More of David's Training

April 30

My exercise room training went fine this week, got in my workout each day that I was home. One day I turned on the baseball game and spent a couple of hours in there; an hour on the treadmill, an hour on the Bowflex, some free weights and cool down.

I’m off Mondays. I always make it a point to go into the exercise room at 2:00 and watch MSNBC while doing a few miles on the treadmill. I got that in. Fridays I work at home. I try to do half an hour in the exercise room in the morning and another half hour in the afternoon. This week I got the morning in, spent it on the Bowflex, but didn’t get the afternoon. That happens a lot.

Most evenings I do free weights while watching the news, and every night I do stomach crunches. I got these in all but two nights.

On the three days a week I work in Olympia I do stair climbing (currently 20 flights three times a day). I missed two days this week because I was at a training seminar. Fortunately the facility we stayed in had an exercise room and I did get some time on a treadmill. I went for a walk in the morning before breakfast.

Now for the weird thing that happened this week… For months I’ve been going on outdoor hikes once or twice a month. There are some rugged trails nearby. I wear a pack loaded with the ten essentials and some weights and I get a really good workout.

This past weekend I was scheduled instead for my first full day conditioning climb up a nearby mountain. How would I handle seven hours?

But this also meant unpredictable weather, and because of recent snowfall some white stuff up near the top. On my half-day excursions, if the weather is bad I simply work out in the exercise room. And in any event I’m never that far from the car. Not so here. In this instance, “conditioning climb” would also mean wet weather and seeing how equipment holds up. It’s like a full field test.

There’s the problem…

I’ve been accumulating gear the last few months. I have my base layer, trekking poles, sleeping bag, socks, gaiters, all three sets of gloves, all the head gear, and the ten essentials. But a lot of that other stuff? The expensive stuff that I figured I would only use on the Rainier climb? That’s what rent lists are for. I hadn’t thought I would need the parka, shell jacket, shell pant, insulating layer pant, any of that…

But if you’re going on a hike like the one this had turned into, you’re going to need an outer layer beyond simple raingear, not the rubberized stuff. And no cotton clothes. No jeans and a sweatshirt. This is like the Rainier climb.

I have to make a choice. I can go on as before, and extend my half-day hikes to full day and test my endurance that way. This is what I had initially planned to do. But if I want to really turn a conditioning climb into field tests, I’ll need to transfer some of the items on the rent list over to the buy list.

Well, I want take another shot at Mt. Rose in a couple of weeks. And I want to hike up to Camp Muir next month. So… I’m going to buy the outer layer stuff. And maybe I’ll start dressing the part even on my half-days, lose the jeans and sweatshirt, go with the synthetic stuff for all my hikes.