Tag: training

December 5, 2024 – Not Even Close

December 5, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The first thing that we did on the day of our arrival was to go on a hike. This is called the ‘M-trail’ at the University of Montana. It is essentially a mile up a very steep hill. I was interested to test my readiness and progression. Plus, it is like a bonus training exercise which I have been pretty lax about lately with lack of daylight and poor weather.

The M-trail goes to a giant letter M on the hillside. You get a complete look at the college as well as most of Missoula. It was very popular as we probably encountered at least fifty people going up, down and waiting at the top. Some were running, some were dogs, some were students and others were families clearly visiting for the holiday.

I did it. I wasn’t wearing a pack and I did have to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. I am not claiming to be in good shape but I think some of the strain was that we started at 3500 feet to begin with. Then we went straight up. I felt OK and maybe a little tired by the time that we were done.

The way that I looked at it though, is that I need to be able to do this ten more times with a loaded pack. The section that I am planning on hiking has some 20 mile stints between water sources. Granted, it probably won’t be this steep but the starting elevation is close.

I definitely felt it in my shins, they were sore the next day. I am not sure why exactly but I think that it has to do with rotating the foot, toes up and heel down. I am thinking that stretching movement was the cause. I am not too worried about the temporary pain but it does make me wonder if I can keep that level of strain for a week.

Clearly, I need to push myself more. It is difficult because we have no elevation to speak of. I walk the dog with a weighted pack but even then, I am only going an hour or hour and a half at a time. When I was younger, I would have dealt with it. But, at my age I don’t recover as quickly. I also noticed that I have been having some arch pain. My wife thinks that it could be the beginnings of plantar fasciitis. That is also something that you don’t want to come up on the trail, miles from anything.

It was a good check to see where I was at with readiness. Clearly I need to do more and fortunately, I have time to keep at it. It those days that the weather is nasty and I didn’t get out early enough that I need to not lose because I don’t have much time to waste.

End Your Programming Routine: You cannot tell from the picture, but my wife is in it. I was kind of torn between staying with her and pushing myself. Ultimately, I decided to continue on and wait at the top if she was going to make it. Believe it or not, the trail does continue to go up. We stopped at the official terminus but multiple people we met kept going up. It makes me wish I had something like this for my training purposes.

November 14, 2024 – What Is New?

November 14, 2024 /

Is there any news on the cancer front? No news is good news.

Am I reading anything else? No. I just finished reading the ‘Art of War’ this week and I still need to finish the Greek cookbook. It has been a slow grind this fall.

How about some exotic or fine cooking? No. Actually my wife has been doing a lot of the cooking lately. I figure that if she wants too, why not.

Did I start selling junk like I intended in the late summer? No, I took the pictures but have been lazy and not done anything.

Any big projects coming up? Nothing new. I want to get back to the wine cellar but it has been kind of out of sight, out of mind.

So really, my life has kind of stalled? In a way, yes.

If this was a job interview, you would have no choice but to take me at face value. And I admit, I wouldn’t hire myself based on those answers. I would argue that not all is as it seems. I want to be open about my humanity but I don’t want to leave myself appearing as a slug either.

Currently, I am waiting for the CB base station pictured below. I bought it on Ebay and the seller is taking his sweet time shipping it. I imagine that there is some kind of health problem because the date keeps getting pushed out. So I will patiently wait. The truth is I don’t have a suitable antenna anyway. I am just going to test mobile to mobile while I decide what direction I exactly want to go.

I mean, lets get real. CB is a low powered, very short range pursuit. We are talking about a couple of miles at best. However, this unit was cheap at $35. As I plan on gearing up with radios, why not learn and play in the cheap space. This had lead me to consider my workspace, battery back-ups and related topics.

I can’t express how the impact of training has on life. It becomes the number one optional priority. I realized this when I was training for my half marathon. It seemed like the only thing I ever did. If I wasn’t actually training, I was scheduling around it or scheduling training around other things.

