Jimmy is a trip...

Monday, July 26, 2010

Jimmy stopped over with a daypack full of the clothes he thought he would need for the trip. I have never seen such ugly combinations of colors, but on him they’ll look appropriate. I’m concerned about my own reputation since I will be seen with him and you are judged by the company you keep.

I gave Jimmy a taste of the pinole and asked him if he’d been reading the blog. “Nah…I’ve been too busy,” he said.

“Busy? You don’t work, train, read or anything. What has you so busy?”

”Well…I only have about 7 hours a day since I have to sleep 17. You know…people who are really smart have to sleep long hours to give their brain a rest since it’s so busy being smart while they’re awake,” he informed me.

At no point did he claim to be smart as the reason for sleeping 17 hours and I know from first hand knowledge that he’s dumber than a box of rocks, so I don’t know what his point was in letting me know how much he slept, but I did remind him we’d have to be up early on the trip if he hoped to get to climb a peak and return in daylight.

Walking trails in the Adirondacks is nothing like hiking in the Metroparks I discovered on my first trip. I’d read the trail guides and they went over this point repeatedly, saying that you should allow for a pace of about 2 miles per hour and slower with elevation change. They were right. The other factor I hadn’t known then, but figured out quickly was the amount of calories I was burning and how hungry I was getting. It’s nothing to be on the trails walking for 8 hours and if you’re burning even 400 an hour, and it’s likely more, that’s 3,200 by the time you return to camp. Everything tastes good at that point, which is helpful since the normal diet is out the window with no way of bringing and keeping fresh food.

I continued to explain to Jimmy the things he would need. He disputed every item, which doesn’t really matter too much since he’ll be the one inconvenienced. If he becomes too much of a problem there, I’ll send him out for water and move the camp while he’s gone.

I ran the Clear Creek Trail in a little over 56 minutes. It’s been taking closer to an hour with the heat, but it was cooler today and my time showed it. I’m having a little soreness in my left hip…something I get when I’ve been carrying too much weight in the pack and doing too many step-ups. I’m hoping it goes away quickly and I think I’ll have to lay off weight bearing exercise for a couple of days. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize climbing this weekend.

Run duration: 56 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140.
Calories burned during workout: 1020.