New Valley Hills

Having two thruhikes under my belt, albeit the Thames Path not completed, I’m now more aware of my body’s needs on the trail, specifically the need to eat well, and injury management. The PCT is not a repeatable event due to cost, location and duration – I must give it my best shot the first and only time around.

Nutrition

I took too much food on the Thames Path weighing myself down unnecessarily, and on the SWCP my diet had too much processed food. Having been home for 5 weeks and trying different foodstuffs it’s become abundantly clear my body responds positively to good nutrition, and quite negatively to bad eating. The usual hiker food consumed on the PCT fills me with dread – 5 months of ramen noodles and peanut M&Ms. yurgh!
3 months ago I had a speculative video chat with Aaron from BackcountryFoodie to hear about her nutrition advice and freeze-dried meals designed specifically for long distance thruhikers. I’m now convinced I will be using her planning tools and products for the PCT.

Injury prevention

As distance passed on the SWCP I felt my body getting tired. I had, to my mind, excellent lung function and heart stamina, but I was getting progressively more tired muscles and tendons. Towards the end I was dragging my feet. The PCT is 150 days to my 47 on the coast path – how can I cope?
After wildfires closing the trail, injury is the biggest reason for not completing, of which 37% of those injuries and resulting getting off trail happen in the first 700 miles. I don’t want to be in any of those statistics!

Over the years I’ve learnt to change my gait to correct walking with feet turned out, though have suffered with blisters and turned ankles since forever. A blister finished my Thames Path thruhike – afterwards I could not wear shoes for 2 weeks, and a turned ankle at the start of 2023 took 3 months to heal – I did continue walking on that twice a week but it really affected my ability.
My usual weekly Pilates, swimming and stretching regime wasn’t cutting it.

I took advice from Jessica Llach, specifically her ankle and foot tests, then a masterclass and her book ‘Happy Feet Happy Hike’. I realised range of motion and strength for ankles and hips were the issues here. I needed professional help as I no idea how to fix these nor know when I was ‘hike fit’. Asking around I learnt of Lee Welton from Trailside Fitness– a PCT thruhiker and personal trainer with a good reputation for reducing injury dropout rates for PCT hikers.
I’m now one week into a 12 week training program to get me from daily 16km with a 11kg backpack to injury free 32km with 20kg. With Lee in Idaho Falls and me in the UK the 7 hour time difference means we’re doing this remotely. His app connects to my wearables so he sees my physical progress – steps, heart rate, blood oxygen level etc, and provide program adjustments as we progress. I’m given a daily set of routines to follow shown by video clips with number of repetitions and sets. To my requirements none of this is gym based.
Lee also provides documentation for on-trail massage and stretching self-care to deal with niggles along the way.