Snowman
Level 6 Valued Member
Feb 20
Rest day
Feb 21-At this point, just assume I'm doing some kind of EES warmup.
Snatch-10x10 @ 24K
Mil Press-2x4, 3x3 @ 24K
Feb 22
C&J-18x5 @ 24K
Feb 23-Outside-26 degrees. Kept my shirt on for the snatches, and shucked it for the presses
Snatch-10x10
Mil Press-2x4, 3x3 @ 24K
---------
Alright, here's one of those long, detailed entries. The short version is that I went on a two day snowshoeing trip in the mountains. The way up to the cabin was literally the most physically challenging thing I have done in at least the last 5 years (if not my entire life), the cabin itself was very pleasant, and the way down wasn't too bad. See the bottom for my "training evaluation"
Feb 24
Snowshoed 10.35 km over 300 meters of elevation gain in 4 hours and 28 minutes with a 50 lb pack.
Note-It's been a couple years since I broke out the ol' snowshoes, so I thought "Hey, the wife and kid are visiting family in Colorado, I have a few days off, why not shake things up with a little trip up to mountains?" I thought it would be a good way to have some fun, get away, and "test myself" a little bit. The "trail" was actually a snowed over Forest Service road; the FS closes the gate (which is about 6.5 miles from the campground and cabin) for the winter. You can still rent the cabin super cheap, but you just can't drive up to it. Now why did I bring 50 lbs of gear for only one night? Good question, for which I have two answers. 1) I was going to be completely unable to contact anyone if something went wrong, which means I needed to be prepared. 2) I thought, like the arrogant prick that I can be now and then, that I should carry my "short distance training weight" in order to make it challenging. After all, I was only going about 3 times as far as my normal training distance. How big of a difference could a little snow make?
Anyone who knows snowshoeing is either laughing or cringing right now. I brought my GPS with me (although I left my HR monitor at home, since I wanted to go feel this time), so at every given point along the hike, I knew about how far I had left. This ended up being a life saver, because otherwise I would have been telling myself "just one more bend, I must almost be there..." before I was even half way up.
I got to the gate around 12:30, broke my fast with a tablespoon of peanut butter, and took off. Almost the entire way up was (surprise) uphill, and even with the snowshoes I was sinking 4-6 inches into undisturbed powder with each step. By the time I was 1/3 of the way in, I knew I was going to be doing some suffering. I celebrated making it 2/3 of the way with a tablespoon of peanut butter and packet of fruit gummies. By then things were pretty rough, and it wasn't getting any better. Before then, around halfway, I had accepted that there was no way I could walk slowly enough that I would be able to maintain a constant pace. I started taking a breather every 50-100 meters, but by the time I was 7 km in, that was down to 20-30 meters, and that's pretty much how things stayed.
The last 1/3 of the hike was mostly comprised of 30-40 second intervals of slow walking, followed by 20-30 seconds of catching my breath. At this point, I was very thankful for the last year or so that I've spent working with a HR monitor. I would walk until I juuuust started to bump into the red zone, then I would stop. I think this was critical, because I knew that I needed to come back down the next day, and I couldn't afford to wreck myself. I just kept telling myself that, as long as I kept moving forward, eventually I would get to the cabin. That meant that, at some point, I was going to have warmth, shelter, and be able to sit down and eat a big meal. I'm no hardcore endurance athlete, but during high school I did about a million 3 mile races, I've had my share of Amy "suck sessions", and I ran a Spartan Beast race last spring. Nothing that I can think of even comes close to how difficult this was. The first hour wasn't that terrible, but pretty much everything after that was an unadulterated suckfest.
The happy ending is that I did make it to the cabin around 5 pm, I split some firewood, started a roaring fire in the fireplace, and was finally able eat a "real meal" around 5:30. Aaaand I pretty much just kept eating until 8, at which point I took some Ibuprofen and passed the hell out.
Feb 25
Snowshoed 10.35 km over 300 meters of elevation drop in 2 hours and 57 minutes with a 40 lb pack.
