My Everest

I love to watch the reality shows that feature the ascent of Everest and I am intrigued about how hard it is to get to the top. All speak of how you take a step and then have to take five breaths. Today, I experienced this for the first time in my life and it was very humbling.

Despite my size, I have been averaging at least a hour of aerobic activity a day since I was 15 years old. From 15 to 35, I ran marathons and did triathlons and since then, I have been walking marathons and such.

A few years ago I got a Garmin GPS watch and have been walking at least 40 miles a week and have hit 70,80 and even 90 a week at times. With all this background, I never thought I experience an Everest like experience but I did on this hike.

Now most of my walking is on the flat bike path and the only hills I get are at the Panorama Bluffs once or twice a week. They are okay hills but do not compare to Mt Pinos or Mt Abel. Plus there was a third mountain in our way Sawmill.

These monsters were not expected by me or the other two newbies at all. The Mt Whitney hike is over twenty miles long and peaks out at over 14,000 feet but it is basically a long climb up and then downhill. When I heard we were going to Frazier Park, I expected to do a similar hike but boy was I in for a surprise.

Instead of climbing from Frazier Park to the top of Mt Pinos, which would be the same elevation gain and close in mileage, we started much higher on the mountain. Our trek would be from the Mt Pinos parking lot to Mt Abel and back. Route HERE. So the day started at the parking lot, where amazingly about ten or more star gazers were already set up with their massive telescopes for the evenings activities.

We loaded up for our hike and had to entertain some whacked out hippy chick and her dog. The lady looked like she was right of the counter culture era and talked like she had taken a lot of drugs. She made us glad that the stargazers where there to keep an eye on our car.

The first two miles of the hike were what I expected and hope Mt Whitney will be like. We climbed about 400 feet and the path was on a fire road. The view from the top Mt Pinos was very nice and the air felt thinner but there was a problem. I could not see anything remotely flat for miles around. When I saw where we were going, all I saw was steep downhills and steep uphills and we were in for a long hard day. It ended up being much harder then I ever imagined.

too be continued ...

Nice Way to Ninety Plus

On Saturday (7/11/9), I got in my 92nd mile of the week. The plan had been to do 80 for the week and beat my old mark of 72 miles for the week that I set last summer. But with my Mt Whitney training group walking on Saturdays, my weekly mileage gets a big bump especially since my week ends on Saturday.

So as the picture shows, we started early on Saturday (5am). In fact I started even earlier and walked to Debbie's house (2 miles) instead of driving there. I left around 4:15 am and hit Del Taco on the way over. Del Taco was the only place open at this hour so I had my caffeine (diet coke) and an egg and cheese burrito.

Then I head to the starting point. Today was just going to be a 4.5 hour walk and it was going to be flat. We started around the Stockdale & Real road area and head to the bike path near Mohawk. Then just got on the bike path and headed east. It was mostly an uneventful walk except for the fact that my new shows were to small in the toe box area and my toenails on my little toes have turned black.

By the time we got back to Debbie's it was almost 11am and it was getting warm and my shoes were killing me but I still had 2 miles to go. As I proceded home, I stopped at Carl's Jr for more diet coke and a teriyaki burger to go. It took they forever to get my my burger and by the time I left my feet were killing me and it was even hotter. Needless to say the hike over the Oak Street bridge was not fun.

But I finally got home and ended up doing 19 miles at 19 minutes per mile.

Whitney or Won't He?

Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, rises like the phoenix from the western rim of the Great Basin Desert of California. At an elevation of 14, 495 feet, Whitney looms high above Death Valley, the lowest point in North America at 262 feet below sea level, less than 100 miles to the east.

Mt. Whitney is the most frequently climbed peak in the Sierra Nevadas, and perhaps the entire U.S. The summit can be most directly reached via a 10.7-mile trail from Whitney Portal, 13 miles west of of Lone Pine. Ice axes and crampons are needed in spring and early summer, but technical climbing equipment is not usually necessary between mid-July and early October. During snow-free summer months, some individuals in excellent physical condition, can climb to the summit and return the same day.

Having said all that, I am hoping to hike it some day and that day maybe this August. My friend Debbie and her friends have done the hike before and this year they are doing it on her 50th birthday. They have ten permits and there might be room for me. So I am keeping my fingers crossed and I am putting in the miles too.

A few weeks ago, I put in a record week of 81 miles and followed up that mega week with a 18 miler to start off the next week. I ended up doing 72 miles in the following week too. During these weeks, I saw Debbie and her friends out there walking and finally decide to find out what they were doing and that is how I heard about their Mt Whitney plans.

Now I am mainly putting in all the miles to try and walk a half marathon in the same time as my 2:50 marathon PR. So at first, I was mainly interested in walking with them just for a workout but now I am interested in doing the Whitney hike too.

So on a really hot day before July 4th, I joined them for a hike. The plan was to meet at the pistol range at Hart Park and do some hills for 4 hours and 20 minutes. I meet Debbie and her two friends at a little after 6am and we loaded up on water and then started the day with a nice slog up the pistol range hill. Nothing like a nice mile long hill to start your day.

We took the trail to the fence line that runs along the bike path and eventually runs into the bike path at the top of the hill. This is the hill that the BTC summer series runs up. At least there was a breeze and it was downhill. Then we crossed Alfred Harrell and head for the Lake Ming campgrounds for some water.

The campground was filled to the gills and sadly some felt they needed to put police tape all around the perimeter of their campsite. Now I know there have been some brawls out at Hart Park recently but do you really need to put up the crime scene tape before the crime? At least the river was beautiful! It was also quite high and running fast and I hope the campers had the good sense to stay out of it.

Now the turnaround time was approaching and we were glad because as we walked around the lake, there was no breeze at all. We almost went 7 miles before turning around. The return trip was a lot hotter and walking up the bike path was ugly. But the rolling hills after the bike path really took it out of our legs. One last indignity was having to walk down the pistol range hill after a four hour hike.

After we were done, we all felt pretty good but hot. At least MT Whitney won't be hot. What does concern me is not the climb up but the walk down because downhills kill my legs. But from what I hear the descend of any climb is the hard part.

After doing 14 miles in the morning, I got in another 3 in the evening for 17 miles for the day. Saturday was very hot but I got in another 7 miles and logged 62 miles for the week.

This week, I need to do another 80 mile week and hope to do a 100 miles in a week this summer. To kick off my second 8 mile week, I put in a 14 mile on the bike path. I live near the Enos Lane 15 mile sign so I walked to the Enos 8 mile sign with a pit stop at Bagel & Blenders on the way out. Nothing like a egg bagel and a drink to keep you going on a warm Sunday morning. Unlike the rather slow going Hart Park hills walk, I averaged under 15 minute miles on this walk. I could feel the Hart walk right from the start though. To go sub three hours in the half marathon one must walk 13:44 pace.

When I am trying to put in a big week, I like to pile on the miles early in the week and not have to kill myself later in the week. So Sunday night, I put in another 6 miles to get in twenty for the day. Today, I put 5 miles in the morning and 8 in the evening and am up to 33 miles for the week already. Over 4 days, I got in 57 miles altogether.