Hiking
Endurance measured in hours rather than minutes — with elevation as the intensity dial.
Execution
- Pick a pace you can hold for hours; uphill, shorten your stride rather than lengthening it.
- Downhill, take short steps with a softly bent knee — this is where the soreness comes from, not the climb.
- Keep the pack tight to your back; the hip belt carries the weight, not your shoulders.
- Drink and eat briefly every 60-90 minutes, before you feel the need.
Tips
- Elevation is the intensity dial — 300 metres of climb costs roughly as much as an extra flat kilometre.
- Broken-in shoes and two pairs of socks end more hikes early than any lack of fitness does.
Endurance on a different time scale
Hiking differs from walking not in the movement but in the duration and the terrain. A four-hour outing sits almost entirely in zone 1 to 2 — exactly the range interval training never sustains long enough. The stimulus comes from sheer time under load, not from intensity.
Elevation, not pace
To make a hike harder, don't go faster — go steeper. A rough rule from route planning: 300 metres of ascent is worth about one extra kilometre on the flat. That makes intensity plannable without watching a heart rate monitor.
The descent is the part people routinely underestimate. It loads the quadriceps eccentrically and is the reason you are sore the next day — not the climb. Short steps and a softly bent knee remove much of that.
What it's especially good for
- Base endurance without running impact. Hours of zone-2 work while your joints skip the repeated impact of running.
- Leg strength on the way down. Eccentric loading over hours that no set of squats reproduces.
- Training that doesn't look like training. The main reason people keep doing it.
Dosage
One longer outing per week works as an endurance block. When building up, add duration first, then elevation, then pack weight — and never two at once.