This was one of those weeks that I sat back in “maintenance mode” due to special events for the week. On Thursday I got together with a couple of the guys in Maryland for a hike at Gunpowder Falls State Park in Sweet Air, MD. On Saturday my wife and I ran the Citizen’s Advocacy run in Phoenixville. Each event required that I not embarrass myself, so I kept the cardio light for the week in order to be fresh for them.
Week 14: current weight 165, +5 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Chest and shoulders weights
Tuesday: Back and arms weights
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Hike in Maryland, 6 miles, 40 lbs. pack
Friday: Off
Saturday: 10k run in Phoenixville, 56:20 time
Sunday: Off (sick)
The hike on Thursday was great. The Boston member of our team, Rich, was down in the Maryland area for a conference for the week and he had Thursday available. So I packed my stuff and headed down to Brian’s house (in northern Maryland) for the afternoon. The trail was great, mostly fast paced with lots and lots of hills. It was a short hike, but the work out was very good and well worth going down for. Plus it was fun hanging out with the guys for the afternoon.
On Saturday morning, my wife and I headed down to Phoenixville for the Citizen’s Advocacy run. I was happy with my 56:20 time, considering I’ve done zero speed training work. I did my typical “start too fast and pay for it later” deal that I always do with organized runs, even though I tell myself for the hour beforehand not to do that. The hills going over the ridgeline that runs north of town (twice) tore me up pretty hard, but my cardio was recovering very quickly and I was able to take full advantage of the downhills immediately after. I do enjoy these kinds of runs, and I leave open the possibility of training specifically for them in the future…but right now the training schedule for the big hike just doesn’t allow for the time for it, and the two training styles while not mutually exclusive aren’t very compatible.
Now I’m just hoping to kick this cold that hit on Sunday quickly so I can get a solid training week for Week 15.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gunpowder Falls State Park, Sweet Air Maryland
The Boston member of our team, Rich, spent the week down in Maryland presenting at a conference in Bethesda. The conference let out on Thursday midday, so I took a half day, drove down to Brian's house in northern Maryland to meet up with them and the three of us took a stroll around Gunpowder Falls State Park.
It was a beautiful day, with temps in the lower 70s and bright sunshine. We did a little less than 6 miles in hilly terrain. The trail we did was the "Boundary Trail", which pretty much follows the edges of the park. The trail was nice and hilly, wide enough for two walking abreast for much of it, with a mix of your standard forest bed and slightly rocky areas. It made for a nice pace, quicker than the Pinchot Trail (outlined in an earlier post) due to better footing, but wetter because of the river we had to cross. Sloshy boots are no fun, but happily it was near the end.
There was one *monster* hill that we did. We had to take a slight diversion off of the main trail to do it because the trail didn't actually go up the hill, but it was big and it was there and we decided we needed to hurt ourselves a little bit. It did, too.
That's Rich on the left, and Brian on the right. I don't usually use a walking stick (no need where I've been hiking) but I was sure glad on a couple of occasions that Brian had his. It was very helpful for balance on submerged moss-covered rocks on the few river crossings we needed to do.
Tomorrow, my wife and I are doing the Citizen's Advocacy Pheonixville run. I like the bigger organized runs, it's fun to get out there with a bunch of other people all doing the same thing. I'll update how that goes in next week's post.
It was a beautiful day, with temps in the lower 70s and bright sunshine. We did a little less than 6 miles in hilly terrain. The trail we did was the "Boundary Trail", which pretty much follows the edges of the park. The trail was nice and hilly, wide enough for two walking abreast for much of it, with a mix of your standard forest bed and slightly rocky areas. It made for a nice pace, quicker than the Pinchot Trail (outlined in an earlier post) due to better footing, but wetter because of the river we had to cross. Sloshy boots are no fun, but happily it was near the end.
There was one *monster* hill that we did. We had to take a slight diversion off of the main trail to do it because the trail didn't actually go up the hill, but it was big and it was there and we decided we needed to hurt ourselves a little bit. It did, too.
That's Rich on the left, and Brian on the right. I don't usually use a walking stick (no need where I've been hiking) but I was sure glad on a couple of occasions that Brian had his. It was very helpful for balance on submerged moss-covered rocks on the few river crossings we needed to do.
