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You are here: Home / Arizona Trail / Arizona Trail (AZT) – Training

Arizona Trail (AZT) – Training

February 24, 2015 by SweetPea

Well, it’s hard to believe that we’ll be starting the Arizona Trail in a week! Even though we have had it in our minds to do this trail for almost nine months, it seems that our start date is rushing towards us.

We have been spending the winter away from snowy New Hampshire for the second winter in a row. Instead of snow showing all winter, we have been able to continue hiking in our short-sleeves in Mexico. We are lucky to be in a location with lots of hiking opportunities for Arizona Trail Training.

Hiking on a cloudy day

The town where we are staying is at 5,000 feet elevation, and the surrounding mountains go up to 8,000 feet. The elevation gain is made over just a few miles, so the trails are fairly steep.

Beardoh stopping for a rest

Just to give you a sense of our physical training for the trail, we have hiked about two hundred miles over the past six weeks. A lot of that is up in the mountains, but some is on the cobblestone streets in town (good for strengthening your ankles, I suppose). Our longest hikes have been around 10.5 miles and contained some steep ups and downs.

SweetPea all smiles after getting to the top

In addition to being a beautiful spot to hike, the trails in our area have a lot of religious and cultural landmarks, with multiple shrines to the Virgin Guadalupe tucked into the mountainsides, traditional ceremonial grounds perched on a hill, and small chapels overlooking the town.

A shrine to the virgin Guadalupe
Colorful tree at the ceremonial grounds
Chapel overlooking the town

Hopefully this physical training will help us to have a strong start on the trail. We don’t expect any problems with the higher elevations at the beginning of the trail, since we have regularly been hiking up to 8,000 feet.

We feel pretty strongly that getting in the preparation miles is well worth it.    Neither of us our crazy about getting our trail legs on the trail, so getting in the best shape we can ahead of time is optimal….and if we can replication some of the conditions (elevation change, trail difficulty,etc) – all the better.

We’re excited to get started on the Arizona Trail and to see what it is really like.

Filed Under: Arizona Trail, Fitness, Food & Health, AZT Planning & Debrief

« Arizona Trail (AZT) – 2015 Hike!
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Comments

  1. Russell says

    February 26, 2015 at 5:40 am

    Nice it’s on! The trail sounds amazing. I lived in Tucson for 7 years and rambled around in the desert a lot. The AZT is high on my list! Have fun with training.

    Reply
    • Beardoh says

      February 26, 2015 at 6:38 am

      Thanks Russ!

  2. Sheila Pryor says

    February 26, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    You two are amazing! Joe and I will both be looking forward to your updates as your start your new trail. Good Luck and sending big hugs your way.

    Reply
    • SweetPea says

      March 19, 2015 at 1:58 pm

      Thanks for the kind words! We’re having a great time on the trail so far.

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