep yourself entertained on rests during the trip (listening to music, reading a book, or journaling about your trip).

Gear Constraints

Assuming it is a constraint on gear, the remedy is simple: get the gear you need! Here is a list of the gear I used on my earlier backpacking trips, which I still use to this day.