"It's a hip-circle mount..."

Sunday, August 21, 2011

With the poison ivy continuing to spread, I decided it was time to wash everything I’d come into contact with since last Saturday. I’ve got a car full of towels that I sit on after workouts to keep the sweat from saturating the seat, so I grabbed those, all my running and cycling gear and gave it all to Holly. Maybe poison ivy acts this way…continuing to erupt 8 days after contracting it…but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have clean clothes and towels.

John and I met at the park to do a hike in our new shoes and with packs on. He immediately began to give me grief about going to the doctor’s for some kind of shot to clear up the poison ivy. “Jack had a severe case this past Spring and when we took him in, they didn’t have any shot to give him. I’m not wasting money and time on a doctor’s visit so they can tell me to spread ointment on it and it will eventually go away,” I said. “Besides…Lance would ignore it…go hiking…and look for more to roll in.”

I pulled out my pack, loaded and weighing 60 pounds. I grabbed the 40-pound bag of salt I’d brought for John to put in his pack. “Geez…I don’t know if I want it to be that heavy,” he whined. I had another bag with about 25 pounds in it, which he elected to take.

John has been off of the Oreo’s for a few weeks now and is looking pathetically skinny. “You need some upper body development, John. Push-ups, pull-ups…that kind of stuff. You’re looking like a little girl,” I said. He was unconvinced, saying he could easily beat the 12 push-up number I’d reached the other day. “Give you a buck if you can,” I said as we walked over to the branch I use. He jumped up, grabbed hold and started pulling. The first three went pretty smoothly, four was a struggle and five was the limit. Actually, not too bad for starters. Then I told him about the new book ‘Younger Next Year’ which I’d just started reading. “It’s about how little you have to concede to the aging process if you’re willing to work out hard six days a week…amongst other things. I know it works…I’m living proof. I can do a hip-circle mount again and I haven’t done one of those things since I was in high school,” I said. He scratched his head. “A hip-cycle…what?” Clearly, he hadn’t taken gym class at Eastlake Junior High School. “A hip-circle mount,” I said reaching for the branch from which he’d just done his pull-ups. I jumped up, grabbing the branch as if to do a pull-up, while swinging my legs up, pointing my toes to the sky as I pulled up. My legs shot up past the branch until my hips were even with it at which point I curled my toes over and down until I was vertical again with my waist even with the tree branch. I swung back down and dropped to the ground like Kurt Thomas dismounting a horizontal bar. “Hip-circle mount,” I said again. I don’t think he was impressed, but I was thrilled with myself. It seems like there have been so many things I’ve been unable to do over the past 20 years as I’ve let myself age…things that I’ve just concluded were beyond the reach of a 56-year old…but not anymore. I don’t know exactly what I want to do with this new-found ability, I just like having the knowledge that I really can do about anything I could do in my youth…if I was willing to put in the effort.

We went on a 70-minute hike up hills and off-trail. It was slippery from all the rain and we were both careful to use our sticks and avoid falling with packs…never good for knees. At one point, we came upon the remains of a deer…a couple of thigh and jaw bones were all that remained. I had John put the jaw bones in my pack to see if they matched the skull I’d found over the winter. John was wearing his heart-rate monitor and actually registered a heart rate of 156 bpm while climbing one of the hills. Mostly though, it stayed a little over 100 bpm…still decent and a good reason to wear a pack while walking. I suppose I was running about 10-15 beats higher since I was carrying over twice the weight. I did notice some discomfort in the hip I’d hurt last summer though, and concluded that I should use less weight on the next time out.

Hike workout: 70 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.