I personally agree with the unenjoyable part, but a number of people regularly go down during the cooler parts of the year. You'd be surprised by how many people can do the whole C2C2C in the single digit range.
Are there any tricks to training to get this fast? Possibly intervals of fast hiking interspersed with normal speed, similar to running with tempo runs?
My personal experience is tons of time at an aerobic nose breathing pace, with minimal high intensity runs and some weights like one legged squats with a pack on. I highly recommend this book:
http://www.patagonia.com/product/training-for-the-new-alpinism/BK695.htmlI've actually been using TFTNA for the past 2 years, though I had a lapse in training while I hiked the PCT. Haven't followed it super religiously, but I did start paying attention to my heart rate, trying to keep it in zone 1/2 borderline, and also doing the core and strength workouts mentioned. During this time, I hiked 4 out of 5 weekends (usually in the San Gabriels), and then trained 7-8 solid hours during the week after work. My Whitney, main trail, car-to-car time was 11.4 hours after about a year of training, age 29, light breathing 90% of the time. My Skyline time improved by 15% in the same period. Does this seem like reasonable progress?
Also, how much high intensity running? I was looking to start training for a 10k or even a marathon, if that would benefit my mountain fitness. It did seem like being able to do a 5k at a mid zone 2 heart rate helped my hiking performance a fair amount.
