Accidentally Halfway to Mount Heinen

When Ambrose and I drove out a few weeks ago along the Middlefork Road, we spotted a trail that seemed to go straight up from the road. We agreed that it would be our training hike to start the season, and when we got back from that trip, I tried to find the trail. The only clue I had was that it was near Irish Creek. We both looked over Google maps to trace the trail pretty far back, and neither of us really knew where it went, though Ambrose noticed a peak it might approach. 

This last weekend we made good on our plans, left the house around 5:30 and arrived at the trail before 7 in the morning. As we started hiking up, the sun hadn't yet risen above the high surrounding ridges, though it was bright enough that we had no need of headlamps. I was wearing my new Softstar Switchbacks for the first time on a hike, and it would prove to be a trial by fire, er, elevation. 

The trail that looked so steep from the road? Yeah, it was even steeper than I thought it would be. While it did start off relatively nicely, it soon became a series of hill climbs. They were practically staircases (Ambrose later calculated the average grade of the hike at 19%!). I found myself trying different gaits just to deal with the steepness. Whoever designed this trail clearly had something against switchbacks. 

Ambrose spotted some deer high overhead. I wished for their fleetness of foot as I trudged up the steep, switchbackless trail. I know I complain about switchbacks sometimes, but there's a balance to be found between super long switchbacks and none. 

I sometimes just used my forefoot, and other times I did a sideways crossover step. The crossover step felt a lot better than going straight up, but I didn't have a lot of stamina doing that. I'll probably build that up as we continue to hike this trail (of course we're going back, it was HARD). I called a break less than a mile in, because I was not prepared for this much uphill. The boots were doing okay. I was noticing the lack of gusseting on the tongue, because little rocks kept sneaking inside and poking my toes. It wasn't awful, but I did take them off to get rocks out and retied them at the break. 

The retie helped keep rocks out, but next time I take these boots up this trail I'm going to wear gaiters and see if that improves the experience. We took another break for a call of nature, and then made our final push to what looked like the high point of the ridgeline. I was so happy to get there, where the trail transitioned from motorbike eaten dirt piles to grassy walking trail. And I didn't see any uphill in the direction I was facing. 

Alas, the trail took a right angle turn and led me to gape at yet another steep stretch of trail ahead. Okay, I said to myself. This trail is just going to keep climbing. No matter what I hope or want, it's going up, and I'm going along for the ride. I did, however, call for a break before we started the next big uphill. 

The trail did indeed keep climbing. Up, and up, and up. Always turning and weaving to find the absolute highest points along the ridge to follow. The higher we got, the more we could see across the reservoir. Grassy plateaus and low meadows shone green under the white, snowy peaks that I'd never seen from the road. We came across patches of snow hiding in a gully, but none on the trail. 

I finally saw what looked like a genuine top-out. And when I reached it, it was a top-out! The trail continued on down, and then climbed right back up again!  How dare it? I was dismayed at the prospect of losing so much elevation only to go up again. My body said, no, not today. And I agreed. 

When Ambrose caught up with me, I showed him the GPS; we had gone nearly 2 miles and up about 2100 feet. I also asked how he would feel about turning back. I was so glad when he had no issues about it at all, agreeing to my tentative suggestion readily. Probably because he would get to show off his downhill hiking skills, which are superior to mine. 

We were just starting to get going when a guy hiked up the trail. He asked if we'd made it to the peak, and we said no. He hiked on. The peak? Hmm... 

Next time I start an intense downhill like this in the Switchback boots, I'm going to make sure to tighten and retie before starting. But I'm not sure that would have been all that much help, because of the angles that the trail forced my feet to take. It wasn't long before I needed to take a break to dump little rocks and retie the boots, and as I was finishing up voices floating up from below became a pair of women, accompanied by a teeny, tiny dog. 

They, too, asked about the peak. As did the next group, and the next, and the next. We just kept running into people as we went down, and I finally asked one pair, "What peak is it that everyone keeps talking about?" 

I think she was surprised that someone would be hiking a trail without knowing where it went, and she replied, "Heinen." Pronounced Hay-nen. I resolved to look it up when I got home. 

When we got back down to the motorbike widened section, the trail was wide enough that I could kind of trot beside Ambrose and figure out how he was moving faster by mimicking him. But I didn't do that for too long, because the trail was too rocky to be side by side. I took the "switchlets" aka not really switchbacks, but little curves around the parts of the trail that resembled a rockslide. 

The Switchback boots were not doing great on the steep downhills. My toes were sliding down into the front of the boot a bit, and the big toes were both getting a bit sore from it. I was regretting making this my first hike with these boots, because I think they'd do fine on a normal trail. 

I was trying to keep my legs and body more relaxed than I usually am on a steep downhill hike. I get nervous about falling, and I tense up and it makes the hike much harder on me than it needs to be. I managed to avoid making my muscles go into tremble mode by focusing on that. Definitely need to remember to relax on those downhills! 

One group, near the bottom, asked if we'd seen the sunrise on the trail. The question gave me pause, because I had just spent a couple hours exerting myself and now I was being asked a weird question, to me. Seen it? Well, not technically. I wasn't watching the sunrise. But I was here when the sun rose, so I said that. I could have said yes, but my answer to his actual question wasn't yes, because I didn't "see" the sun rise. I may be too pedantic at times. . . 

