Let's just call it tapering...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I woke up pretty much the way I went to bed…feeling crappy. I’d had hot cereal for dinner because it feels good on the throat so…that’s what I had for breakfast, too. While backpacking, we tend to eat peaches and cream oat meal because it’s simple to carry and prepare and I tend to get sick of it by the end of a trip so eating it a couple of times before I left was not the best plan…oh well.

As the day progressed, nothing improved. I resigned myself to resting for the day and since it was storming when I got home, riding wouldn’t have been an option anyway. I suppose it’s okay. Saturday would find me climbing four peaks over 4,000 feet and hiking around 16 miles. We’d likely be on the trail for over 8 hours and so the energy expenditure would be comparable to running two marathons. That being said, tapering…or going easy over the last few days before a big event…makes a lot of sense. Truly, my only reason for riding was to be able to write that I’d done a workout. I don’t need it right now…so don’t sweat it.

I made a great batch of pinole for the trip…it’s just too awesome to keep around the house for long. Since we would not be backpacking in to a base camp, I could afford to bring food that I wouldn’t normally since it wouldn’t have to all fit into a couple of bear canisters. I had decided to camp at the trailhead because I’m still a little spooked about the hip and suspect carrying the heavy pack for 3 hours might inflame it again. Not being able to hike into our favorite camping spot was a little disappointing, but the peaks we were planning to climb were too far from that site for it to be practical. I suppose with the way the hip has been, it’s really a good thing. I think I can handle the climbs even with a stress fracture, but not if I was carry a 60# pack first. Tomorrow I’ll rest during the drive and that’s three days off before the big climb…unless we get there early enough and I can sneak in a small peak tomorrow…
P.S.  Next post won't be until next Wednesday.