A few weeks back Robert Avila and I were having lunch to catch up on life. He had forgotten that I asked him in June to make the hike. Even though he'd been running a lot for the December 2011 Las Vegas Half Marathon -- unfortunately, his work life had gotten in the way of his training; so no Robert.
Plan B! My old buddy Dave Schick, also my awesome accountant, has made the climb two other times with me. The last time we set out in 2005 my physical state of being was horrible. Two hours into the hike my heart rate was nearing 200 bpm, so I called an audible at the top of Echo Canyon and turned back (just past the half way point). Note to out of shape desk-jockeys... don't drink an industrial sized Monster Energy drink and then try and hike a 17 mile hellish trek with thirty pounds of fat cells around the gut. Unfortunately for my adventure this weekend, Dave's roof on his lovely ranch style home nearly got decapitated during the previous week's thunderstorms; so no Dave.
Not to be deterred, this would be a solo mission. Knowing that my Saturday work out usually netted me about 400 calories burnt, I needed to be sure a nine hour hike would result in similar caloric burn. So I consulted the great MyFitnessPal app for the estimated output. Taking in account for the time climbing up and the time for descending the mountain, my little app said I would burn 6400 calories... WTHeck!
So when the alarm chimed at 5:00am I had already been up for an hour. The sun crept over the eastern sky at 6:00; I was on the trail at 6:05. 10:50 I touched the peak of the mountain. Surprisingly the trip down produced the most pain, which escalated during the last 2 miles. I even added some more pain to the game because my water estimates were off by two liters. Things get a bit sketchy during the ninth hour of hiking when the H20 is no more. Nevertheless all was good! Made it to the car around 3:30 in the afternoon, bandaged a few blisters, and then drove the 30 miles back to the casa with a big smile for accomplishing week three's challenge.
Fantastic job to not be deterred by those deserters! 6400 calories sounds about right. Hope you took advantage of an indulgent "reward" meal after that! So I was in Vegas this last weekend, and in theory, could have gone on the hike with you. It would have drastically interfered with the 44 hour bender I actually completed while there...one which resulted in the loss of my phone! So, hope you haven't been texting me for advice this week. I do have a challenge for one of your upcoming weeks: 20! pushups. For those delinquent on their math lingo, that "!" = 20,19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 pushups with 30 seconds rest between each. Ends up 210 all together, takes about a half hour. If anyone thinks this sounds easy, I challenge you as well. GOOOOOD LUUUUCK! No girl pushups either! Last week of the contest, be prepared to scale back up to 20 after the descent only with a minute between (419 pushups, bout an hour).
ReplyDeleteChallenge accepted... Week six challenge is set!
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