Ambrose and I passed one more pair of hikers just leaving the road, and then we had to carefully avoid a few vehicles on the short road walk to the car. At this point, we were both feeling our leg muscles protesting the use we had just put them to. I took advantage of the pit toilet, and then Ambrose drove us home, grateful that we no longer drove a manual. 

Once we got home, I figured out that the Mount Heinen trail is a total of 5 miles out, approximately 3200 feet of gain. The drop we had been facing was "only" 150 feet down before the climbing resumed, which meant we would have had roughly 1250 feet more uphill before we hit the peak. Both of us were pleased to have done over 2000 feet for the first trip. And I'm not alone in being eager to go back and try myself against that tough trail. I need to get in shape for the Idaho Centennial Trail in August, and I believe the Mount Heinen trail is just what I'm looking for. 

Two celestial bodies in the dawn light, but I'm not sure which ones. 

Yes, the trail is steep. 

The trail also rolls past a memorial.

Blurry deer.

Ambrose's new day pack looking good.

Ambrose making his way up.

Oh, yes, it keeps climbing.

More uphill, and we're getting higher.

I say to myself, does the trail really go all the way up there? And I answer, yes. Yes, it does. Keep climbing.

Yay snow!

View from our top-out spot.

View of our top-out spot.

Looks like we can see all the way to 20 from here. 

The views coming down were rewarding.

I don't normally like downhill, but this one was a relief.

Summer Plans

I've already got my big trips planned for next summer. Ambrose and I will be going back to the Olympic National Forest for one more go at the Wild Coast. We just love that trip so much, and now that Ambrose has lost so much weight, it will be like an entirely different trip. I'm looking forward to another nine days trekking along the ocean. 

The other really big trip will be another section of the Idaho Centennial Trail. I'll be doing a day hike to finish the section that will take me through Lynx Meadows, and then I'll be backpacking from Warm Springs Bar up to the Moose Meadows Guard Station. From there, I'll meet up with Ambrose and Bill, and we'll all hike out together along the Selway River. That should be 5 to 6 days, depending on how fast I go through the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. I've heard mixed things about the state of the trails I'll be taking, so I'm planning on no more than 10 miles per day. I hope I can do the 30 miles in 3 days, but I'll carry food as if it will take 4 days. Ambrose will be carrying more food for me for the hike out. 

And there's one more trip now in the planning stages. I have invited one of my nieces (the eldest) to come out from Illinois to go on a backpacking and camping trip. It will be a long weekend. I'll pick her up from the airport and start driving out to the campsite. Most likely, the first night will be somewhere between Featherville and the Big Smokey Campground. The second night will be an overnight backpack out to Skillern Hot Springs. And then one more night at the Big Smokey before heading back to my apartment so she can shower before flying home. 

I hope that the Skillern trip is an adventure for her. I know that I loved it as my first backpacking trip, and I've brought one other person out for a good first trip. But with teenagers, who knows, right? Still, I'm looking forward to spending some time with her one on one, in a place that I know well and where I feel comfortable. 

Of course, Ambrose and I will go out over Memorial Day weekend for our annual trip. I hope we have better luck with morels this year. And there will doubtless be some training hikes and/or overnighters out to 6125. Can you tell I can't wait for it to be backpacking season again? 

Map Case

I've been working on a new map case for a while now. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with my current map case, but over the winter Ambrose bought some special material for me to build the case with. Naturally, I only worked on it on and off until this past weekend when I finally hammered down on building the prototype. 

See, it's not just a map case for me. It's my At Hand bag. Sure, it mostly holds my maps so that they can be reached easily, but also other stuff that I want to keep relatively at hand. I've taken to keeping my Kindle in it (if I take my Kindle), because it's the place least likely to get squished. Along with the maps, I also keep pen and paper handy for writing notes. And if I'm hiking along and getting too warm for my layers, I can temporarily stuff taken off layers into the bag (or otherwise attach them, like wrapping a buff around the strap). That way I don't have to stop hiking and stow them properly in my pack; I can keep moving until break time arrives. 

The material I'm now working with is Dyneema from Ripstop by the Roll. It seems like it should be too flimsy to hold up to much, unlike the birdseed bags I've worked with in the past. But, advantage, it's also blue instead of being covered with birdseed bag illustrations and text. I might miss reading about the maximum moisture content of the birdseed, but I think I can live with that. 

On Saturday, I finally took the template I had cut out months ago and sewed up the sides - most of the way. I've left a small space at the bottom so that water can get out, should it get in. This does limit the bag's utility to objects larger than those holes (one on each side), but my solution is that I don't put little things in there. Anything that little can fit in one of my pockets if I need it at hand. 

Sunday, I inverted it to add some tape reinforcement to the reverse side of the stitching first. Then it was time to attach some little plastic rings I got at Michael's. I sewed the rings in on either side so I wouldn't have to directly attach the strap to the Dyneema. Instead, the rings would serve as an anchor point for the strap I braided. 

All the stitches got a layer of tape on top. 

Well, technically, I braided the strap to the rings after I sewed them in. Made more sense that way. But before I did the strap, I needed to practice. I got some yarn down so I could get the hand of 1) doing a flat 6 stranded braid, and 2) get an idea of how long I needed that length to be before I cut my good cord. I am very glad I did it that way, because it took several frustrating tries before I got the hang of the braiding, and I'd rather mess up yarn than my lovely cord. 

The test braid.

