1/27/2013
Outdoor Week Ending 1/27/13
So last week nipped an injury in the bud, this week otherwise overcome. Influenza. I was out for three hours on Monday, and though I did feel slightly tired at the beginning, I felt strong enough. But in the last hour of my run-hike, I felt my lungs being chilled, even though I was dressed warmly. That hastened the flu blooming inside me, and what followed was a week lost. Viruses affect not only the weak, the young and the elderly, but kill far too many of such -- one quarter to one half a million people every year die from influenza. Trying to feel fortunate for life ongoing, and not lamenting time lost, I'm healing well and I'm looking forward to getting back outdoors this coming week!
1/21/2013
Outdoor Week 1/20/13: Nipping a Tweak in the Bud
Monday I felt a tweak in my right achillies tendon (which I posted about), so my goal this week was active recovery. As a longtime trail runner, I've had many small aches and pains, and a few bigger injuries as well. Active people who enjoy exercise nearly every day really don't like to be injured, and sometimes don't want to admit to themselves that something is wrong. The problem with denial is that if you ignore warning signals, which the body often provides in the form of small pains and other signs, you can miss the opportunity to heal before something is injured worse.
Normally you can look to my 2013 Activity Log for daily activity, but I will post some of this week's detail here because it was all about getting healthy again:
Mon: 2:17 run-hike with some running, I felt a sharp pain in my right achillies tendon
Tues: easy walk only, 40 minutes on pavement, (no sharp pain, but tight)
Wed: easy walk only, 40 minutes on snowy/icy trail, (no sharp pain, better)
Thur: 1:53 easy hike only, normal rugged snow covered trail, 500 feet of climb/descent (only felt something in the achillies once, just a slight sign at the beginning, but fine after warmed up)
Fri: 1:26 run-hike, 500 feet climb, hiked up ran down, no signal from achillies
Sat: 2:55 run-hike 1000 feet climb, with an hour of very hard running, getting the heart rate up over 90% of maximum for sustained periods. Everything felt good.
Sun: 1:40 hike only, 500' climb, take it easy after a hard day
Saturday I probably pushed harder than I should have, but I was feeling good and bursting with energy, probably from holding back earlier in the week to try to fully heal my achillies tendon tweak. I don't know if I will have any more problems with that same area. This week I tried to listen to the signals to give things a chance to heal, and so far so good. Really though, just like life, you have to read signals of all kinds and adjust things appropriately with the goal of being healthy heading in the direction you want to go.
Only a few pictures this week... (click to enlarge)
Normally you can look to my 2013 Activity Log for daily activity, but I will post some of this week's detail here because it was all about getting healthy again:
Mon: 2:17 run-hike with some running, I felt a sharp pain in my right achillies tendon
Tues: easy walk only, 40 minutes on pavement, (no sharp pain, but tight)
Wed: easy walk only, 40 minutes on snowy/icy trail, (no sharp pain, better)
Thur: 1:53 easy hike only, normal rugged snow covered trail, 500 feet of climb/descent (only felt something in the achillies once, just a slight sign at the beginning, but fine after warmed up)
Fri: 1:26 run-hike, 500 feet climb, hiked up ran down, no signal from achillies
Sat: 2:55 run-hike 1000 feet climb, with an hour of very hard running, getting the heart rate up over 90% of maximum for sustained periods. Everything felt good.
Sun: 1:40 hike only, 500' climb, take it easy after a hard day
Saturday I probably pushed harder than I should have, but I was feeling good and bursting with energy, probably from holding back earlier in the week to try to fully heal my achillies tendon tweak. I don't know if I will have any more problems with that same area. This week I tried to listen to the signals to give things a chance to heal, and so far so good. Really though, just like life, you have to read signals of all kinds and adjust things appropriately with the goal of being healthy heading in the direction you want to go.
