Will running help my hiking? (Read 381 times)

The running will help the hiking, simply because you'll be able to do the big miles necessary for the PCT much more easily.  You will probably be able to walk more quickly, and more hours, with less pain.  The section you're hiking has some high country, but really isn't difficult.  The trail is extremely well graded.  I know people who run it.   When will you be doing it?  Best is  spring or autumn.  (More water in the spring, but you may have snow at the higher elevations.)  If you plan to hike in the summer, I would jump north of Walker Pass.

I've done the PCT, first as a thruhike and the southern part again (border to Walker Pass) as a section hike.  45 lbs is much too heavy a pack for that trail, especially the desert. Water is heavy, but resupply in the south isn't that hard.  If you are hiking 20+ a day, as most do, you'll have less than 5 days between resupply stops.  Work on lowering your pack weight, and you'll be good to go.

I vote yes. If you find it doesn't help you can just run it as a backup.

How about a resounding "maybe".

The primary reason I started running a couple years ago was because I was getting so out of shape that I was having a hard time putting out the effort needed on a consistent basis for my primary hobby which is hunting.  Climbing up and down mountains off trail with a pack on my back and a gun in my hands left me gasping for air at times and barely able to crawl out of bed in the morning 2 hours before daylight to head back out again the next day.  I found myself almost wasting a great elk tag that I drew simply because I wasn't in good enough shape to hunt it.

I put a poll on a hunting forum asking what it took to be in good enough shape for elk hunting and got a lot of replies and over 200 votes for options which ranged from just being active all the way to running marathons and ultras.  The option that got the most votes and the option that I chose was to be able to run 6 miles in an hour.  It took me most of that summer to get there, but I got where I was actually able to run 8 miles at a 10:00 pace before that hunting season and it made a huge difference.  This was going from someone who was truly out of shape though so it probably had more of an impact on me.

Last year my goal was a sub 2 hour half marathon and again, my elk hunting season went from where I used to be sore and barely able to keep up, to where I was the one going on all the extra hikes to check out spots and hauling more than my share of the load on packing out the meat.

I do try to get some actual hiking in during the summer as well because as zonykel says, there is no substitute for specificity of training.

So in short, if you are completely out of shape, running some will help quite a bit.  If you are already in pretty good shape, you might not realize as much of a benefit from the increased running.  I doubt me being able to run a marathon is going to mean anything more out in the mountains than last year when I was able to run a half marathon.

My 2 cents.  Nathan

I vote a resounding YES. The only hike i do in a typical year is the climb to the top of Multnomah Falls from the I-84 parking area. 7 years ago as a non-runner and 40 lbs heavier, I had to walk up that trail huffing and puffing like everyone else and stop to catch my breath from time to time. Now as a runner I can easily run up the entire ways non-stop and almost without breaking a sweat. If I walk up the trail, I don't think my pulse even speeds up.

I also hiked up to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park a couple of years ago, and ran up parts of that trail and would have loved to run the entire ways up had I not been hiking with a non-runner. No way I could have done that before I was a runner. I also hiked half-ways down the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon a few years ago, and running short on time (due to business commitments) ran all the way back up to the top of the trail, again without much effort, only because I was a runner. Running is a huge help to hiking. Maybe particularly so since I love running up hills.

Another emphatic YES.  I have backpacked the PCT from Mt Whitney to Yosemite and I absolutely kicked ass compared to my buddy who did a lot of training by schlepping rocks in his pack up local mountains.  I did none of that but just ran a lot.  I had zero problems on that trek (4 weeks of backpacking).

I'm also part of a group that hikes Mt Whitney from the Portal to the top and back as a day hike every summer for the past 9 years.  If I want to I can absolutely destroy every person in our group (that includes young guys) to the top and back down again.  I 100% attribute it to the fitness I get from running.  I certainly don't hike nearly as much as these other guys.

Another resounding yes.  If you're in better aerobic shape, it will make a huge difference.  Since I've started running, I've had to watch myself on hikes with non-runners, because I'll just be striding along like it's a walk in the woods, not noticing that what feels easy to me is causing them to huff and puff.  And these are regular hikers and reasonably active people - but not runners.

I would say yes.  I hiked 20 miles with my brother and mum, having never hiked before.   I never felt tired, and enjoyed the day tremendously. I think the running helped my endurance.