I've got all the cord braided on, and the length is good, but I wanted to finish it by weaving the ends of the strands back into the braid, and I can't quite finish it with the tools that I have. The smallest crochet hook that I have is 4.25mm, and that's just too big to pull through the braid. I've ordered another set of hooks that go down to 0.6mm and that should do the trick. 

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the prototype. I like the colors, and it holds my old phone (aka the GPS), my Kindle and a set of maps quite nicely, with not too much pressure on the neck from the strap. I will be making at least one more, after I test this one in the field and see what it needs. But if I ever wanted to actually start making and selling these, I think I need to get a sewing machine. And to learn how to use it :)

Filled bag!

OCR Improvements

I didn't get to the OCR class when I had originally planned to go in March because I wasn't feeling the best that month. But I wanted to get there at least once, so, even though I could feel myself coming down with something, I went last Saturday.

The interesting thing about the class was that it was listed as having a substitute instructor. So, it wouldn't be the same guy that I'd seen the last few times I went. I hoped that wouldn't mean it was harder, since I wasn't feeling one hundred percent.

The class felt pretty large, though there were only about 16 of us. It felt bigger, in part because there were other people in the gym and they kind of jumped in and out of doing the obstacles. The warm up let me know that I was definitely coming down with something, because running around the gym, doing small sets of burpees and squats, should not have made me feel so achey and tired.

We started with rope climbs, though the instructor allowed a small group to start on the monkey bars instead. I thought about going with the small group since I'm pretty comfortable with rope climbs by now, but then I decided to stick with the ropes. I shared a rope with two others, including one girl whose name I don't remember - I do know that she's been at the other OCR classes I've been to though. We took turns going up the rope. I started out pretty shaky, but managed to get several three-pulls once I warmed up.

Then the group as a whole went over to the monkey bars, and I made my way across the "normal" bars without too much trouble. I couldn't go very fast, or hand over hand as I had last time. But I made it. And I tried to coax a nervous girl into giving the bars a try. She did eventually try, and dropped almost immediately. But the cool part was that she did (after more coaxing) try again, making it to the second bar. Even cooler, when she tried one last time, she made it through about five.

I was nervous to try the large multi-level bars, but I did it anyway. And, even though I was feeling ill and nervous, I made it across. I am getting stronger in my grip and with my body control. I did try the multi-level bars a second time, but I did the exact same thing I did in the Spartan race last year - I reached out for the higher bar, missed it and swung back. Well, it wasn't exactly the same, because I managed to recover and hold onto the first bar - but I dropped rather than try again.

I think I'll be okay for the Spartan Race this year - as long as I don't come down with something the weekend of!

Sublimating Frustration

I've finished 15 weeks of my Spartan training plan. I don't feel that I'm ready yet, and that's why I started so soon. I mean, most people prepare for their Spartan Race with training 6, maybe 8, weeks before the race, right? But I know that I took nearly 11 months to get my first pull-up with a weekly training plan.

So I knew I'd have to start early. And I also knew, from the previous training, that I'd run into frustration. Sure, I'm slowly increasing my weights, but the changes are slow and incremental. And my progress on the Sunday training is a bit back and forth. I haven't made much progress on the single arm holds or the monkey bars. And I still can't do a single peg on the peg board with any consistency. Or rather, I might be able to move one peg just before my feet hit the ground - no control.

I'm taking a week off of the training to rest a particularly sore triceps on my left arm. I had that happen before, too, when I was first working on getting kipping pull ups. I'm still doing CrossFit this week, but I'll try to give that arm a bit of a break.

Next week I'll be starting week 16, and I know I just have to keep grinding. Progress will be slow, but then I'll get to the obstacle course training class and I'll be able to do more things. Not everything, but more. I'm chipping away at a big block, and it takes time.

I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Spartan Obstacle Training

Last Saturday I went back to Camp Rhino Boise to do another round of the Obstacle Course Race class. This time, after a vigorous warm-up, we started with rope climbs, and then moved onto a combination of slip wall and Olympus training. On the rope climbs, I was near some nice folks who are also doing the race in Boise in June, and we ended up chatting quite a bit. I was able to help one of the women get an idea of what kind of underwear one should use on race day - not the kind of tip that abounds on Spartan Race how-to's.

I'm definitely improving on my rope climbs. I have a lot more comfort with them than I used to, and I can get up, most of the time, with just three pulls. I'll take that at 5 foot 3. Though I do have a fancy that, maybe, someday, I might be able to do it in two if I jump really high. The woman I was sharing a rope with was a complete beginner to rope climbs, so she worked on standing with her feet in the hold, and I could see her improve as we continued to work.

Then we headed over to the slip wall, which is an angled wall with optional ropes. The ideal is to just run up it, but it is acceptable to use the rope to walk up it. I wasn't sure I could just run up it, but I did, albeit with less grace than some other folks. Once we reached the top, we were supposed to drop on the other side, and make our way across a small distance and climb back up, then walk down the slip wall. The other side is on its way to becoming an Olympus, which is an obstacle in Spartan Races that has a very slightly angled wall with a variety of handholds. The idea is to get up on it in a squat and use the handholds to traverse across without dropping to the ground. I am not good at that - yet. I'm hoping better shoes will help out, but for now I'll just keep working the strength angle.

All 15 participants went up twice, and then we headed back to the ropes to finish off the class. When the instructor asked who would be staying for Obstacle Course Boot Camp, a session that was not offered the last time I went, I asked if I would need to use another punch. He said no, so I decided to stay.