Note-This wasn't so bad. I had eaten/drank about 10 pounds out of my pack, and pretty much the whole way back was down hill. I thought I would be crippled with soreness (especially in my adductors), but I was just a little fatigued. I credit that to staying out of glycolysis during the previous day (and the ibuprofen). I still had to take breathers every little while on the way back (going through powder is hard work, even if it's down hill), but not nearly as often. Even better, some time after I had come up the previous night, someone had snowmobiled about 1/3 of the way up the road, so the last 3 or 4 km was on hard packed snow! Huge difference.
The best part of the way down was about 2 km from the gate, when I met an older gentleman who was out doing some XC skiing with his dog. We talked a little, and I have now updated my "Old Man" goals. He told me he was going up to the lake and back (the trip I had just made over the course of two days), and that he tries to do that route (or thereabouts) about once or twice a week, either on skis or his ski-length snowshoes. He was 70 years old, and obviously didn't take his trek very seriously. He was wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, and although he may have had a little water and food stashed away somewhere, he didn't have any kind of pack. Granted, he was travelling light, and XC skis mean that (as he put it) "I only really have to work on the uphill, then I just sorta float back down." Still though. Damn impressive.
Training Evaluation-----
What I did right:
Never underestimate snow. Don't pack a 12 pound splitting maul just because you'll "probably need it" (I did use it, but I would have been OK without it). Be humble (that kind of dovetails with the last one). If you have time to ruck, then ruck. You will never think "Gosh, this is just too easy, I wish I hadn't rucked so much."
Feb 25
Rest day. I know this is tomorrow, but I'm pretty confident I can call this a rest day.
Rest day
Feb 21-At this point, just assume I'm doing some kind of EES warmup.
Snatch-10x10 @ 24K
Mil Press-2x4, 3x3 @ 24K
Feb 22
C&J-18x5 @ 24K
Feb 23-Outside-26 degrees. Kept my shirt on for the snatches, and shucked it for the presses
Snatch-10x10
Mil Press-2x4, 3x3 @ 24K
---------
Alright, here's one of those long, detailed entries. The short version is that I went on a two day snowshoeing trip in the mountains. The way up to the cabin was literally the most physically challenging thing I have done in at least the last 5 years (if not my entire life), the cabin itself was very pleasant, and the way down wasn't too bad. See the bottom for my "training evaluation"
Feb 24
Snowshoed 10.35 km over 300 meters of elevation gain in 4 hours and 28 minutes with a 50 lb pack.
Note-It's been a couple years since I broke out the ol' snowshoes, so I thought "Hey, the wife and kid are visiting family in Colorado, I have a few days off, why not shake things up with a little trip up to mountains?" I thought it would be a good way to have some fun, get away, and "test myself" a little bit. The "trail" was actually a snowed over Forest Service road; the FS closes the gate (which is about 6.5 miles from the campground and cabin) for the winter. You can still rent the cabin super cheap, but you just can't drive up to it. Now why did I bring 50 lbs of gear for only one night? Good question, for which I have two answers. 1) I was going to be completely unable to contact anyone if something went wrong, which means I needed to be prepared. 2) I thought, like the arrogant prick that I can be now and then, that I should carry my "short distance training weight" in order to make it challenging. After all, I was only going about 3 times as far as my normal training distance. How big of a difference could a little snow make?
Anyone who knows snowshoeing is either laughing or cringing right now. I brought my GPS with me (although I left my HR monitor at home, since I wanted to go feel this time), so at every given point along the hike, I knew about how far I had left. This ended up being a life saver, because otherwise I would have been telling myself "just one more bend, I must almost be there..." before I was even half way up.
I got to the gate around 12:30, broke my fast with a tablespoon of peanut butter, and took off. Almost the entire way up was (surprise) uphill, and even with the snowshoes I was sinking 4-6 inches into undisturbed powder with each step. By the time I was 1/3 of the way in, I knew I was going to be doing some suffering. I celebrated making it 2/3 of the way with a tablespoon of peanut butter and packet of fruit gummies. By then things were pretty rough, and it wasn't getting any better. Before then, around halfway, I had accepted that there was no way I could walk slowly enough that I would be able to maintain a constant pace. I started taking a breather every 50-100 meters, but by the time I was 7 km in, that was down to 20-30 meters, and that's pretty much how things stayed.
