Week 8 - Gear!

I’ve been doing some more reading about the Bataan Memorial Death March, and thought I’d share a bit. It has been held annually since 1989, with the exception of 2003 when it was cancelled due to the many military deployments that year. The first year, there were about 100 participants, and that number has grown to more than 4,000 for last year’s march. I wonder how many will be there with us next year, if it continues to grow each year? I’m looking forward to the challenge of completing it.

Week 8: current weight 165, +5 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: 36 mile bike ride w/ no pack (also reported last week)
Tuesday: Shoulder and back weight training
Wednesday: Bike to work and home w/ light pack, back and arms weight training
Thursday: Day off
Friday: Day off
Saturday: Day off
Sunday: 16 mile hike w/ heavy pack


I’ve swapped out the various canned goods for three 10 lbs. and one 5 lbs. bags of rice. This 35 lbs. plus the weight of the pack itself and water put me into that that comfort zone that I’m carrying enough extra to make a difference. The cans were annoying when trying to get my camelback in my pack, and the salad dressing bottles kept poking me in the back on hikes. Bags of rice are actually one of the items that the Bataan Memorial Death March website recommends for donation, so that’s what I’m going with.


I got my new hiking shoes in. Merrell Chameleon 3 Ventilator Mid Gore-Tex Hiking Boots. Yut. They’re really nice boots, again an REI purchase. Unfortunately, I didn’t get them early enough in the week to be able to do a test hike to work and back on them so I had to “break ‘em in” by wearing them for a few days while helping lift heavy things for my aunt’s upcoming move next week. This was the reason for the several days off at the end of the week, I had to work in a trip down to Baltimore to help out.


They held up great on the 16 miler, although I did get one blister, on the top of my left big toe. Very strange place to get a blister, but at least it wasn’t anywhere on the bottom of the foot where it will impede the actual hike.


I also got in my new Dueter Aircontact 65+10 pack. Awesome pack…absolutely love it. It held up great on the hike, and it felt very natural with its weight distribution. Very comfortable.


I also went and got a new pair of Asics Gel running shoes this past week. I was past due, and I’ve been putting some miles on the old ones. Good news here, no more blisters from running (hopefully). Just a quick note, the added 18 lbs. from the light pack while running does add quite a bit of impact to the feet and legs…so far this has been a good thing as it has helped toughen up the feet much more than regular running and one weekly hike would do. Granted my feet are uglier, but they were ugly to begin with so I really don’t care.


Okay, enough gear chat…on to this week’s workout.


I talked about the 36 miler on Labor Day in last week’s post, so I won’t go into the ride itself other than to say it was a good one. After effects of the ride were a little interesting. That was the longest ride I’ve done since doing a century ride on the 4th day of the Bike Ride Across Georgia in 1997. With no bicycle distance work since then, the 36 miles was a push for me, but I was purposely working endurance (remember my two big deficiencies going into this training, strength and endurance). I was sore enough on Tuesday to skip legwork to/from work and just do a weights workout.


The minor shoulder muscle injury from last week is completely gone, and the shoulder/chest workout on Tuesday went extremely well. Again I notice a significant increase in weight, needing to up the weight on the second set of each different exercise because the weight I used last week was too light. That felt pretty good and I occasionally needed to add an extra set due to the lack of muscle response from the first sets due to too little weight.


Jeff and I are starting to get the “we’re on to longer hikes” feeling. It’s a real sense of accomplishment, having increased our total distance by 60% in a matter of two months. The 16 miler was very hard, but the pace was good between three and a half and 4 miles per hour including rest stops. We were both impressed with the quality of the trail up in the Salford, PA area, and from there northward. It’s a very pleasant hike to do and that helps take the mind off of the effort we’re putting into it. We weren’t quite sure we were going to go for the full 16 this week, but we hit the 7 mile mark and had a lot of energy left so we went ahead and went to the 8. By that point, of course, we’re committed to the full distance which I suppose is a good thing. It is hard to judge though how you’re going to feel at the end when you’re just starting to get tired. As it turned out, we were very happy with the full 16, though our pace on the last mile suffered a little bit.


Hell’s Hill is pretty much a non-issue now. We get to it, hit it hard, and keep going each time and push through to the next rest stop. It is a noticeable increase in cardio work, with about a quarter of a mile afterward breathing very heavy.


Next week we will likely redo the 16 miler, but we’re going to leave that open to see how we feel later in the week. We may extend it to 17, we’ll see.