I had brought a sports drink and an apple to snack on after the class, but I decided to leave them in the car. I guess so they'd stay cold? That meant I didn't have them to eat between the regular class and the boot camp, and on that decision I blame how much I dragged in the boot camp. Pro tip: have a snack before the boot camp!

Saturdays are usually a rest day for me, and I don't consider the Obstacle Course class to be a "workout" though it is to an extent. But the boot camp is like a combination of a CrossFit Endurance class with obstacles sprinkled in. It was HARD.

Partner workout, split reps as seen fit, work at the same time: 100 air squats, 80 wall balls, 60 burpees over the bar, 40 calories, 20 dumbbell box step overs, 10 thrusters, 5 pull-ups and 5 dips each, 5 pull-ups and 5 dips each, 10 thrusters, 20 dumbbell box step overs, 40 calories, 60 man makers, 80 wall balls, 100 jumping air squats. Oh, and after every set, do two obstacles.

My partner, a young woman, and I, got through the air squats with dispatch and then came the hard part. See, this was only my second visit, and I'd only ever done three obstacles before. There were some that I simply didn't know how to do. So I kind of made her take the lead on picking which ones to do. As we made our way through the torture, she got, I think, a bit frustrated at that, and we did end up splitting up on some of them. For example, I did a rope climb, and she did something else.

But the cool part about the boot camp was that it gave me an opportunity to work on obstacles while fatigued. And I made it across both the flat monkey bars and the up-and-down monkey bars in the middle of that workout. I was even able to go single handed on the flat ones, which I am particularly proud of, because that hasn't been a part of my skill set ever before in my life.

I also got to try a traverse wall, the cargo net a-frame, a net climb thing where you roll over the top and then drop down to a bar and then to the ground, a slack line, log balance steps, and two different weights of hoists. We also did the 4 foot wall a few times when we couldn't think of anything else to do.

We didn't make it through the whole workout in the allotted 50 or so minutes. We ended in the man makers; I'm not sure how many she got through of the 30 each we had, but I got through 13. It's definitely something that I'll do again next time, with a little better planning.

I didn't notice this until I got home and felt it stinging. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, but I'm guessing it was the lip of the slip wall from the first time I ran up it and didn't get my whole body to the to at once... 

I went hand to hand across these narrow diameter black bars. 

It was hard to see where the bars were in my original picture, so I added some highlighting. I had to put both hands on each bar to get past this one, but I did it, which was pretty thrilling. 

Workout Review: Day 3 Open Hour

I had to take a week off of my workout, because I had some things going on. Also, not this past Sunday, but the one before, after I had completed the workout of the day, I found I was in too much pain to keep going. I usually do the workout first, and then do my Spartan preparation workout during Sunday's open hour at my CrossFit box, but I felt like I was going to vomit and I went home instead.

So, I took a week off, and the numbers I put up this last Sunday, the last day of week 13, were not exactly where I wanted them to be. But they do look a lot better compared to week 1, so I'll focus on that.

This day's workout is grip intensive, and it starts with a bang. A tabata of alternating single arm holds. That's 20 seconds on, 10 seconds of rest, 8 times, which makes 4 times each arm. I'd have to say that this one is a pretty big struggle. The first time I tried it, I was able to do okay, maybe hang on the full time once with each arm. But after that, I found that I wasn't able to hold on very long and I ended up going onto my toes for support. At this point, I try the first round for each hand as long as I can, and then go to toes for the remaining rounds. In week 12, I managed to complete those first two rounds, but last Sunday I was not. It's a hit or miss kind of exercise for me right now.

Next, I use the two staggered height bars to do some monkey-bar'ing. I go forward and then back down, and completing both of those counts as one rep. For this, I've definitely improved my form. I can feel that I'm stronger in my ability to stabilize with one hand low and one high. But I haven't really grown my number of reps. I can get two pretty easily, but then I get tired. I got 5 once. I've been thinking about trying to turn around so I'm facing forward going down, but I haven't quite gotten the nerve up for that yet.

Then I spend some time trying to hold onto the bar with my arms bent (L's). Ideally, I should be able to monkey bar with L's, but I'm not there yet. But I have improved my hang time from 11 seconds the first week to 30 seconds. And one of my friends took a picture of me hanging from the bar like that because she thought it looked cool.

Next, I attempt to hold onto a climbing rope for as long as I can with my arms close to my chest, not straight and extended. The first week, I maxed out at 4 seconds. Week 12, I got all the way to 19 seconds (a mere 14 seconds last Sunday). I have lately been having issues with this one because my hold squishes whichever index finger is under the other hand. Squishes it so much it stays squished for like 30 seconds after I let go, so that's not pleasant and I need to figure out how to adjust.

Then I do 1 to 5 rope climbs. Well, that's the plan. I started doing 1, and then moved to 2, and in week 12, I did 3 (using only 3 pulls on each climb, which, if you don't know what that means, is really good for a short person). Last Sunday, I only did 1, because I kicked myself off the rope on my first attempt and figured I shouldn't push myself. Have I mentioned I also have a cold/sinus thing going on?

Peg board holds come next. I don't have any illusions that I can actually climb a peg board, but I can hold onto the pegs. I started this one using straight arms, but my times were getting pretty long, so I started incorporating bent arm holds as well. My first straight arm hold came in at 36 seconds. The last one was 84 seconds, and my longest bent arm hold is clocking in at 39 seconds.