Only a few pictures this week... (click to enlarge)
1/15/2013
Monday Tweak
Yesterday halfway through my run-hike, I got a tweak in my right achillies tendon. Learning to listen to your body is an important part of any active lifestyle. (I'd also like to think that if sedentary people listened to their bodies at all, they would begin to hear it screaming "I need movement! I need exercise!") We can learn to listen to our body in small ways, and that will help us eat healthy foods, if for example we notice a pattern of not feeling good in one way or another after eating some particular food or food group. We can learn to listen closely to the feelings of our muscles, joints, our overall energy level and on many other levels.
But sometimes the body will send a loud and clear signal, and we have to learn to respect and understand those signals. They can be signs of over-stress, general fatigue, specific fatigue in certain areas of the body, or they can be a problems in one area that's caused indirectly, in which case we should figure it out ourselves! Often small signals when ignored can lead to worse physical problems.
Monday I felt a small sharp pain in my lower achillies, so I stopped, flexed my ankle, then began walking instead of running. The pain was not steady or great, but it was sharp, and any sharp pain is a clear signal to back off. It's NOT a signal to take ibuprofen and keep going, as some people do. I had to get 2.5 miles back to my car, so I began walking slowly, watching for any hint of pain, which I felt a few times until I adjusted my walk to take pressure off the right achillies. After a while I began to run a little again, but drove the stride by lifting my knees and avoided using my calves to push off. That worked fine.
But what went wrong? First the trail conditions have been very snowy and slushy for weeks now, and that puts a great deal more pressure on the ankles and achillies tendons. Second, I had an entire week off when I was sick at the end of last year, and last week I got back up to higher volume (16 hours), and resuming previous volume can be tricky on the body after time off. Third, my sleep recently hasn't been as good as it should be, and that makes it difficult for the body to heal and improve.
The lesson for me is to take it easier today (Tuesday), to get a bit more sleep, and to resume my normal 2 hour per day outing carefully next time. If I feel any pain at all, I will take a rest day. I'm writing a post about this because listening to the body is overlooked and it takes a great deal of patience and humility to accomplish. I'm still learning to listen to my body and to figure myself out generally!
But sometimes the body will send a loud and clear signal, and we have to learn to respect and understand those signals. They can be signs of over-stress, general fatigue, specific fatigue in certain areas of the body, or they can be a problems in one area that's caused indirectly, in which case we should figure it out ourselves! Often small signals when ignored can lead to worse physical problems.
Monday I felt a small sharp pain in my lower achillies, so I stopped, flexed my ankle, then began walking instead of running. The pain was not steady or great, but it was sharp, and any sharp pain is a clear signal to back off. It's NOT a signal to take ibuprofen and keep going, as some people do. I had to get 2.5 miles back to my car, so I began walking slowly, watching for any hint of pain, which I felt a few times until I adjusted my walk to take pressure off the right achillies. After a while I began to run a little again, but drove the stride by lifting my knees and avoided using my calves to push off. That worked fine.
But what went wrong? First the trail conditions have been very snowy and slushy for weeks now, and that puts a great deal more pressure on the ankles and achillies tendons. Second, I had an entire week off when I was sick at the end of last year, and last week I got back up to higher volume (16 hours), and resuming previous volume can be tricky on the body after time off. Third, my sleep recently hasn't been as good as it should be, and that makes it difficult for the body to heal and improve.
The lesson for me is to take it easier today (Tuesday), to get a bit more sleep, and to resume my normal 2 hour per day outing carefully next time. If I feel any pain at all, I will take a rest day. I'm writing a post about this because listening to the body is overlooked and it takes a great deal of patience and humility to accomplish. I'm still learning to listen to my body and to figure myself out generally!
1/13/2013
Outdoor Week Ending 1/13/13
This week I ended up doing 16:16 of run-hike with 4800 feet of climb, all on icy, snowy, or slushy trails. Trail conditions can of course make a huge difference in how much ground you can cover and the effort required. My 2013 Activity log shows a huge difference just one day can make. On 1/11 the trail was still somewhat firm, but by the next day much of it had turned to slush that was 2 to 6 inches deep. My time on 1/11 was 2:09 at heart rate 116, but on 1/12 it took me a little longer (2:11) at a much higher heart rate (149). Pushing through that slushy snow takes work, but going downhill it can be very nice stuff to glissade through.