The last 1/3 of the hike was mostly comprised of 30-40 second intervals of slow walking, followed by 20-30 seconds of catching my breath. At this point, I was very thankful for the last year or so that I've spent working with a HR monitor. I would walk until I juuuust started to bump into the red zone, then I would stop. I think this was critical, because I knew that I needed to come back down the next day, and I couldn't afford to wreck myself. I just kept telling myself that, as long as I kept moving forward, eventually I would get to the cabin. That meant that, at some point, I was going to have warmth, shelter, and be able to sit down and eat a big meal. I'm no hardcore endurance athlete, but during high school I did about a million 3 mile races, I've had my share of Amy "suck sessions", and I ran a Spartan Beast race last spring. Nothing that I can think of even comes close to how difficult this was. The first hour wasn't that terrible, but pretty much everything after that was an unadulterated suckfest.
The happy ending is that I did make it to the cabin around 5 pm, I split some firewood, started a roaring fire in the fireplace, and was finally able eat a "real meal" around 5:30. Aaaand I pretty much just kept eating until 8, at which point I took some Ibuprofen and passed the hell out.
Feb 25
Snowshoed 10.35 km over 300 meters of elevation drop in 2 hours and 57 minutes with a 40 lb pack.
Note-This wasn't so bad. I had eaten/drank about 10 pounds out of my pack, and pretty much the whole way back was down hill. I thought I would be crippled with soreness (especially in my adductors), but I was just a little fatigued. I credit that to staying out of glycolysis during the previous day (and the ibuprofen). I still had to take breathers every little while on the way back (going through powder is hard work, even if it's down hill), but not nearly as often. Even better, some time after I had come up the previous night, someone had snowmobiled about 1/3 of the way up the road, so the last 3 or 4 km was on hard packed snow! Huge difference.
The best part of the way down was about 2 km from the gate, when I met an older gentleman who was out doing some XC skiing with his dog. We talked a little, and I have now updated my "Old Man" goals. He told me he was going up to the lake and back (the trip I had just made over the course of two days), and that he tries to do that route (or thereabouts) about once or twice a week, either on skis or his ski-length snowshoes. He was 70 years old, and obviously didn't take his trek very seriously. He was wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, and although he may have had a little water and food stashed away somewhere, he didn't have any kind of pack. Granted, he was travelling light, and XC skis mean that (as he put it) "I only really have to work on the uphill, then I just sorta float back down." Still though. Damn impressive.
Training Evaluation-----
What I did right:
- Working with the HR monitor for a while. Even without one, I was able to stay our of glycolysis, and that saved my bacon.
- Power repeats. I'll be honest, 50 lbs was too damn heavy. Chalk it up to arrogance and inexperience. Once I was really got headed uphill, and the powder got deeper, there wasn't a lot of "steady state aerobic work" to be had. Towards the end, I think I was mostly using the alactic system every time I moved forward. Thankfully, I was able to stop, breathe, and do it again (and again, and again, and again...).
- Fasted training. During the whole hike up, there was only a couple times, maybe 5 minutes long each, when I was actually hungry. Once I started eating, though, that was all I could think of for about 2 hours haha. I swear I lost a couple pounds of fat just during that hike up...Also, the hike back was 100% fasted, and I felt great.
- Upper body work (snatches, presses, etc). My pack has a chest clip, but no hip belt, and I never felt that the pack was too heavy for my shoulders. I usually took my breathers in the short stop position, to take the load off a little, but over all I felt pretty solid.
- MORE F*CKING RUCKING. That's pretty much it. During most of the way up, especially the end, my aerobic system just couldn't keep up while I was actively moving forward, so the alactic system had to do a lot of the work. If my aerobic system had been more efficient, then maybe my work periods could have been 5 or 10 seconds longer, and my rest periods 5 or 10 seconds shorter. That would have made a huge difference.
Never underestimate snow. Don't pack a 12 pound splitting maul just because you'll "probably need it" (I did use it, but I would have been OK without it). Be humble (that kind of dovetails with the last one). If you have time to ruck, then ruck. You will never think "Gosh, this is just too easy, I wish I hadn't rucked so much."
Feb 25
Rest day. I know this is tomorrow, but I'm pretty confident I can call this a rest day.
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