What went wrong. How to fix it.

Monday, August 3, 2015

It was the first day back from the Adirondacks with the knowledge that I’d been in the worst shape I’d ever been in for a trip there.  And I was more than a little disgusted with myself.

I’m not sure what has happened to me since Tour Ohio, but I know taking the job with the YMCA coupled with my divorce put me in a place that left me disinterested in my training regimen.  I continued to do it, but without the conviction I’ve had for so many years.  I refuse to use such incidences as excuses, but I know I lost some direction and motivation and once gone, it can prove elusive to recapture. 

Fast-forward to July of 2015 and you will find a man climbing bleachers with a 40-pound pack strapped to his back desperate to get into some kind of hiking shape.  Well…I didn’t have enough time and so it didn’t work.

I probably would have been fine if I hadn’t started up that peak on Friday last at the pace I’ve used since I first went to the Adirondacks.  I have basically one hiking speed.  It’s reasonably fast and very steady.  I don’t stop, either.  I just let my heart pound faster for periods of really steep ascents and then catch my breath when it levels out.  That is not such a good approach when your conditioning level is about fifty percent of what it usually is for that pace.  I did it for about thirty minutes.  Then I crashed and burned.

So…time to fix that.  I met Savannah at the park and quickly pulled my pack from the trunk, strapped it on, and did step-ups on a boulder next to the car – twenty per leg.

As we hiked, I found other places to do more step-ups and by the time I was ready to get back into the car, had done 200.  I’ll build on that over the next several weeks, probably toping out around 600.  When I can do that, I will again be charging up mountain trails instead of stopping and trying to catch my breath on shaking legs. 

Hike/step-up duration:  75 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  650.