travel and rhum

I'm realizing that I am a *very* slow hiker, and I'm not sure what I need to work on to get faster.

I'm averaging less than a mile an hour backpacking, this weekend I went up over the northern presidentials in WMNF (Madison, Adams, Jefferson) and I was at 0.5 mph except for the flattest parts. I know it takes me 20 minutes to walk about 1 mi in the city, so that pace must look like I'm moving in slow mo.

I'm not an athlete but I'm not out of shape-I bike 30 minutes each way to work every day and I enjoy being active in my free time. I think my legs are fairly muscular, I used to deadlift 150 (my own weight), haven't lifted weights in a while but I don't think I've gotten that weak.

I have a history of ankle injuries so I think some of it is just not having the confidence to move fast on uneven terrain for fear of injury. It has been a long time and I am fully healed but the fear is still there.

I want to do longer backpacking trips but I need to get faster to complete them in a reasonable time. I live in Boston and I can't get up to the mountains to hike more than a few times a month-what can I do to train while I am not hiking?