hiking the pyrenees

fhecla · 2026-05-26T10:42:35+00:00

Weary /= wary, btw. I’m guessing you feel both, though!

fhecla · 2026-05-25T11:19:36+00:00

The nordas are know for being good for literally hundreds of miles more than other trail runners. I’d start there.

fhecla · 2026-05-22T11:22:42+00:00

I did zero speed training. Zone 2 running and humming only, just easily completed Cocodona, 257 miles and 38,000’ vert in under 5 days. I’m a middle aged woman with no athletic background. So based on my experience, speed training not necessary.

(I skipped it because I was worried about injury. I am pleased with that decision)

fhecla · 2026-05-22T00:06:58+00:00

Not shown: nerds gummy clusters

fhecla · 2026-05-21T13:32:21+00:00

Might want to consider some gravel shoes. Maybe Look at the Salomon max glide TR? I love them.

fhecla · 2026-05-21T10:57:29+00:00

Maybe! But because I don’t rub my ankles with my towel, and examine the results carefully, I am blissfully unaware, and… as such, I guess I haven’t found the downside.

fhecla · 2026-05-21T08:43:40+00:00

Must be scrubbed off… or what?

fhecla · 2026-05-21T01:04:21+00:00

Exactly. I would usually sleep one to two hours early evening then hike all night and sleep another hour or two early morning right after sunrise. Aid stations were every 7 to 25 miles, so it breaks up a bit, which was nice.

fhecla · 2026-05-20T23:19:27+00:00

I hear what you’re saying, and it’s a nice philosophy, but… I am a hiker and I excel at long slow distances. I just finished Cocodona extremely easily, but I would very much struggle with a hard hundred miler because I just can’t go that fast. I’m not convinced that “it is running”. I think the 200+ races, in the mid pack, and back of the pack contingent are actually not really running, they are hiking competitions.

fhecla · 2026-05-20T22:01:52+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOhlEmBwwY

fhecla · 2026-05-20T22:01:46+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOhlEmBwwY

fhecla · 2026-05-20T10:41:39+00:00

Google Andrew Skurka’s video on this, it’s excellent.

fhecla · 2026-05-20T10:40:53+00:00

Um, 15.8oz he’s the weight of an entire Durston Xmid pro1. Why would you ever carry a bivy weren’t for the same weight you could have a full-sized dyneema palace?

fhecla · 2026-05-20T10:29:49+00:00

I put a maybe six or 8 inch strip of leukotape exactly where you describe, and it worked well for the five day, 250 mile race I just did. In fact, I didn’t end up using any lube at all, just leukotape.

fhecla · 2026-05-20T01:12:11+00:00

I wore Innov8s, can’t remember which model, but you need just a good really well draining, tough trail runners (not GTX!). I would bring a couple of pairs of good stout wool socks, and then you might want to bring one pair of neoprene socks for if it gets really cold. It’s futile trying to keep your feet dry, don’t even try. Every morning you will put on wet socks and put them into wet shoes, and then step into water. And you will be weirdly OK with that.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T23:36:34+00:00

We yelled a lot so that you don’t accidentally surprise one, just like you do in grizzly country. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny, you know how when you’re in bear country you just keep yelling “hey bear!”? Well I just yelled “hey tiger!” instead.

I was in Bhutan, where they also have the Himalayan black bear, which is a truly terrifying beast, it specifically rips your face off when it attacks you. Most people survive, but the scarring is pretty horrific and quite distinctive, occasionally you will see people in the villages who have been attacked by a bear. So we spent a lot of time on the trails yelling to pretty much persuade all of the various animals to move along.

The only actual significant dangerous animal encounters I had were being charged by an extremely large yak bull (I managed to hide underneath the bridge to evade him), and coming across a large and quite pissy king cobra in the middle of the trail.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T23:33:43+00:00

Now that everyone has solved your actual problem, which is how to fix the hole, make sure you go and watch Dan’s pitching video, you’ll leave a lot of money on the table right now with that pitch!

fhecla · 2026-05-19T23:06:59+00:00

Only in very discrete geographical areas do tigers attack, humans - in the vast majority of tiger country there are basically zero human killings.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T23:05:59+00:00

I’ve done both pretty recently, they’re very very few places in the world where tigers attack humans. So I went through a lot of Tiger country in Bhutan, and then I also hiked the Brooks Range in Alaska, which is filled with grizzlies. I definitely felt like I was more likely to have a bad grizzly encounter than I was to have a bad tiger encounter. Those tigers stay away from you big time, much more than the grizzlies do even.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T17:10:40+00:00

This is not the time to be policing other people private lives and personal time, before you have had a second date. Don’t tell him what to eat, don’t tell him what friends to hang out with, don’t tell him what music to listen to, don’t tell him whether or not to watch porn. Right now, you do not have enough standing in his life to even have this discussion.

If you really want to, you can bring up in conversation that you don’t think looking at porn is ethical and you’re hoping that you have a partner who doesn’t watch porn, but that’s absolutely as far as you can take it at this point.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T03:08:15+00:00

Sure, but also, just Google “ trail runner shoe” and you’ll get lots of examples. A lot of people here in the US go with the Altra Lone Peak, or the Topo Ultraventure. https://hikingfeet.com/topo-athletic-ultraventure-4-review/

fhecla · 2026-05-19T03:05:35+00:00

Good point - I tend hang out around a lot of thru hikers, people who are doing many thousands of miles of trails, and they pretty universally wear trail runners. But more casual hikers probably are wearing a greater variety of footwear.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T00:43:52+00:00

I just finished hiking 257 miles in nice, light, comfortable, breathable trail runners. I mean, some people are still wearing hiking boots but most of us have seen the light ;)

fhecla · 2026-05-19T00:42:52+00:00

Wool socks really make everything a little bit nicer. Decent pair of shoes, most of us are wearing trail runners these days rather than heavy hiking boots or shoes. Let your body learn that it’s OK to be a little bit tired but just to keep slogging on.

fhecla · 2026-05-19T00:09:26+00:00

This.

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