Second multi-day trip. Reasonably fit, run a couple of times a week. Both times, days one to three I am dragging by early afternoon and asleep by 8pm, and then from day four onwards I feel fine and could go all day. Pack is about 14kg. Is this a fitness problem, a pack weight problem, or does everyone go through this and nobody mentions it?
Check your calories honestly though. Plenty of people carry about 2000 a day and burn far more, and the wall at 2pm is partly just that. I eat something dense every ninety minutes whether I feel like it or not, rather than waiting until I am hungry.
I have been eating at breaks only, so maybe three times a day. That is probably a big part of it.
From the strength side of things: the specific thing that wrecks people on day two is eccentric load on the descents, not the climbs. Downhill under a pack is where the soreness comes from, and running does almost nothing to prepare you for it. Step-downs off a box and some slow split squats twice a week for six weeks made a bigger difference to my first days than any amount of cardio.
Asleep by 8pm on day two is not a symptom, that is just what happens and it is one of the nicer parts. I stopped fighting it and stopped feeling bad about it.
Everyone goes through it and it is oddly under-discussed. Three or four days is the standard adaptation window — your body is adjusting to carrying load all day, to eating differently, and usually to sleeping badly on the first night or two, all at once.
Things that shorten it: eat much more on days one and two than you think you need, start slower than feels natural on day one, and make the first day the shortest of the trip rather than the biggest. Most people do the opposite because they are fresh and excited, then pay for it for three days.
Day one has been my longest day both times, because it looked easy on the map from a chair.
Everyone plans day one from a chair. I now deliberately make it 60-70% of my normal distance and the whole trip goes better.
14kg is on the heavier side for a trip where you feel that. Not a problem to solve immediately, but if the pattern keeps bothering you a shakedown post is worth doing — most people carrying 14 have two or three kilos they will never miss.
@fiber_finn · 4mo ago
Running fitness transfers less than you would hope. Walking uphill under 14kg for eight hours uses your hips, calves and lower back in a way a 40 minute run does not touch. If you want to shortcut the adaptation, do some loaded walks at home — an hour with a full pack twice a week for a month makes the first days noticeably better.
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