Tomorrow, my wife and I are doing the Citizen's Advocacy Pheonixville run. I like the bigger organized runs, it's fun to get out there with a bunch of other people all doing the same thing. I'll update how that goes in next week's post.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Week 13 - A Heavy Week
I was very pleased with the week 13 workouts. I didn’t end up doing as much as I had planned in the beginning of the week, but the week still came off great. In the original plan for the week, I had intended to hike home on Wednesday with the 60 lbs. pack, turn around for the double hike on Thursday, and repeat it on Friday. As it turns out I probably would not have been able to do the second double on Friday and would have had to modify, because Friday morning I had some significant aches and pains from the double on Thursday. Had I done the Wednesday afternoon hike as well, that would have been that much worse.
Week 13: current weight 165, +5 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Chest and shoulders weights
Tuesday: Back and arms weights
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Double: hike to/from work with 60 lbs. pack (12 miles total)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Chest, shoulders and arms weights
Sunday: 18 mile hike w/ 40 lbs. pack
What’s getting me is the time investment. I have very little room for alterations in work/home schedules and still be able to get a hike in. The six miles with 60 lbs. takes me between an hour and a half and 2 hours to complete, depending on energy and pain levels, so it varies. On Wednesday, I ended up working a bit late and had to scrap the hike.
Mentally, I’m extremely pleased with progress. Simply being capable of hiking the 60 lbs. pack is a solid indicator of my progression, and having that evidence makes me want to use it to greatest effect.
On to the weekend hike: I completed, for the first time, the entire Perkiomen Trail. Of all of the signs on the Perk Trail, “Welcome to Green Lane Park” is the best. After 18 miles, that sign looked like it was gilded in pure gold.
My wife kindly agreed that she would come pick me up at Green Lane, so Sunday morning I packed my stuff and drove down to mile zero on the trail, left my car (idly wondering if it would still be there six or so hours later) and started heading north. I immediately noticed that the work with the 60 lbs. pack was already paying off, as 40 lbs. felt just plain light and stayed that way for the next 12 miles.
Unfortunately Jeff is still down with a knee injury, so he didn’t get to hear the angels singing and the trumpets blasting as I strolled into Green Lane. He has an appointment with a specialist this week to check out his knee. We’re hoping for good news on that front, but Jeff doesn’t have reason to believe that it’s anything serious.
Overall the 18 miles was fairly hard, and I got good work out of it. On the last 6 miles, the 40 lbs. didn’t feel light anymore. But I have to admit that it just wasn’t as hard as most of the earlier hikes were, and certainly nowhere near as hard as last week’s 12 miles with 60 lbs. was. The weather was terrible, at 39 degrees and rain, but I signed up for enduring that a while ago and I was ready for it. I looked like the little brother from “Christmas Story”, with winter weight pants, an undershirt, an overshirt, a waterproof lightweight jacket, gloves, winter cap…the whole works. I was still cold, it still sucked, but none of my fingers, toes, ears or my nose fell off so I have to count it as a “win”.
Take a peek back on Friday this week, as I may have a mid-week update. Our Boston area team member, Rich, is planning on being down in the Baltimore area this week, and we all hope to get together on Thursday for a hike. If we get to do it, I'll throw some pictures up of the group.
Week 13: current weight 165, +5 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Chest and shoulders weights
Tuesday: Back and arms weights
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Double: hike to/from work with 60 lbs. pack (12 miles total)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Chest, shoulders and arms weights
Sunday: 18 mile hike w/ 40 lbs. pack
What’s getting me is the time investment. I have very little room for alterations in work/home schedules and still be able to get a hike in. The six miles with 60 lbs. takes me between an hour and a half and 2 hours to complete, depending on energy and pain levels, so it varies. On Wednesday, I ended up working a bit late and had to scrap the hike.
Mentally, I’m extremely pleased with progress. Simply being capable of hiking the 60 lbs. pack is a solid indicator of my progression, and having that evidence makes me want to use it to greatest effect.
On to the weekend hike: I completed, for the first time, the entire Perkiomen Trail. Of all of the signs on the Perk Trail, “Welcome to Green Lane Park” is the best. After 18 miles, that sign looked like it was gilded in pure gold.
My wife kindly agreed that she would come pick me up at Green Lane, so Sunday morning I packed my stuff and drove down to mile zero on the trail, left my car (idly wondering if it would still be there six or so hours later) and started heading north. I immediately noticed that the work with the 60 lbs. pack was already paying off, as 40 lbs. felt just plain light and stayed that way for the next 12 miles.
Unfortunately Jeff is still down with a knee injury, so he didn’t get to hear the angels singing and the trumpets blasting as I strolled into Green Lane. He has an appointment with a specialist this week to check out his knee. We’re hoping for good news on that front, but Jeff doesn’t have reason to believe that it’s anything serious.
