10 weeks
Okay, here's the story. A good friend of mine called me last week and asked me to join him and a couple of guys he knows on a hiking trip. Right now, the destination is one of three places: Pueblo, CO, Tucson, AZ, or outside Las Vegas, NV. Vegas would be fun, after killing myself physically for four days, I could kill myself financially! How great would that be?
A little background: If first started hiking when I was in high school with some guys from my church. I live in the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri, so hiking trails are plentiful. In two years, I had racked up almot 200 miles on the trail. The longest outing was a five day trip doing a 55 mile loop of the Ozarks Highland Trail in northern Arkansas. Everything I had was either on my back or distributed throughout the five hikers. Man, good things happen on the trail. We made up several random trail songs, slept in natural structures, tents and underneath the stars the last night. We hiked seven miles one day averaging 1500 foot elevation change, 14 miles another day averaging just a few hundred feet elevation change. We saw huge rivers and dribbling creeks, bright, sunny skies and torrential downpours. It had to be the most amazing nature trip I've been on to date (excluding, of course, my honeymoon). That was all 10 years and almost 40 pounds ago.
So, in order to get in shape for this hike, my wife and boys have decided to help me. I have ten weeks. Ten weeks seems like an eternity. I should be in amazing shape in ten weeks, right? Sure, that would take discipline, though. I'm not the best at discipline. It's not my forte. We have set up a training schedule. Each week, I'll increase the mileage and weight in a backpack with the goal of 15 miles and 40-45 lbs. in the pack. My thought is that if I get up to that mileage and weight, I should be able to do less mileage at higher elevation. I'm starting small: 1 mile, no pack on Missouri roads. I'd rather not overexert myself on the first week.
Next week is Spring Break. That means, no substitue teaching jobs and time at home with the kids. This should be the perfect week to take the boys out into nature and show them how the old man does it. I hope it turns out that way. Both have been in Boy Scouts, so they should be able to help with the camp responsibilities, so we should have a great man trip. Last time didn't go so well. We tried to camp out in their grandparents' acreage. Well, we got a late start and had to set up camp in the dark and the next day, I foolishly let them go off alone while I tried to clean up the campsite (leave no trace).
This time, we're going to Hercules Glades. That's my favorite spot in southwest Mo. I've logged several miles at Herc and know a lot of the trails by heart. There's enough elevation change to get a pretty good trail workout, but a limited supply of water. We've had a lot of rain this week, so, hopefully, we'll be okay.
Man, I can't wait! It's time to get out into the woods. Why? Because it's there.
[more inside]
A little background: If first started hiking when I was in high school with some guys from my church. I live in the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri, so hiking trails are plentiful. In two years, I had racked up almot 200 miles on the trail. The longest outing was a five day trip doing a 55 mile loop of the Ozarks Highland Trail in northern Arkansas. Everything I had was either on my back or distributed throughout the five hikers. Man, good things happen on the trail. We made up several random trail songs, slept in natural structures, tents and underneath the stars the last night. We hiked seven miles one day averaging 1500 foot elevation change, 14 miles another day averaging just a few hundred feet elevation change. We saw huge rivers and dribbling creeks, bright, sunny skies and torrential downpours. It had to be the most amazing nature trip I've been on to date (excluding, of course, my honeymoon). That was all 10 years and almost 40 pounds ago.
So, in order to get in shape for this hike, my wife and boys have decided to help me. I have ten weeks. Ten weeks seems like an eternity. I should be in amazing shape in ten weeks, right? Sure, that would take discipline, though. I'm not the best at discipline. It's not my forte. We have set up a training schedule. Each week, I'll increase the mileage and weight in a backpack with the goal of 15 miles and 40-45 lbs. in the pack. My thought is that if I get up to that mileage and weight, I should be able to do less mileage at higher elevation. I'm starting small: 1 mile, no pack on Missouri roads. I'd rather not overexert myself on the first week.
Next week is Spring Break. That means, no substitue teaching jobs and time at home with the kids. This should be the perfect week to take the boys out into nature and show them how the old man does it. I hope it turns out that way. Both have been in Boy Scouts, so they should be able to help with the camp responsibilities, so we should have a great man trip. Last time didn't go so well. We tried to camp out in their grandparents' acreage. Well, we got a late start and had to set up camp in the dark and the next day, I foolishly let them go off alone while I tried to clean up the campsite (leave no trace).
This time, we're going to Hercules Glades. That's my favorite spot in southwest Mo. I've logged several miles at Herc and know a lot of the trails by heart. There's enough elevation change to get a pretty good trail workout, but a limited supply of water. We've had a lot of rain this week, so, hopefully, we'll be okay.
Man, I can't wait! It's time to get out into the woods. Why? Because it's there.
Labels: fitness, Hercule's Glades, hiking
[more inside]