Some photos from the Kakiat trail (click on to enlarge):
(also see videos from Kakiat in previous post (below))
Some photos from the Kakiat trail (click on to enlarge):
(also see videos from Kakiat in previous post (below))
1/11/2013
1/06/2013
Outdoor Week Ending 1/6/13
The new year of 2013 started cold with snow on the ground, making the trails snowy and a bit icy in places. The last week of 2012 I was on and off sick, traveling some, but got back out there this week, feeling stronger than ever! This year I will update my 2013 Activity Log periodically, mainly as a kind of motivation for myself.
Last year I did 622 hours of hiking and trail running, and while numbers aren't important, I like knowing roughly what I did. I used to think of my time out running on trails as training, but more and more I don't like the word training, and now I give myself the freedom to hike or run depending on how I feel once I'm out there. But it's not all a bad thing to keep track of what you're doing; it can provide some motivation to keep doing what you're doing and take it to another level. If I can make the time and fit it into my schedule, I'd love to be outside hiking and running even more than last year. I don't know, maybe 750 hours this year? We'll see!
Some photos from this week (click on to enlarge):
Last year I did 622 hours of hiking and trail running, and while numbers aren't important, I like knowing roughly what I did. I used to think of my time out running on trails as training, but more and more I don't like the word training, and now I give myself the freedom to hike or run depending on how I feel once I'm out there. But it's not all a bad thing to keep track of what you're doing; it can provide some motivation to keep doing what you're doing and take it to another level. If I can make the time and fit it into my schedule, I'd love to be outside hiking and running even more than last year. I don't know, maybe 750 hours this year? We'll see!
Some photos from this week (click on to enlarge):
1/02/2013
2012 Review
I caught a bad cold that lasted too long (the last 10 days of the year), so I ended up doing far less exercise the last week or so. But 2012 was a great year for me, full of outdoor activity. I don't care about running races anymore, but enjoyed a few. I found peace and inspiration in nature by combining my trail running and hiking in ways I'd never tried before, and loved it. I'm getting to the point where I don't care about numbers anymore, but I will probably still keep rough track of my activity out of curiosity. So here are some rough 2012 numbers:
622+ hours of combined trail running and hiking, with over 260,000 feet of climb/descent. After August, I didn't try to keep track of time spent running vs hiking, but by then had run for 215 hours. After that I did less running and more hiking, so I think something just under 300 hours of running. It was a very good year, and I doubt that I spent that much time moving on my feet since I was a kid. So that's it, on to a new year! Some data on my 2012 Activity.
Here's a few pix from the last week of 2012.
My one run-hike last week was on 2-4 inches of wet/slushy snow
My new Montrail Mountain Masochist 2 Outdry (with gaiters and Kahtoola microspikes) handled the wet really well, and my feet were warm and dry, which is important when you have a cold.
First one up to the lake after the storm...
This is actually from first day of 2013: Coyote track in virgin snow on the back side of the lake
622+ hours of combined trail running and hiking, with over 260,000 feet of climb/descent. After August, I didn't try to keep track of time spent running vs hiking, but by then had run for 215 hours. After that I did less running and more hiking, so I think something just under 300 hours of running. It was a very good year, and I doubt that I spent that much time moving on my feet since I was a kid. So that's it, on to a new year! Some data on my 2012 Activity.
Here's a few pix from the last week of 2012.
My one run-hike last week was on 2-4 inches of wet/slushy snow
My new Montrail Mountain Masochist 2 Outdry (with gaiters and Kahtoola microspikes) handled the wet really well, and my feet were warm and dry, which is important when you have a cold.
First one up to the lake after the storm...
This is actually from first day of 2013: Coyote track in virgin snow on the back side of the lake
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