Overall the 18 miles was fairly hard, and I got good work out of it. On the last 6 miles, the 40 lbs. didn’t feel light anymore. But I have to admit that it just wasn’t as hard as most of the earlier hikes were, and certainly nowhere near as hard as last week’s 12 miles with 60 lbs. was. The weather was terrible, at 39 degrees and rain, but I signed up for enduring that a while ago and I was ready for it. I looked like the little brother from “Christmas Story”, with winter weight pants, an undershirt, an overshirt, a waterproof lightweight jacket, gloves, winter cap…the whole works. I was still cold, it still sucked, but none of my fingers, toes, ears or my nose fell off so I have to count it as a “win”.
Take a peek back on Friday this week, as I may have a mid-week update. Our Boston area team member, Rich, is planning on being down in the Baltimore area this week, and we all hope to get together on Thursday for a hike. If we get to do it, I'll throw some pictures up of the group.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Weeks 11 and 12 - No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam
Missed a post last week, sorry about that. I had one of those ridiculous work weeks, and didn’t even have time for workouts for most of it, much less spending the time on a post. So, I’ve included two weeks in this update.
I had resolved to hit it hard on Week 11, and hit it hard I did. I started off the week with my first “double”, a run home and run back in the next morning. I’m happy to say it went extremely well, and did have the effect I was hoping in that it was a serious endurance test. The run home was fine, the run in the next morning a different thing altogether. It still went well and I finished strong, but the 18 lbs. pack felt more like 30 the next morning coming off the run the night before. Wednesday was to be a light day in preparation for another double on Thursday/Friday. I got a good solid weights workout in on Wednesday as intended, but work interrupted the double.
I ended up working through the weekend and into the next week, so it sent my workout schedule south for the week.
Week 11: current weight 161, +1 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Run home from work w/ light pack
Tuesday: Run to work w/ light pack
Wednesday: Chest and shoulder weights
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
On Week 12, I picked up where I left off, repeating the weights workout of the Wednesday prior, and finishing up the work week with another double, this time a run home on Thursday and a hike in on Friday morning with a 57 lbs. pack. The 57 lbs. pack is a different animal, and I was extremely pleased with the workout. I used a hard pace for it, enough to get a breathing rhythm just below what I have when running with the light pack. The 57 lbs. allowed for that pretty easily, which the “lighter” pack (42 lbs.) doesn’t really do. So I did get quite a bit of cardio out of it considering a good hour and a half of hard work for the 6 miles.
Where it really shined though was the muscle workout. The fatigue level was perfect, as by the end of the 6 miles my legs and shoulders were fairly screaming for me to stop. It felt good as it was a nice chilly morning and the work level was enough to get my body temperature up to the point that I just didn’t feel the cold.
Week 12: current weight 162, +2 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Chest and shoulder weights
Thursday: Run home from work w/ light pack
Friday: Hike to work w/ 57 lbs. pack
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 12 mile hike w/ 60 lbs. pack
I took Saturday off in preparation for Sunday’s hike. I really felt like pushing myself, so I went for broke and stuck with the 57 lbs. pack, with an eye on making it the full to work/home cycle. I’ve been thinking that that cycle would be good for winter workouts, and I wanted to be sure that I could handle it. I was still just a little sore from the big pack on Friday, but not enough to slow me down or cause me any concern. Sunday was one of those days that make you really happy to be outside, and the Perkiomen Trail was awesome…just a great place to be on a Sunday morning. It was just cold enough that the trail was near deserted.
The first four miles were a bit harder than I expected them to be, and I found myself wondering at the first break if I was going to make it back home again. I dismissed that pretty quickly though, as I had just done the 6 mile leg into work with the same pack on Friday morning without a break, and knew that I had a lot left in me. By the time I got to work, right at the 6 mile point, I was wondering again. That’s when I realized that my pack was several pounds heavier than Friday morning’s pack, as I forgot to account for the full Camelback that I added that morning. I don’t tend to take it when I’m doing a 6 miler, but I had packed it Sunday morning because of the longer planned hike. I started contemplating calling my wife to come pick me up, because my legs and shoulders were telling me that I just wasn’t going to make it another 6 miles.
It dawned on me at that point though that when we’re out there in New Mexico, there is no calling my wife. One of the phrases coined by the heroes of the real Death March that is still used today when discussing the events of 1942 is “No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam.” That’s the first time that it’s really hit me that there is no “out” on the Memorial March, short of taking a medical drop and not finishing. Here was an opportunity to exercise the mental part of preparing for this thing, in a comfortable (?), controlled way that the real Death Marchers didn’t get to have. I resolved to reach down and grab some and finish the goal for the day.
