Endurance athletes take off-seasons for granted: runners rest for two to six weeks a year, cyclists and triathletes sometimes take up to two months. Hikers, though, tend to assume a long walk in the woods doesn't count as hard training. A recent piece in Backpacker argues they're wrong — and that hikers can burn out just like ultramarathoners.
The evidence is surprisingly concrete. In 2021, German researchers measured a group of walkers before and after they covered 60 miles in 24 hours. Their post-hike health markers looked like those of ultramarathon finishers, suggesting that low-intensity, long-duration exercise can stress the body in ways similar to high-intensity running. You don't need to be doing forced marches over alpine passes for extended hikes to accumulate a real training load — enough of them, and your recovery should start resembling a runner's.
The author, a habitual hiker who noticed that packing for yet another mountain day filled him with dread rather than excitement, borrowed a rule from his high school cross-country coach: after a big season, take two full weeks completely off. He didn't go quite that far — instead he banned long hikes above treeline and cut from four days on his legs each week to one. A month later, he reports the enthusiasm is back: thinking about hiking makes him curious rather than tired.
The piece also offers a checklist of warning signs that you might need a break: you're enjoying hiking less, you feel constantly tired or slower despite consistent mileage, planning your next trip feels overwhelming, you feel guilty when you're not outside, or you're hiking out of obligation instead of genuine excitement. Physiologically, whether you need an off-season depends on your training load. Mentally, the author's verdict is simpler — if you feel like you need one, you probably do.
Why does this matter for travellers? Because plenty of holidays are built around trail time — think multi-day treks, national park road trips, or a season of weekend peaks. If your adventures have started to feel like a chore, the fix isn't necessarily a bigger, better itinerary. It might be deliberately scheduling downtime: a season of short, low-key walks, a new hobby, or a trip that has nothing to do with summits at all. Treating hiking like the endurance sport it actually is — with rest built in — could be what keeps it enjoyable for decades. Even the author only partially followed his coach's advice, but the scaled-back version worked. Sometimes the best way to keep hiking is to stop, briefly, on purpose.
Via Backpacker.
