Preparing for an AZT Thru-Hike at 50 – February Results

Well, I managed to live through February!  You may have read in my earlier post at the end of January, my plan was to average 15 thousand steps per day this month, plus conquer Dome Mountain every Saturday. I also planned to visit the gym for strength training weekdays.  I don’t recall if this was originally part of the plan, but I decided to roll into using a weight vest on the treadmill at the gym by midmonth, and outdoors begin to use a mostly loaded pack on walks.

One of the frostier climbs up Dome Mountain. I’ve since shaved off the stache.

I am proud to say that I hit the 15k step goal average.  My actual average for the 28 days of February was 15,811 steps each day!  I will concede I did not hit 15k every day.  About halfway through the month I was feeling low energy and low mood (which I know happens when I overexert and do not have enough recovery time), so I took a “zero” and only did around 2000 steps. It really helped. 

I didn’t manage to conquer the Dome every Saturday.  One Saturday, after a 10-15 cm (4-6  inches) snowfall, I set out to do it, but fell short by a couple of km (1 there, 1 back) because the depth of snow and difficult footing was just exhausting.  My Garmin watch was telling me I was in zone 5 most of the time, which is pretty much the hardest push I have done since last summer and the heart event. I’m not interested in hurting myself before I go, so I backed off.  But I handily met my step goal that day, since the steps I was taking in the deep snow were smaller. So while I didn’t make it to the top, it was a successful workout in every other way. 

That’s Dome Mountain in the distance. You can even see the radar dome on top, hence the name.

Late in the month (the 25th) I celebrated the 4 week countdown until my departure by strapping on my pack for the first time and taking it out for a shakedown.  I circumnavigated the base in just over 17 km (a little over 10 miles) on mostly packed snow and in the 20-25 lb ballpark for load. And surprisingly, I didn’t feel completely wrecked afterward!  

Interesting observation: training in the snow means I was doing everything just about nonstop, which is not how I plan to hike. I want to be taking regular breaks and enjoy the journey when I am on trail, and hiking the same area over and over again in sometimes breathtaking cold is not conducive to this style of hiking.  So for example, on my 17 km day, I took exactly one break: at 12 km when I stopped into a convenience store for some jerky and Doritos. I sat with the dog on the front step of the store for about 5 minutes, but I didn’t want to sit too long on cold concrete without a sitpad. 

But back to my goals. Attending the gym weekdays did not turn out well. I found that my mental health greatly impacted my consistency in that area. There were days I just barely managed to motivate myself to walk the dog and hit my 10k steps, let alone go to the gym. I also had 2 days per week scheduled for ankle and support muscle strengthening for prevention of injury (groin pulls, sprains etc.), but I was very unmotivated to do those because so much of my outdoor training has been on uneven snow and ice, which I believe is already meeting that need. 

This is a Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan, meet world! I was about 6 feet away when I snapped his profile pic.

I did some research on how to acclimatize to altitude when you live at sea level, and I learned something interesting.  Apparently sauna is a very good tool for this: regular sits in the sauna has been shown to increase your red blood cell count and allow you to cope with altitude quicker.  Lucky for me, my gym has a sauna!  So I am counting on that to help motivate me to work out at the gym more. 

Looking ahead now to March, the plan is: 

• 20 thousand steps average, from March 1 to 22;
• Continue to work on consistency with the gym;
• Continue to “Own the Dome” every Saturday, adding in the 2km approach, for a total of 13 km;
• Cease training on the 23rd to give myself some rest and an opportunity to “heal up” before hitting the trail. 

I am SOOO PUMPED to get on trail!  It is almost unbearable seeing hikers already posting pictures already this year!  March 26 is coming!