And I did. It was the hardest hike I’ve done since a twenty miler on Parris Island, SC on a snowy morning nearly twenty years ago. That hike was during Boot Camp, in mid December in 1989. We had 8 inches of snow that morning, the first significant snowfall on Parris Island in 15 years, and we were humping in it. The effort level on this week’s hike easily matched that when factoring in the fuzzy memory from 20 years ago factor. It feels good to think you’ve done something that was as hard as something done by a 20 years younger you.
So I’m going into Week 13 feeling really good about things.
I had resolved to hit it hard on Week 11, and hit it hard I did. I started off the week with my first “double”, a run home and run back in the next morning. I’m happy to say it went extremely well, and did have the effect I was hoping in that it was a serious endurance test. The run home was fine, the run in the next morning a different thing altogether. It still went well and I finished strong, but the 18 lbs. pack felt more like 30 the next morning coming off the run the night before. Wednesday was to be a light day in preparation for another double on Thursday/Friday. I got a good solid weights workout in on Wednesday as intended, but work interrupted the double.
I ended up working through the weekend and into the next week, so it sent my workout schedule south for the week.
Week 11: current weight 161, +1 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Run home from work w/ light pack
Tuesday: Run to work w/ light pack
Wednesday: Chest and shoulder weights
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
On Week 12, I picked up where I left off, repeating the weights workout of the Wednesday prior, and finishing up the work week with another double, this time a run home on Thursday and a hike in on Friday morning with a 57 lbs. pack. The 57 lbs. pack is a different animal, and I was extremely pleased with the workout. I used a hard pace for it, enough to get a breathing rhythm just below what I have when running with the light pack. The 57 lbs. allowed for that pretty easily, which the “lighter” pack (42 lbs.) doesn’t really do. So I did get quite a bit of cardio out of it considering a good hour and a half of hard work for the 6 miles.
Where it really shined though was the muscle workout. The fatigue level was perfect, as by the end of the 6 miles my legs and shoulders were fairly screaming for me to stop. It felt good as it was a nice chilly morning and the work level was enough to get my body temperature up to the point that I just didn’t feel the cold.
Week 12: current weight 162, +2 lbs. from Week 1
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Chest and shoulder weights
Thursday: Run home from work w/ light pack
Friday: Hike to work w/ 57 lbs. pack
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 12 mile hike w/ 60 lbs. pack
I took Saturday off in preparation for Sunday’s hike. I really felt like pushing myself, so I went for broke and stuck with the 57 lbs. pack, with an eye on making it the full to work/home cycle. I’ve been thinking that that cycle would be good for winter workouts, and I wanted to be sure that I could handle it. I was still just a little sore from the big pack on Friday, but not enough to slow me down or cause me any concern. Sunday was one of those days that make you really happy to be outside, and the Perkiomen Trail was awesome…just a great place to be on a Sunday morning. It was just cold enough that the trail was near deserted.
The first four miles were a bit harder than I expected them to be, and I found myself wondering at the first break if I was going to make it back home again. I dismissed that pretty quickly though, as I had just done the 6 mile leg into work with the same pack on Friday morning without a break, and knew that I had a lot left in me. By the time I got to work, right at the 6 mile point, I was wondering again. That’s when I realized that my pack was several pounds heavier than Friday morning’s pack, as I forgot to account for the full Camelback that I added that morning. I don’t tend to take it when I’m doing a 6 miler, but I had packed it Sunday morning because of the longer planned hike. I started contemplating calling my wife to come pick me up, because my legs and shoulders were telling me that I just wasn’t going to make it another 6 miles.
It dawned on me at that point though that when we’re out there in New Mexico, there is no calling my wife. One of the phrases coined by the heroes of the real Death March that is still used today when discussing the events of 1942 is “No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam.” That’s the first time that it’s really hit me that there is no “out” on the Memorial March, short of taking a medical drop and not finishing. Here was an opportunity to exercise the mental part of preparing for this thing, in a comfortable (?), controlled way that the real Death Marchers didn’t get to have. I resolved to reach down and grab some and finish the goal for the day.
And I did. It was the hardest hike I’ve done since a twenty miler on Parris Island, SC on a snowy morning nearly twenty years ago. That hike was during Boot Camp, in mid December in 1989. We had 8 inches of snow that morning, the first significant snowfall on Parris Island in 15 years, and we were humping in it. The effort level on this week’s hike easily matched that when factoring in the fuzzy memory from 20 years ago factor. It feels good to think you’ve done something that was as hard as something done by a 20 years younger you.
So I’m going into Week 13 feeling really good about things.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)