The Downside of Zero Days

I’ve written about “Zero Days” before, but I saw a great thread at Whiteblaze.net recently and got to thinking about them again. For those not familiar with the term, thru-hikers refer to a “zero day” as a day off with no miles hiked, thus a “Zero Day.”

Folks chimed in with what they did on their days off: eating, phone calls, going to bars, letter writing, sleeping, eating, laundry, more eating… My buddy Marta wrote this:

“…I spent zero days mostly working my butt off–laundry, shopping, going to the Post Office, going through my pack and cleaning things, making phone calls, making arrangements for the upcoming sections… It was a lot of work. I always ended up tireder than I started, and was relieved to get back out of town so I could get some rest.”

I completely agree.

Looking back, I bet I took at least 40 zero days during my six month thru-hike Think about that for a second. Over one month out was spent just messing around in towns, eating, sleeping, doing laundry, and typically, walking around way, way, way too much during my “rest day.” Mix that with staying up too late, watching TV, and burning time on the Internet, and you can easily see why I often left town feeling exhausted!

By comparison, Jess and I took about six days off when we paddled the Mississippi River, three of which were just to dodge Hurricane Dennis. While we didn’t necessary paddle all day, we did make it a point to make some miles almost every day. By making a little progress consistently, we were able to paddle about 2,150 miles in 73 days.

Compared to my thru-hike, I felt better physically and mentally over the entire trip even though we had far fewer days off. There’s an old saying that “every day in town equals a bad day of hiking.” Take that with a grain of salt, but I think there’s some truth to that. Over-eating, lousy sleep, and sometimes drinking more than your fair share will catch up to you in a hurry.

As always, small consistent steps lead to big goals in the end, even in the “Real World.” Sometimes I need to remind myself of just that.