I do actually make an attempt to move the pegs on the board, but I haven't gotten any farther than moving a single peg before falling. Yet!

Two grip carry exercises come next. First, a farmer carry with kettle bells, and then a pinch grip with plates. I started with the 53 pound kettle bells, but now I'm using the 70 pound ones, which makes me feel like a badass. I mean, that's almost my body weight I'm carrying for a good 70 or so steps. With the plates, I'm still working on the 25 pound plates. They are thick enough that the pinch grip is hard to hold with my small hands, so they remain a challenge. I also try to use that grip to carry weights during everyday workouts, because I'm weird.

And, finally, it's time for GHD sit-ups and GHD back extensions. I started with sets of 10 and have been steadily increasing by a single rep at regular intervals. Week 12, I was up to 14, but last Sunday I scaled back to 10 because of not feeling one hundred percent.

It frustrates me that I can't just do all the things I want to do. But by looking back at this, I can at least see that I have improved. Even when I was feeling sick, I still increased most of my hold times. And the monkey bars are feeling easier, even if I lack stamina. I really need to find some good monkey bars to practice on, but most parks don't have the kind that go up and down, or ones with thick bars like the Spartan Race has. Still. The motion should help.

I also need to get out there and practice the spear some more, but I figure that can wait until it's not quite so cold. And once it starts getting light out around 6 in the morning, then I'll start doing some running after CrossFit instead of stretching.

Workout Review: Day 1 Rec Center

I'm entering my thirteenth week of doing my Spartan race training. I've been doing three days a week of workouts. Two of them are completed at a normal gym, and the third I do at my CrossFit box during open hour. I'm going to look back at my results from the start and compare them to the most recent one.

The exercises are all pretty upper body focused, with a smattering of core focused work added in for stability. I try to push myself when it comes to weights. The idea is to push to failure, and I try to get close without risking injury.


The first exercise is wrist extensions. I'm not sure if I should maybe go back down in weight again to try and build up strength on these. I started out using a 5 pound dumbbell, then moved to 7.5 pounds and yesterday I used a 10 pounder. With the 10 pound dumbbell, I definitely struggle on the back half of each set, and my form would probably be better with the weight backed off a bit.

It's almost the same story with the second exercise, which is wrist curls. I started with 10 pounds, and I'm up to 17.5 as of yesterday. But those are also pretty difficult at that weight. And there's something weird that happens with my wrists when I do the wrist curls, even with lighter weight. My wrists pop as I lift the weight, and they don't stop popping. Lift, pop. Release, pop. It feels weird, and does start to hurt, so I try to avoid it, but I think I'm not getting full range of motion when I avoid the popping. Again, dropping the weight might help.

The next thing I do is go to the lat pull down machine. Rather, to one of them. There are two at my gym; one is downstairs and the other is upstairs. The downstairs one has a narrower bar and can be adjusted in 5 pound increments. The one upstairs has a thicker bar and can only be adjusted in 15 pound increments. I find the upstairs one much harder to use; I've discovered that I have about a 10 pound difference between the two machines. At the start of this project, I used the upstairs one more often, but towards December the gym got less crowded and I used the downstairs one more often. Now, in January, it's a lot more crowded and sometimes (like yesterday) I have to wait for a machine. Rather than do nothing, I skip to the next exercise and then try to find an open machine again.

In week 1, I did 50 pounds on the upstairs machine. Last week, I did 100 pounds on the downstairs machine. And yesterday, I struggled with 80 pounds on the upstairs machine and went to failure on 95 pounds on the upstairs machine.

Usually, the Eccentric Biceps Curl comes after the Lat Pull Downs, but yesterday I had to switch them. For those, I have two different ways of approaching the exercise. I can use two lighter weight dumbbells and do both arms at once, or I can use one heavy dumbbell and do one arm at a time. The heavy dumbbell should be one that I can't curl without the help of the other arm. As an added stress to my grip, I try to go upstairs and use the dumbbells with the thick handles for these.

I started with two 20 pound dumbbells for the light weight and one 25 pound for the heavy. Yesterday, I did one 30 pound dumbbell, and last week I did two 25 pounders. So I'm making a little bit of progress on those free weights. I'll have to try doing a chin up one of these days and see if there's any improvement.

My last machine stop is at the seated row. Again, there is one machine downstairs and one upstairs, but the difficulties are reversed. The downstairs seated row is much more difficult than the upstairs, which has two independent handles instead of a single handle. I can switch out the downstairs handle, but there's still only one pulley, so it's just as hard.

I started at the upstairs one and really had no idea what to use when I started. The first day, I tried sets at 40, 50 and 60 pounds. Up to 70 pounds the next week and continuing to tick up, slowly but surely. Yesterday I did a set at 105 on the upstairs. But I only got 90 pounds last week on the downstairs machine.

The last exercise on the plan for this day is a tabata (8 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest). Plank, right side plank, left side plank, bridge, repeat. I feel stronger on this one. I'm doing straight arms for all the planks, and doing a full bridge. I could have just done a hip bridge, but I've got the flexibility for the full and I'm enjoying doing something a bit gymnastic in the routine. I definitely feel better in the bridge than when I started. It's easier to breathe and also to adjust myself.

