Viewing 1 - 9 out of 18 Fitness Journals.

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I did a 30 mile bike ride and wanted to follow it up with an easy 3 mile run. About a mile into the run I turned from a cross street and saw a young kid about a quarter mile ahead. I was setting a faster pace so I thought it would be fun to catch, and pass, him. When I was about 15 feet behind he noticed I was there and he picked up the pace. I picked it up too. I was on his a-- within a few minutes. He picked up the pace again. I followed suit. I felt that I could pass if I gave a spurt, but as I got next to him he increased his speed again. I matched him for about a half mile and still felt like I had a little left, but as I glanced at my heart rate monitor I was running at 162 BPM. This is my max. I knew that even if I did pass him, he would probably be able to get ahead of me again because I could not keep that pace for long. So I stayed with him until he turned onto another street. Thank god he turned off because I could not stay at that pace for much longer. I kept running my route, but really enjoyed the unoficial "race". What a great day. To be 59 and stay with a 17 or 18 year old for two miles, after what I had already done, really made my day.

In addtion to my new running shoes, my new crampons came  today. Grivel Air Tech's. Sweet. They have a much easier binding system than my old crampons. They also have an extra set of points that help bite while traversing glacial ice. I'm getting psyched about Pico De Orizaba (18,000 footer in Mexico) for January. 

Tags: Mountain Climbing

I've been having a sore right heel most times after I run. So I broke down and bought a new pair of running shoes. I was way over due. Got a pair of Mizuno Wave rider 11's. I felt great on my run today!

Tags: Running

Since coming back from the MT Rainer I've had no motivation to workout. I have gained 2 lbs in the last 6 weeks! I am 15% slower on my bike rides and have lost some upper body strength as well. I have to get back at it.

I did a 35 mile bike ride Thursday. It's my last workout before departing for Mt Rainier. I'm all packed and ready to go. Everyone on the team has been concerned about the terrible spring weather that just claimed a climber on Tuesday. His other two partners were suffering from frost bite and hypothermia and they were waiting for the weather to clear to get a helicopter up to get them to a hospital.There have been few successful summit attempts due to the wind, snow, white-out and wind conditions. We have chosen a "plan B" mountain further inland, but it appears that the mountain god's are finally looking favorably at us. A high pressure system is supposed to move in Saturday through Tuesday and bring clearing. Thaat's exactly the window we needed for a succesful climb! The temperatures have moderated also. looks like we could be above 0 at the summit (without the wind chill). Psyched!

One of my team members informed me that three climbers got trapped on Mt Rainier a few days ago. Although they had shelter, they were caught for several days in a blizzard. One died. A rescue team managed to get the other two down to 10,000ft to Camp Muir, but they have to wait for the weather to clear to effect a helicopter rescue. The other two are suffering from hypothermia and frost bite. This is just what my wife wanted to hear two days before I leave.

Well, I unpacked the bricks from my pack today. The weather is in the low 90's. It's hard to believe that I started training on the ski hill ,with the bricks, when it was 15 degrees out. Just a few more easy workouts this week and then off to Seattle.

I did a 6 mile run yesterday and my right heel was really painfull today. This is the second time that it's happened after a run so I guess I need to replace my running shoes. So I didn't run today. On another note...Welcome to New England. It's been barely into the low 60's for many weeks, but today it hit close to 90 with high humidity. I had a lot of prep work to buy food and check my gear for the Rainier climb next weekend. So I took care of that and thought that I should get some kind of workout. Since my heel was hurting it would be a perfect day for a bike ride. If you've followed my journals, my bike was out of commission due to a broken derailer tensioner. But I took two tensioners off another bike, cleaned the rust with a Brillo pad, re-greased them, and put them on my bike. Worked like a charm. But I only had time for a short ride so I did 5 miles. It was hot!

Well, after 6 days of not working out, 2 physical therapy appts, and a massage to ease the pain of the pulled muscles in my right leg, I started working out again. It's amazing how missing those 6 days has hurt my routine. I did the ski hill for an hour today with only 45 lbs in the pack and it took me longer than with the 60 lbs before I hurt myself. But at least I have healed. I was getting worried that it would compronise my climb. I guess I have to be very careful for the next 12 days. Can't wait to personally meet the 5 guys on the team and start the ascent.

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