Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage?

Posted by: TeacherRO

Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/18/18 09:47 PM

As we approach the season of New Years resolutions, I am working on personal fitness.
With that in mind; what's the farthest you have walked, run or hiked in one day?
Posted by: chaosmagnet

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/18/18 09:50 PM

I used to enjoy training for and running half marathons (13.1 miles). I wasn't fast but I did enjoy it. That's as far as I can go running. Hiking I'm probably closer to 20 miles over the course of a long day.
Posted by: hikermor

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/19/18 12:30 AM

I have run at least three marathons plus a hike/run across the Grand Canyon, N rim to S rim, which is about twenty three miles. On my longest day bike touring, I did 108 miles.
Posted by: Tjin

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/19/18 01:17 PM

- Used to do half-triathlons, didn't find it challenging after being able to do that 2 months after a partial tear in my calve muscle and still being in the middle of the competition field. Too cheap to do the full distance.

- Adventure race ~200km's bike/running/canoe/something in a speedo.

- Decided to the Eiger E51 route, the night before actually doing it. Twisted ankle, walked out at about 35-ish km.
Posted by: M_a_x

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/19/18 03:53 PM

For me that would be about 25 miles of hiking with camping equipment and some supplies. The terrain required quite a few altitude changes (up and down).
Posted by: Russ

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/19/18 04:42 PM

First some definitions:
Walk: to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion and two or more feet on the ground in quadrupedal locomotion.
Hike: to walk or march a great distance, especially through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like.
Run: to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk and in such a manner that for an instant in each step all or both feet are off the ground.

I’ve never been big on hiking per se as a work-out, and while I used to run 4-6 miles three or four times per week, those years are long past. I regularly walk the canyons here and it’s okay for getting my heart-rate up. Lately I’ve been doing that 4-6 miles at a walking pace up/down hills. That said, I’ve read some relatively recent research that indicates your heart does best with something like wind-sprints —
Wind-sprint: a sprint, usually run several times in succession as part of a conditioning program, to develop an athlete's wind, speed, and endurance.

Running, sprinting & walking aside, I prefer lifting weights (ie., resistance training) to endurance running/walking. If you’ve ever done squats in a gym (most folks don’t have a squat rack and an Olympic bar in their home gym) you’ll notice your heart-rate climb significantly, similar to how it responds with wind-sprints. Then you stop and your heart recovers, then you do another set and another....

I mention squats because it’s considered a whole body exercise, meaning you have a lot of your muscle groups involved and that in turn burns more calories.

Do what you can, don’t hurt yourself. Knee injuries are what convinced me to stop running. When I started lifting, my leg muscles (all those little guys around your knees) strengthened and I was able to run better when I needed to, I just didn’t make a habit of it.

YMMV
Posted by: hikermor

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/20/18 03:06 PM

Spot on advice, Russ. I am by inclination more of a hiker/runner/cyclist than a weight lifter and I have to push myself to do weight training (and I don't do enough!)

But I am very thankful, now that I am a full-fledged geezer, that I have been physically active when younger and continue to be so, only more modestly, as I age. Staying active pays off in many ways.
Posted by: Russ

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/20/18 03:43 PM

I’m not as young as I used to be although when I get in the gym that concept slips my mind. Then I find myself doing something stupid. Sometimes there is a very valid (kinesiology) reason to do certain exercises in the correct manner. Take for example the squats I was doing that day. I was still warming up and only had 155 lbs on my back/shoulders, but one little glance down and my head shifted which rounded my back and that was it. Form slips for a moment and I’m done for the day and out of the gym for 2 months.

For those who are “out of shape” and want to get back to serious exercise, be careful and go slowly at first. You need to wake some of those muscles up before you can really expect them to perform.

There were a few years when I was more active in aviation where my focus was more on swimming (swim quals) than lifting. For me swimming is something of a low intensity work-out, but my last swim qual was at a higher level. The weight training paid off because unlike previous swim quals with a largish group, this time the group was small and there were no breaks or rest periods between stages. An hour after the test began I was done and it was a really good work-out.

On the subject of low-intensity versus high, I agree with the article at:
Why the fat-burning heart rate zone is a myth - WP
It’s about calories in vs. calories out and if a fitness goal is to lose weight by burning calories through working out, low intensity fat-burning zone work-outs won’t do it unless you have a lot of time. High intensity work-outs OTOH can build muscle and the muscle in turn burns fat.

New Years resolutions are nice, but if it doesn’t fit with your way of life, in the long term it will fail. It’s a process, all year is fitness season.
Posted by: clearwater

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/20/18 05:38 PM

Did some crossfit for awhile. Very high intensity. Despite having some unusually experienced coaches with degrees in Kinesiology and PE, people still were injured. They did great warmups and lessons on proper form (much better than college classes I had) but I believe it was that every workout was timed. As you get to the end of what you are capable, you lose form. Everyone is shouting at you to keep going. Being in a hurry makes it easier to cheat on proper form.

I have had some long days were I carried a big pack for 14 hours of more of cross country, but the distances wouldn't be as impressive as if un-burdened.

Years ago hiked 22 miles up to the top of the North Cascades and back with 5000 ft of elevation gain and then loss, on a search. Then ran a 9 mile foot race in the afternoon. It is where I met my wife. She did it too.

When in college rode a bike most of the way across France one day from La Rochelle to Lyon with temps over 100 F. Must have drank 2 or 3 gallons of sweetened water with salt trying to recover that evening. It was the longest day of a 3 month bike tour of Europe. We averaged 70 miles a day. After the initial few of weeks getting used to biking, 70 miles (mostly flat) seemed very doable at about 12 miles an hour. Once we tried hiking after a day of riding and our legs wouldn't work right, so much so it was comical to watch each other.
Posted by: Russ

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/20/18 07:11 PM

I like the idea of Cross-Fit, push, pull, lift and they mix it up to shock your system. Again though, as you indicate, the group can push people to hurt themselves.

I don’t work-out in groups. It’s nice to have a training partner who is there to assist you (and vice versa) to avoid injury (check form, spot when going HEAVY), but I really don’t want a bunch of cheerleaders telling me to push my limits and then saying “sucks to be you” after the damage is done.

Everybody has limits and you’ve got to know yours. Pushing those limits incrementally is how you progress; pushing them too much can be dangerous. Start slowly and learn where those red-lines are.
Posted by: clearwater

Re: Fitness - Whats you best daily mileage? - 12/20/18 08:37 PM

I couldn't do it. (maybe a couple when I was 25), but some or the crossfit sessions ended with 10 burpee muscle ups. The gymnast types excelled in that sort of stuff, but the big boys (and girls) ruled when it came to rowing, dead lifts etc. It was neat that there were exercises that each body and muscle type was good at. Two of the women were preschool teachers, no small women, and they were cleaning 150 lbs. Yet there were other young ladies that could do 100 kipping pull-ups.