New Training Partner and Multiple Trips to REI! – August 19th

Okay, it’s good to be back in the swing of things. As mentioned I had kept up with the workouts but was lacking real focus. Now I’m focused again, with a goal in mind, and it feels good. It’s been a solid week of variable workouts with some fun thrown in.

I need to take a minute to introduce Corey, who has bravely (stupidly?) signed up to train with me over the coming year. Corey started back up with the “getting back into shape” thing last year, joining the crew for weight workouts at first, then transitioning into the heavy trail cycling for the past quarter or so. We’ve done some great stuff over the past months on the bikes, including a whopper 58 mile ride that consisted of 12 miles of fairly technical mountain bike trail in the middle. So, he’s got the guts for it. He’s not committed to actually doing the Nijmegen hike next year, but he wants to see the training all the way through.

With different training goals comes different equipment…which we kinda learned the hard way on Sunday when we did a 14 mile hike using our Camelback (non-internal frame) 25L packs that we’ve gotten much mileage out of over the past months on our bikes. I didn’t want to have to deal with the bigger pack I used for Bataan with so much less weight to worry about. The hard way meant that we finished in much pain. I kind of blew off the hike, coming off of Bataan, figuring it for an easy stroll with only 25lbs. instead of my accustomed 40lbs. pack and greater mileage. The big difference was the lack of the internal frame and weight distribution (or lack there-of). All 25 lbs. sat directly on our shoulders for the entire hike, and it ended up being pretty excruciating. That plus the fact that I did the hike in my running shoes because my trail runners were still dripping from the Marine Corps Run Amuck the day before…I ended up with sore feet and dead shoulders. On the plus side, my son and eldest daughter joined us for the hike (sans packs) and did awesome with it, it was fun having them along.

So Tuesday Corey and I hit good ole’ REI. We each got the REI Brand 30L pack w/ internal frame (the REI Venturi 30 Pack), I picked up some Vibram Five Fingers KSO Treks, and we both grabbed other odds and ends. As boys with new toys will do, we hit the trail with our new gear that night for a very modest two mile pack run. Corey took my advice and went straight for the bags of rice, having heard first hand last year how happy I was with the malleable form of the weight. The first mile, we both complained about how something with the pack was rubbing on our shoulder blades. The second mile, mine stopped hurting so much. Corey’s suggestion was “Yeah, it’s numb now.” Turns out his diagnosis was accurate…it’s not that it had stopped rubbing, it’s that I’d stopped feeling it. When I got home, my youngest daughter’s question was a little concerning…”Daddy, what’s that big splotch of red on your back?” Queue Nurse Ingrid, to the rescue.

Wednesday, we were right back to REI to return the packs. As it turns out, the stitching where the shoulder straps attach to the pack at the top falls in a bad place…right on the shoulder blade. As there is no vertical adjustment on the straps, there’s no way to change the location of where it falls. I imagine that for normal hiking this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but when running there is no way to keep the weight from bouncing just a little bit, and rubbing a hole in your back in the process.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love REI for that…they don’t squabble with you when you return something. If it doesn’t work for you, they will happily return your money and help you find something that does. In return for them being cool about it and not bitching at me for doing something with their gear that it’s not really intended to do, I’m continuing to trust them with my business and have ordered a new pack from them online as they didn’t have one in stock. Having loved the Deuter 60+10L pack that they introduced me to last year, I ordered the Deuter ACT Trail 32 pack which arrives next Monday. This pack has outstanding reviews and looks to be perfect for what I need. Better yet, I already know that it has all of the little things that I learned last year I need…the stronger tabs on the zippers, the water resistant closures, the non C-clamp fasteners on the sternum straps (the C-clamps pop right off/break), the belt strap zippered pockets, etc. Deuter doesn’t skimp on the little stuff, and it’s the little stuff that vexed me so much last year with all the packs I went through.

Quick note also on the new Five Fingers. Simply put I love them. I had been running on and off in the regular KSOs, and these are my first pair of Treks. I had been told in the past that the extra tread for trail running on the Treks really inhibits the flexibility of the shoe, but now that I’ve worn them running I have to disagree. In fact they feel very similar to the regular KSOs except that they are far more comfortable on rocks. At one point I stepped on a larger rock that I hadn’t noticed, and instead of hurting my foot pretty much shaped around it and the separate toes let me “grab onto it” and use the rock for leverage, pushing off on it. I didn’t realize what had happened until after it did, and it made me feel smug. I like Five Fingers, and I love the Treks.

Summary of the past week(ish): The four mile Run Amuck, a 14 mile/25 lbs. hike, two runs, back/bi’s/abs weights and a well deserved day off. Currently at 155 lbs. (as of this morning) but being the same weight as last post is deceiving because I bounced up to 160 lbs. early in the week last week then settled back down to 155 lbs. slowly over the week…probably water weight settling itself back out as I upped my intake to handle the resurgence in heavier workouts.