This week has been miserably rainy. For that reason I haven’t done a lot of training. But, I am currently waiting for a reflective poncho so I can go out at night, in the rain. Once again, training has come top of mind.

Way too late in the election cycle, I realized that the future is uncertain. Right now, ammunition and reloading components are about 80% of pre-covid availability. I started building up my supply again. I pretty much stopped shooting regularly since Covid and what shooting I have done has been out of my inventory.

Fortunately, with the election results being what they are I anticipate at least four years of good fortune on that front. But as all good preppers should behave, it is the time of plenty that is the proper time to stock up. I have been inventorying and organizing trying to figure out where the gaps are and working to fill those gaps before the next shortage.

Now that my wife is back in action, the calendar has far fewer gaps than it did earlier in the year. Also with school in session, there have been a lot of activities. Trap finished up mid-October, trap fundraiser, the last weeks of my son’s cross country season and other family affairs.

Last week, we did something that we have done once before. It was the pumpkin shoot. We took our surviving jack-o-lanterns out as well as other decorative pumpkins and blasted them. We also shot hand thrown clays in a family friendly competition. If I had taken any pictures, I would have been writing about that exclusively, not just a paragraph.

We are going to Montana for Thanksgiving. I am not loathe to get too involved in anything until we get back. There are also some things that I need to finish up in the mean time. I would call that preparing for the trip and then there is the holiday season. Another dead spot in productivity.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s going to be OK. This has been a tough year and by all accounts I think I made it through pretty well all things considered. I wish that I could just go all the time, but there is a reason that nature has a season of rest. Consider that now as the time.

November 13, 2024 – Sometimes You Run Across the Darndest Things

November 13, 2024 /

I haven’t talked about this much, but at my age and fitness level I see my upcoming Pacific Crest Trail hike barreling at me. My wife tries to convince me that I have six months and plenty of time. But I see the evening darkness and prevalent rain kind of crimping my style. Living in the elements is part of the deal but I sure don’t want to get hit by a car because it is dark and cars can’t see me.

I am trying to get my walks in during the daylight. In order to do what I can, I am packing weight. I need to be able to pack a full load up to twenty miles. This is between water sources on the trail so it is pretty much a necessity. Anyway, I am worried that I am not doing enough, fast enough.

The bike in the picture below used to belong to my eldest son. He was in sixth grade when we bought it for him for Christmas. It was replaced by an e-bike three years ago. So then, this bike went to my younger son. Despite constant cajoling about locking the bike up, one day it was not in the bike rack after school.

How do I know that it was son’s bike? Well, there are quite a few things. First, it was the bike that my son was using when he was hit by a car. We replaced the petals. One crank was worn out so we bought a mis-matched crank that was used. The most telling part is the last time my son put on tires, we put road tires on a mountain bike. It meant that they didn’t wear out so fast.

Part of me was kind of glad the bike got stolen. I was hoping that the lesson would sink in about our guidance was for a reason. It was also hoping that walking to school the rest of the year would be payment enough. As a result, no police report was filed. No record of the crime exists.

One day I was walking and I saw the bike. There it was sitting in front of a house. I don’t know them though I am pretty sure the house has kids. I never expected to see the bike in one hundred years. When my locked bike was stolen in college, I never saw it again and I lived there three more years. I always looked for it.

My walks are part of my mechanisms to keep an eye on what is happening around town. I check on the progress of the new sidewalk work happening on my street. I walk into the new neighborhood to see what lots are starting to get built and what houses are finished and no longer empty. I see the new places homeless people hide their tents. And apparently, I see where my son’s stolen bike ended up.

End Your Programming Routine: There was a small part of me that wanted to get on the bike and ride off. There was another part of me that wanted to confront these people. But then, I have no proof that we ever owned the bike and no record it was taken. It has been gone years now, my guess it that they probably need it more that we do at this point. Keep your eyes open, you never know what you will see.