One thing that I've added to the routine is some hip flexor work. At the gym, that's usually some seated leg lifts. I think I might add in a goal about doing a hanging L sit, but I'm not sure what kind of goal would be realistic; at this point I can hardly hold an L sit long enough to count.

Overall, I'm experiencing steady improvement with these exercises. I've got a lot more time before my race, so if I can keep this up, I should get a much better result for myself - the official goal is an obstacle pass rate of at least 70%. If there are 8 burpee-penalty obstacles, like last year, then that means missing no more than 2.

Spartan Training Update January 2019

I am moving forward with my Spartan Race training plan. I completed the 11th week of training on Sunday and not this past weekend, but the one before, I went to a new place for obstacle course training.

Sometimes my progress with the weekly training feels like it is going nowhere. I might increase some weights here or there, but then I have other areas where I'm not holding on as long. It's a long, slow process to get my upper body into the kind of shape that can tackle Spartan monkey bars with my short arms.

The obstacle course training that I went to was out of Camp Rhino in Boise. They also do CrossFit there, but I'm happy doing CrossFit at Arbor. The draw of Camp Rhino for me is that they have obstacles to practice on, and I hoped the atmosphere would be not too intimidating. I thought about trying to drag other people along, but decided I should go by myself. After all, I raced by myself last year and this couldn't possibly be any more intimidating than that.

Well, I didn't get off to a good start. I had an upset stomach the morning I planned to go, and may have set a record for number of times going to the bathroom in an hour. But I made it to the facility (where I had to use the bathroom one more time), and got checked in without any issues. I was a bit uncertain about what to do after that. People were milling around in the workout area, which was quite large, with one side devoted to more CrossFit style equipment and the other more obstacle course oriented, and Ninja Warrior oriented, with a warped wall and a salmon ladder in addition to ropes and walls and monkey bars.

The receptionist had pointed out the instructor so I kept an eye on him, briefly introducing myself before the class got started. When the class did get started, I surprised myself by being one of the quicker folks during warm-ups. Why, there were people there who didn't know what burpees were! So that was a nice boost of confidence for me.

The first obstacle we worked on was rope climbs. I said that was moderately good at them, and that proved true enough, I think. I can get myself up a rope, for the most part. I just failed horribly when it came to last year's race. So the more practice I get on them, the better. I didn't know what to call my foot wrapping technique, because I always forget what I'm using (I use the J-hook). But I could demonstrate it.

And after we worked on ropes, we moved on to walls. Now this was what I came here for!

We started at the 4 foot wall, which the instructor explained to us was the one where the most people got injured - more than the 8 foot wall - because of overconfidence. So, we all treated it very seriously, except for the one guy whose legs were so long he was practically stepping over it. He ended up catching his toe and stumbling once.

I was able to get over the 4 foot wall with ease and even try the speed technique the instructor demonstrated, which is almost like doing a roundhouse kick over the wall so as to fling your body towards the next obstacle. Fun.

The 6 foot wall was harder, and yet, it was also not as hard as it was during last year's race. I am, in fact, stronger than I was last year. My technique isn't very fast, but I was one of only two women to get up and over the 6 foot wall without assistance. Once I get my forearms on top of the wall, I can get an ankle up, and then it's just a matter of leveraging myself onto the top and sliding down.

The 8 foot wall was not so easy. Last year's race didn't have an 8 footer - just a 7 footer (just!). I had nothing to compare this one to. And I couldn't get myself up and over. I could grab the top with my hands (with the help of the kicker), and I could lift my legs while holding on, but my shoes offered no purchase on the wall, so I couldn't get myself set up to fling an ankle over the top.

I did get to go over the 8 foot wall once with a partner method. I felt pretty nervous about coming down from that one, but I took it slow and remembered to land on my toes as instructed. Plus there was a mat.

That was that. After the class, I talked to the instructor a bit more about my experience and expectations for the class, and my plan to come in once a month. He said they usually do ropes since many people have issues with the rope climb, but that we could do rings next time I came in. I hope that happens, because I think I just need some practice to be able to get past the Spartan multi-rig.

Of course, I also need to work on monkey bars, and the inverted wall, and the spear throw (which I really need to do some time soon). But training is proceeding apace. I'm on track for what I want to do. Strength now, running as the race gets closer, maybe try to cut weight in the 6 to 8 weeks before the race.

Future Plans - Solo 2019

On April 11th 2018, I got it into my head to start looking into the next segment of my solo trip. Not the one that was to take place in a few weeks, but the one taking place in 2019, when I would broach the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Ambrose said it would be 100 miles to get to Big Creek, and I wanted to make sure that was from the farthest point I could reach by car to Big Creek, rather than from, say, where I left off at Stanley Lake in 2016.

I used the ICT trail maps to make the count. From Lola Creek Campground, which is the farthest a car can reach towards the Frank Church, to the point nearest Big Creek was about 88 miles.

And from there to the Big Creek trailhead was 14.6 miles.

My first thought was, "That's ridiculous."

My second thought was, "I wonder how far it is from that point on the ICT to the next place it meets the road."

So I checked. It's about another 81 miles to the Magruder corridor.

That left me with a choice. Travel 100+ miles in 2019 and then another nearly 100 miles in 2020, traversing nearly 30 miles of non-ICT trail in the process.

Or take all 169 miles in one big bite in 2019.

For that second option, I would need the cooperation of my husband. He usually just serves as resupply depot from the car on these trips, but for this trip to work, I'd either need to carry 10 days of food or get him to hike out 14.6 miles from Big Creek with my resupply (and of course he'd have to hike back and drive around to Magruder).