Marine Corps Run Amuck - August 14th

The family took a break from the day-in-day-out to travel down to Marine Corps Base Quantico in VA for the 2010 Run Amuck this weekend.  A great time was had by all...as you can tell from the picture =)

All three of the latest Zepp generation acquitted themselves quite well!  I think that Brenna's warcry scared some of the Marines out there on the course, and one guy mentioned something along the lines of "Man...she's gonna kill 'em in 4th Bn. in a coupla years, isn't she?"

Year Two, The Next Big Thing(tm)

Friends and Family (and anyone else), welcome back!  I’ve recently set my sights on a new big challenge, and a quick discussion with Ingrid resulted in confirmation that enough people got enough enjoyment out of following my adventures this past year in training for 2010’s Bataan Memorial Death March that I should continue on with the training blog as I get ready for the Next Big Thing™.  I have waffled back and forth with doing Bataan again, but have waffled recently more towards the idea of doing something different this year.  I’m fairly certain I’ll do Bataan again…it was just that good…but I don’t want to get into a rut with doing the same thing year after year.  I’d like some new, some different.  That something new and different presented itself this past weekend.

At a recent family reunion in upstate NY (hello Hydes, Travises, Heggoys, Berggreens, Richards and Zepps!) a contingent of Ingrid’s cousins from Norway were there and spent time conspiring about how to get the Zepp family to Norway next summer.  The Evil Plotters brought up the Vierdaagse, otherwise known as The International Four Day Marches in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.  I heard “four day march”, diligently fired up the iPad and was hooked in minutes.  The idea as proposed by the Evil Plotters was for the family to fly to Norway and spend a few weeks experiencing and learning about their Norse heritage, while Jerry flies off to The Netherlands for a week of pain and then back to Norway for the rest of the “vacation”.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Four_Days_Marches_Nijmegen), the Vierdaagse began in 1909 and has run every year since with the exception of 2006 and the years of WWII.  It moved to being based out of Nijmegen, Netherlands in 1916 and has been headquartered there every year since.  Attendance has gotten larger and larger over the years, and the event is now recognized as the world’s largest marching event, drawing just short of 50,000 participants these past several years.  Once upon a time, this was almost solely a military event, but these days it is mostly civilian…although militaries from around the world do send units every year.

There are multiple options for walking the event, including civilian categories in the 30km/day, 40km/day and 50km/day, as well as a military category at 40km/day with a 10kg pack.  Each day takes you to a new city, starting with Nijmegen to Elst on Tuesday, Elst to Wijchen on Wednesday, Wijchen to Greosbeek on Thursday and Greosbeek to the Via Gladiola in Cuijk on Friday.  Being who I am, there is no question that I will be doing this thing in the 50km/day category…with the 10kg pack.  Just ‘cuz.

I will be making a few changes to what I cover and when in the blog this year, having learned a few things about blog maintenance last year.  This year, I will not commit to making an update every week, mostly because there just isn’t something interesting to say every single week.  I will still break down a weekly coverage of events, particularly body weight, distances covered, workout overviews and that kind of thing…just don’t expect them to be posted each week.

As far as training goals;  I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.  I need to do more reading on what to expect.  I’m formulating a plan as to the highlights of what I need to do, and I’m starting off with a much better general physical fitness state this year.  I think in general I’m going to need to extend endurance and work on multi-day body wear and tear.  I’m looking at back to back 30 milers for four days in a row.  That’s going to take some doing.  Fortunately, the pack will be lighter than Bataan, and the strength work I’ve done over the past year I believe will carry me through…I’m just going to have to maintain it.

My current thinking on this is that I need to acclimate my body to heavy stress workouts repeated over multiple days.  In the interest of time management (simply because it takes a damn long time to walk 30 miles) I may be concentrating quite a bit on pack runs, relying on the extra weight to stress out the legs in lieu of the longer mileage.  Again, I need to think about that some more.

There are going to be some interesting logistical problems to work out as well, such as where to sleep (I think I’m going to be packing a tent), what to eat, how to communicate, whether or not I will be able to blog during the course of the event (that was an unexpected big hit with Bataan, lots of people followed on the “day of”), whether or not Apple makes an iPhone charger that plugs into those funky European wall sockets, whether or not I’ll be able to find any funky European wall sockets, that kind of thing.  Should be interesting, and I’m bound to learn a lot.

The Stats:  My current body weight is 154 lbs.  I’ve dropped about 6 lbs. since the beginning of April, having kept up a fairly heavy workout regimen.  I cut back on weight lifting to about twice per week just for maintenance after Bataan and greatly decreased my running (had an interesting bout with several different –itis’s in the right ankle) but greatly increased time on the mountain bike for the past several months, with multiple weeks in the 120+ mile/week range.

That’s it for now.  I’ve got 11 months and counting to train in as the event starts on the 3^rd Tuesday of July each year.  I think it’s doable.