Wednesday Night Workout Hike
SUMMARY: Conditioning for Havasu Falls
Hiked again Wednesday night with the Sierra club. It was a near-sprint up to Black Mountain summit in Monte Bello Open Space Preserve and back--just under 5 miles and about 800-900 feet in elevation change (2000 feet above sea level to 3000 feet, and remember I live at about 50 feet)--from 6:30 to 8:30 Wednesday evening with the Sierra Club group I've been hiking with. Man, those guys move!
I barely got some photos by pausing for a nanosecond and then jogging to catch up. Lots of wildflowers but there was no way I had time to kneel and try to set up for a macro shot.
One member of the group has a service dog. No disability that prevents him from running miles every day and doing these brisk hikes. This means there'll always be a dog along when he's in town. That's kind of cool. A substitute dog and I don't have to take my own along.
My knee is holding up well, although it had very minor kvetches on Thursday, just because it needed to feel appreciated. Sure, this was a more gradual climb and descent than we'll get in the Grand Canyon area. But I think I'm going to do fine. More photos here.
Labels: exercise, hiking, travel
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posted by Elf @ 12:36 PM (View as individual page)
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6 Comments:
9 miles in 2 hours? That's some serious power hiking. I usually go about 2 to 2 1/2 miles an hour depending on steepness/terrain. I think 4 1/2 miles an hour is approaching the start of trail run pace for me though I'm admittedly slow. Sounds like you're in good shape for your vacation.
Really, I literally jogged in places to keep up with the leader. I keep looking at the miles indicated on the map--it's actually less than the leader claimed, which was 5 miles each way. I can walk a mile on the flat in less than 15 minutes if I'm hustling and don't have the dogs with me. I can't really quite figure out how we made that pace with the elevation changes, too. But I was walking with another gal way at the back for a while who was saying she's going to have to find another group to hike with, this was too much push push push and not a chance to look at the view or anything and her feet and legs just couldn't handle it.
The other thing I didn't mention is that the trails there are amazingly well groomed, wide, and even, and the elevation gain was very gradual over the whole length of the trail, so in some ways it was a very easy hike.
But I felt good.
OK, I looked at it again and I doubled it somehow! That's more realistic--4.8 miles THE WHOLE TRIP. I'll fix that. No wonder!
Oh well, maybe not quite the uber pace you thought but still a decent pace/distance and good preparation for your trip.
Tee hee. I wouldn't notice the mileage, even living in the mountains and hiking all the time as I do. It's the NUMBERS. I can't deal with numbers. I once told a friend that another friend fired her pottery in a kiln at 200 THOUSAND degrees! Yeah, sounds about right. It's HOT...that's the point, right? And you hiked FAR and FAST! That's the point, right! I'm with ya! I'm feelin' it! Thanks for sharing the gorgeous photos.
Hey, I was at an agility trial a couple of years ago where the temperature in the shade was 200 thousand degrees! I'm with YA!
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