Lucky for me, he's excited to have his own little solo adventure doing that resupply hike. I just hope he can make that hike out and back in 2 days. Luckily, there's not even 1000 feet of gain, so he should be good. He's just got to get started early and keep on walking.

And I figure if I arrive at the rendezvous early, then I can take some rest. Dip my feet in the water. If I'm a day early, then I get a zero day, a tradition of thru hiking that I've only read about so far.

I'll need to go as fast as I can sustain. I can't go for maximum distance each day like I did through the Owyhees. That wrecked me. But I'll still need to make close to 20 miles per day through rough terrain. I mean, sure, I could bail when I meet up with Ambrose for resupply, but that's a costly bail.

I'm not sure what I'll do about my hair. No matter what I've tried, if I don't wash my hair every three to four days, I get horrible headaches. I might experiment with dry shampoo and see if that helps, because that would be easy to take out on the trail. But I have a feeling it might not, because I don't see how adding stuff to my hair could possibly help without rinsing it away. So maybe Ambrose will have some shampoo in his resupply kit for me and I'll make myself take the time to do it to get rest. Yeah.

As long as I get all the miles that I'm planning to get in 2018 (Hammett to Willow Creek Transfer Camp and Stanley Lake to Lola Creek Campground), and then if I can swing this crazy trip in 2019, I'll be at mile 424. Nearly halfway through the 900 miles of the ICT.

I'm already excited.

Pre-Trip Jitters

This post was written Saturday night (4/29). 

I'm not as nervous as I feel I should be. I don't have burgeoning confidence, but I'm also not scared. Today I did a practice pitch of my tent to be sure that I still remember how to do it. It was amazingly easy, even with a bit of wind blowing and my husband playing the part of the peanut gallery. Every step followed naturally and I made a pretty pitch even though the sidewalk prevented me from pulling one of my lines taut. 

I got everything packed today. It was already mostly gathered, but I went over it all again and gathered the bits and pieces that I had left strewn about the apartment. Including 5 liters of water and all of the food for the first segment, the full pack weighed in at 35 pounds even. But it didn't have some of my outer wear in it because I anticipate wearing that when I set out on Monday. So gear-wise it's probably a little heavier. 

I'm not sure if the temperatures and wind will warrant keeping my rain jacket on at all times, but it might. And I invested in a down vest today because lows are going to be in the low 30s and highs might reach the low 60s if I'm lucky. I've got the layers I'll need I think, but I don't know how much I'm going to have to be taking them on and off. 

I also finally purchased a replacement of sorts for good old alti-baro. After the buttons fell off last year, I knew it was on its last legs, but I couldn't bring myself to buy a replacement. Ambrose really wanted me to get a GPS watch or something else super fancy, but I wanted simple. I really only used the alarm and countdown timer functions with altibaro, so the replacement I got has those functions. It's a watch, and I don't like to have things on my wrists, so it will hang from my chest strap on my pack. 

If all goes well, I'll be doing the first 2 miles of the ICT tomorrow as a short out and back with Ambrose. I've read that one can't actually drive to the start and I think it will be nice to spend that extra bit of time with him before I set out. He's planning on trying to meet me on the trail at various points, which I don't mind at all, though I kind of doubt that he'll be able to find me like that. 

We've gone over the maps together and talked about what he will do if I don't show up as expected. He knows exactly where I'm planning to hike and approximately where I'm expecting to camp. It should be easier to camp this time, because I won't be looking for a water source - I'm expecting to dry camp each night in the desert.  

I'm excited. But also a little numb. 100 miles is such a huge number. 100.7, technically as Ambrose keeps reminding me. Can I really do it? In 5 days? Or even 6? Though I'm not sure how 6 would work out since the last 20 miles or so will take me through a town where camping might not be appreciated... 

Almost Go Time

I'm vacillating between being nervous, excited and scared about my upcoming trip. My back is feeling pretty good, but my legs are absurdly sore this week. I've got most everything that I want to pack out and weighed and ready to go, if not packed. Fresh batteries in the headlamp, charging batteries for the camera - I even contacted the Idaho BLM to see if they had anything to tell me about current trail conditions.

I checked out the Idaho Centennial Trail guidebook from the library, but it was a bit disappointing. For one thing, it was published in 1998. I know the guidebook my husband and I used for the Chamberlain Basin hike last year was out of date and it was only 10 years old. So I didn't hold out high hopes for accurate information, but the format of the book itself was also disappointing. I didn't find the descriptions of the trail sections to be clear and the author keeps inserting side trips, saying that hikers and horseback riders should take this shortcut to cut off miles and the trail goes this way, unless you want to take that way. So I'm glad I checked it out rather than buying it.

There's one last food item that should be reaching my doorstep some time tomorrow - coffee. My initial plan was to go without coffee, but then I'd have to wean myself off of it before I headed out and I'm just not ready to do that right now. I'm one of those people who get awful caffeine withdrawal headaches, so I can't just quit cold turkey. And even though the powerbar chews that I'll be bringing have "1xcaffeine" that is just not enough to make up for a cup a day habit. So I'm going to try Stok Cold Brew Coffee Shots. I was going to buy some at a local grocery store that the Stok website insisted they were stocked at, but that was a no go. I scoured the coffee aisle and finally went to customer service, where they proceeded to tell me to go back to the coffee aisle and wait for someone to come and "help" me look for it. I waited more than 6 minutes before giving up on this mythical help person and giving my business to Amazon instead. I was actually kind of shocked that a large chain grocery store couldn't even look up an inventory on a computer to determine whether they carried an item - I can understand not being able to say for sure that the item was in stock on the shelf based on a computer, but surely they could tell me whether it was carried.

