I've been walking stadium steps with my pack

[rumbler]

and my Achilles tendons would be screaming even more loudly than they are except that they are as winded and out of breath as the rest of my body.

When you see me prone and wheezing incoherently against some remote outcropping this spring, be sure to smile and wave. Just understand why I may not have the will to wave back.

[Moose2001]

HA.. you won't be alone Wabbit. Just don't trip over me when you find me laying in the middle of the trail!!

[Colter]

wabbit, I think that if you are dedicated enough to train like that, you are one of those who will do well.

[Lone Wolf]

I've been walking back and forth from my house to Cowboy's with 12 packs. This is hard training. I've got major Dunlop disease. My belly has done lopped over my pants! In a little over 3 weeks I'll be on Springer ready to go.

[Moose2001]

hey.. LW. When are you starting?

[Lone Wolf]

20 March. First day of spring.

[rumbler]

LoneWolf – I do the same thing! Every Monday and Wednesday I put my pack on and walk two miles to the pub I’ve been frequenting for years. I quaff a few brews and walk home. It’s the only preparatory workout I have yet to fudge on.

Of course, it’s a flat walk with no elevation changes and I am still carrying around an extra score of poundage around my waist. I may have to buy a new set of pants before I am done starving on the trail. So I’d like to say that I look forward to seeing you over a cold one at some town stop but since I am starting on the 28th and will be racing against both the snails and a potential stroke I probably will never get within the same state as you after Georgia.

The folks at the bar are having a lottery as to how far I will get on this hike. I’m optimistically going to put $5 on myself getting to Katahdin, but that could just be the beer talking.

[Lone Wolf]

Oh you'll catch me. I am trash. I wrote the book on "0" days and no/low mileage days.

[Footslogger]

Was that YOU wabbit ?? ...I wondered who that was going up and down those stadium steps. I was the one in the cheap seats sipping on a beer.

Just kidding ...my hats off to you.

I'm feeling a bit like Moose at the moment. I'm definiteley gonna be over to the right in the slow lane. Just be kind as you pass.

[rumbler]

I fear I have given the wrong impression. After a half-decade of desk-job sloth and twenty five additional pounds of residual enchilada compounds, I have just started to train for the hike that was supposed to have come in 2004 but decided on a premature birth due to Lent. As in I am giving up employment for Lent.

I hit the stadium for the first time this weekend. By the time I had my pack at the top row for the first time I was wheezing like an octagenarian. The entire walk back down I was coughing snot. I was sweating, but only in a unbalanced and spotty sort of way that suggested that many pores had forgotten or lost their long-unused operational instructions.

I made the trip five times, each time plodding one boot-heavy leg at a time. Meanwhile I watched two teen-aged kids run up and down every corridor of ascending steps throughout the stadium. For the first time in my life I actually felt a rancid loathing detestment of youth and vigor. That's the difference between them and me: They purge excess liquids by sweating. I do it by peeing. And am grateful when I can complete a full purge, thank you very much.

So see y'all on the trail. I'll be the one hoping to find a cold beer, a shady tree and an advil.

[Footslogger]

OK Wabbit ...you've redeemed yourself. Now I don't feel so bad.

See you out there !!

[TJ aka Teej]

Originally posted by wabbit
and my Achilles tendons would be screaming even more loudly than they are except that they are as winded and out of breath as the rest of my body.

When you see me prone and wheezing incoherently against some remote outcropping this spring, be sure to smile and wave. Just understand why I may not have the will to wave back.

Spring is in the air!
I'll be doing the same kind of workout as soon as basketball season ends. I live near a large resevoir/park - up the hill, around the rez, down the hill, up the hill, around the rez...
I like walking on ground instead of pavement - seems to works the legs in a different way.

[Redbeard]

I'd rather carry the calories around my whole body than on my back! I lost over 25 lbs in two months of hiking last year, Radar (has a journal on trailjournals) wrote he lost 60 by the time he finished. When your done with this hike you have to stay unemployed so you can exersize enough to stay in shape!

[Streamweaver]

You ought to try the workout I had today!! lol Took a hike at the local state park ,if hiking is what you would call it. Actually it was postholing in a foot and a half of snow with a thick crust on top,take a few steps and crash through the crust ,pull your legs out ,take a few steps and crash through ,attempt to pull your legs out and take a step and fall flat on your arse and then slide quite quickly down the hill for 10-15 feet !! But dont worry plenty of trees to stop your forward momentum before you plunge into the icy river!! get up,fall down again!!! get up and finally start to get a rythem going and crash through again and fall at the same time fully expecting to break a leg lol . Oh yeah the climb overs are always interesting!!! I had the distinct impression that the ducks in the river and the deer on the ridge (sure they can walk across the ridge without giving it a second thought)were laughing at me the whole day!! Time to invest in some snow shoes !!!! Streamweaver

[Sly]

I don't do very much pre-hike conditioning. Why hurt twice, when you can hurt once?

[Aubrey]

I hear that, Sly! And if I have to be embarrassed, let it be only once and someplace deep in the woods where only other, equally embarrassed people can see!

[tlbj6142]

While doing stairs would be good for uphill climbing, does it help for downhill training?

Seems like the downhill motion (heel first) is radicaly different from the down stairs motion (toe first). Is the knee motion different?

It just seems like when I hike downhill my shin slides forward a bit at the knee just after I plant my foot. But moving down stairs does not.

Going down stairs works similar muscles/tendons groups, it doesn't seem to hurt like going down hill does. Of course I don't usually have 30# on my back when I go down stairs.

[dionalaniz]

wabbit, if you out of shape to the point that a couple hikes up and down the stadium completely blasts you then you might just want to skip the pack and the stadium all together and focus on getting in basic aerobic condition. Work up to running 3 miles every day, then start hitting workouts w/ a backpack. I waited till I was doing 5 miles per day before starting on the stairmaster w/ a 40 lb. pack.