How to physically and mentally prep for the PCT?

Hey A, thanks for your message! Happy New Year – I hope you had a good start into the year.

I was asked by A.:

How do you prepare to hike 2650miles? How physically fit were you?

If you’re preparing for the PCT, you have probably heard or read this: The first month is physically challenging, and the last 4/5 are mentally challenging. The repetition gets to you. I found this to be true, at least for me. So how do you make sure you are physically and mentally prepared?

Well, it’s just a walk, right, so anyone can do it! Well it’s a bit more complicated than that but not so complicated that you should let it discourage you. 🙂

Here I tried to answer the question how fit I was and what I did and what I wish I had done before the hike.

One thing I want to mention is this: starting slow was probably my best strategy to avoid overuse injury: I forced myself to only hike 12-15 miles the first four weeks of the PCT. This was the best decision ever. But this can be tough. You might fall behind friends you just made on trail. But you gotta find your own rhythm and #hikeyourownhike 🤭 Starting slow will allow your body to adapt to the new “normal” and build up everything needed to successfully finish (hopefully).

The expert on this topic how to physically prepare is @blazephysio – one of the people I wish I would’ve known before I started hiking – check out her page for all things thru-hiking.

I also worked with a nutritionist beforehand to calculate my macros and micros @yade.nutrition – and I loved that! I probably have to do a new post on that topic! But most people don’t do that and that’s ok. You gotta find the things that worry you and get behind them. But 80% is good enough. Pareto principle – at some point you just gotta go. Things will get clearer once you start hiking! Those were mine concerns. I just like to best prepare and give my body what it needs to perform best.

This is a difficult topic because everybody is different, and for some people it’s super easy while for others it’s super hard. However, I believe the fitter you are before starting such a long trail, the better you’ll feel on trail.

That being said, it is “just walking with a backpack,” so anyone can do it and should start and try. But I do believe it’ll be harder for the less fit: you might be slower, take longer to recover, have more pain, and have less fun; potentially one or all of the above. We’re all unique and react to stress like thru-hiking differently, so knowing yourself and what hiking several consecutive days does to you is really important.

Here is what I did and what I’d do differently:

What I did and would do again:

• Walk as much as you can with the full PCT backpack weight on from the moment you know you’ll hike the PCT – I mean as much as you can, every weekend and during the week. I worked in tech, so I would “hike” to work through Berlin city (lol) – yes, it takes much longer than biking or public transport or driving, but it was the only way I could get that many miles in.
• Strength train – I was a regular (2x/week) at the gym doing full-body strength training, so I was relatively fit (I can tell you more about my specific workout routine if you’re interested). I did a lot of Farmers carry 🙂

What I wish I would have done differently:

• Know about Blaze Physio – she’s a mobile physio who follows the PCT bubble each year and has specific thru-hiking exercises on her IG (https://www.instagram.com/blazephysio/?hl=en). I would do those every day for 10 min leading up to trail to prepare ligaments, muscles, joints, etc. I only learned about her on trail and had an appointment when my foot pain got too bad – she’s awesome, and I wish I had known about her beforehand.

• There is even evidence of higher fitness equaling a higher likelihood of finishing the PCT in the Halfway Anywhere Survey, which you probably know – this was one of the main reasons I trained as hard as I could before the PCT too 🙂

That is just my opinion and mindset. I hope it answers your questions a bit. My mind was never focused on finishing the trail but always on enjoying the journey – and how do you enjoy? If you’re in your best state, mentally and physically. All that being said: The hike itself will make you fitter, day by day. And if you start slow, like I did, you will be very fit at the end.

BTW, I also noticed I spent 80% of prep on gear (reading!), 15% on training (hiking), and only 5% on mental preparation. Although I’d say shakedown hikes and mental prep are more important, so I’d make it 33% gear, 33% hiking, 33% mental next time. But hiking and camping more in winter wasn’t possible for me, so oh well.

For the mental game, which is almost more important than the physical game, I recommend this book: ‘Pacific Crest Trials: A Psychological and Emotional Guide to Successfully Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail’. I read it and loved it.*

It asks valuable questions which are great to answer before starting the hike. It prepares you for the days when it gets tough. And it will get tough! And it’ll make it clear why you’re doing it!

I’m curious: How are you preparing for the PCT? Or how did you prepare for the PCT? What do you wish you would have done?

Leave me a comment here or on my PCT 2025 Diary on Instagram: hikeyourownhikepct2025. <3 Here I share almost daily posts about my days on the PCT last year.

Let me know if this was helpful, also would appreciate your feedback and let me know if you have any more follow-up questions in the comments!

If you’re new here: Why am I writing about my experience?

First of all, I love writing. I studied English literature in my first life and writing lets me reflect and process my experiences. Text is a mirror to the human experience and society.

Second, hiking the PCT is such an intense experience, and ‘trail brain’ is real – many nights I would journal but I couldn’t think straight, let alone have deep thoughts or learnings. The PCT can be a life-changing experience but it won’t be automatically; it is subtle. You have to put in the work. I believe: You will get as much out of it as you put in. While hiking the PCT, I tried to focus on the here and now, nature, animals, fellow hikers and humans I met along the trail, and let thoughts come and go. But don’t expect to return home a new human being. At least I wasn’t fundamentally changed once I got back home. And “home” didn’t change much either. For me, this blog and my IG page is a way to share my photos and thoughts and relive my experience and discover the deeper meaning behind what such an extremely hard and beautiful experience might hold for me and my life.

Last but not least, I remember being quite overwhelmed with all the information out there on gear and maps and this and that. As someone who falls into rabbit holes and is quite nerdy about many things, I spent many nights leading up to my start date April 17th 2025 online, research, reading etc. As someone who had never hiked more than 200 miles in one trip, I was overwhelmed with all the choices, especially gear and how to prepare, physically and mentally. So I hope this takes some of this burden off of you. Although of course you have to do your own research. But you maybe you can avoid some of the detours I had to go on. At the end of the day, you can figure out most of the things on trail, too. So don’t be discouraged. I even would go as far as saying with common sense, a few overnight hiking trips and a basic set of gear, you can start the PCT, without studying the maps, sending any resupply boxes or ever having used FarOut before. There is a lot of fear-mongering going on the PCT and while you learn from other hikers, and you need to be cautious and don’t hike into a snow storm e.g., I encourage you to form your own opinions, especially about services and restaurants along the PCT. There is a lot of competition, money-making and false information by competitors on FarOut – quite sad. Be cautious and make sure not to be careless, it is the backcountry, you will pass snow covered mountain passes, so do your due-diligence, but don’t listen to all the negative fear-mongering comments you read on FarOut. We didn’t and we are glad we didn’t.

I hope this helps one or the other person, let’s you learn from my experiences and mistakes, as I did from the experience of people before me, and let’s us connect and exchange over the most beautiful trail in the world!

Affiliate Marketing Links

My goal is to get rich with my blog. HAHA Just kidding. I write for personal pleasure and initially, I wrote to take my family and friends along on my travels and share my thoughts and photography. Just a few weeks ago, I have signed up for the amazon affiliate marketing program, as I am recommending a few items that can be purchased on Amazon, because maybe it might help cover some of the costs of hosting this blog. So if you do decide to buy one of the items I used and loved, I’d be stoked if you used the link provided here. <3

<3 Disco

* If you decide to buy this book and use my affiliate link, I get a few cents from Amazon, which would be awesome to help me cover some costs of hosting this website 🙂 I would never recommend anything I wasn’t convinced of just to get money, but since it’s free for both of us and Amazon earns enough as it is, why not benefit from recommending?