Ahem.

So, I hope that coffee works as a backpacking coffee. There are cold brew coffees that you can buy in large bottles and I found those in a (different) grocery store, but they are supposed to be refrigerated after opening, so they aren't ideal for backpacking where the temperature is variable. For this trip, maybe the temp will stay cold enough for such an endeavor, but I can't guarantee that. So single shots I want and single shots I shall try.

I also need to print off my topo maps. I'm going to take the ICT maps, which are a little less detailed, and pair them with printable quad corners from National Geographic's website. I'll also have a GPS, though I won't be able to keep it on all the time. I'm overall feeling confident that I'll be able to navigate the trail. My main worry is whether my legs will be able to take doing 20 miles a day for 5 days. With the back issue, I did not get as much of a chance to practice long haul days as I planned.

So I'm going out with a goal and determination and no guarantee of success. I'm going to take it one day at a time and do my best. I'll make it as far as I make it. Anything I don't complete this year can be attempted at a later date. Hiking the whole of the ICT in segments will take time.

But I hope I make it 100.7 miles this year.

Calling It a Half Makes It Seem Smaller

Way back in June, I signed up for a half marathon at the end of September. I figured that a summer of backpacking would prepare me for that distance of running and once the beginning of September hit, I could easily ramp up my running training and make a go of beating my first half marathon time. Not to mention the price couldn't be beat. By signing up back on that date, I only paid $15 - a number that is absurdly low for any distance race, let alone a half marathon.

A bout of intense stomach pain completely derailed my training plans for September. I was in too much pain to run, and I felt like if I hurt that much, then something must be wrong. If something is wrong, then running might exacerbate it. So I went to the doctor a lot, didn't get much sleep, couldn't eat enough and dropped over 10 pounds.

Pro Tip: This is not an ideal training plan for running a half marathon.

But when the tests came back negative and my pain was determined to be "functional," i.e. sure, there's something causing you pain, the pain is real, but we don't know the cause, I knew I wanted to get back to running. And I figured that even if I couldn't get into shape to run 13.1 miles in the next two weeks, I could at least get into shape to run/walk it. Or change my registration to the 5K.

Honestly, my first run after such a long hiatus made me think I would have to do the 5K. I was tensing my shoulders, which squished my chest, leading me to believe I could not breathe. I couldn't jog two miles without taking walking breaks. Part of that was from my ITB issue with my right leg. If it doesn't get worked out on the regular, then it hurts to start up again. But the hardest thing was breathing.

Muscles wanted to work, but lungs did not. The solution came, as it often seems to, from my husband. Not that he put it forth as such. Instead, he told me I should go for a walk with our weighted vest. He had 10 pounds of weight in it. I maxed it out to 20 pounds and walked to the Greenbelt. From there I started my slow running and, to my amazement, I could breathe.

The weight of the vest on my shoulders prevented me from hunching them up. Since my shoulders weren't tensed, my chest could expand more fully and I no longer felt suffocated.

But I still wasn't sure if I could do the half. Two miles with a weighted vest is well and good, but did I have the endurance to stay on my feet for the four or more hours it might take me to complete such a task in my current shape?

The answer to that I had to find myself.

And I found it on a hike up to Tablerock. My husband and I set forth in the morning wearing our hiking boots and carrying day packs. On the Greenbelt, we stayed together, holding hands. Our route took us past the Warm Springs Golf Course and across the street towards the Rock Island trail.

Once we hit the trail, we could no longer hold hands. The trail is too narrow. I found myself walking faster than Ambrose, pulling ahead of him as I climbed up. There is a plateau between where this trail tops out and the ramp up to Tablerock. I sat and hid in the shade of some rocks as I waited for him to catch up. I watched a large bird of prey ruffle its feathers on a boulder and then fly off.

When he arrived, I asked if he had any sunscreen. My skin was feeling the heat. It turned out that he didn't, but I did. We both applied some and then moved on. I took the lead again and tried my best not to stop for a break on the steep portion of the trail Ambrose and I call the ramp. Even at a slow speed, my calves were killing me, begging for a break that I refused to grant them.

New benches greeted me at the top, as well as a whole lot of people. I sat on one of the new, green benches for a bit, looking out over Boise and watching a small group of people eat fruit rolls. Then I moved to a rock overlooking the trail I'd come up and sat there, waiting for Ambrose to catch up again.

He joined me and made me eat something. Then we headed down by a different path, going around towards the quarry and then taking a scramble back to the plateau. I was nervous going down the steep parts without my trekking poles, but caution was enough to keep me from falling.

We stopped by the Warm Springs Golf Course clubhouse to get burgers and beer as a reward for our morning's hard work, and it was there that I was able to express that I felt confident that I could complete the half marathon distance. Even if I had to walk, even if I was the last person through the finish line, I had the endurance in my body to finish.

Ambrose, of course, said he figured I'd say something like that after the hike.

For the next week, I kept on doing short runs and walks, getting ready to find out just what my best was on September 26th.