Friday Fitness Hike

Since it was going to be such a beautiful day, I got the dogs up bright and early and we headed off to Harpers Ferry.

Objects in mirror are definitely closer than they appear.

"Well OK, then. I'll just stick my head out this side."

We parked at the train station in town, then walked across the bridge over the Potomac and up the C&O Canal Towpath for a bit until we reached the trail up Maryland Heights. This trail is a great cardio workout and I try to do it once a month just to stay fit. Since I've been laid up for so long until recently, I know that I'm going to pay on this one. But that's why we're here. And of course Belle's never been up there yet.

I was already sweating and short of breath by the time we got to this point, the junction between the trail to the scenic overlook on the right, and the path less traveled on the left, the long, steep climb up to the old stone fort some 1,400 feet above the river we'd just left.

"This one on the left looks interesting. Let's go!"

So up we went, me doing my steam engine impression, aka: "The Little Engine That Thought it Could."
"Huff! Puff! I used to be able to, I used to be able to.."

Yeah, all that recent leg-related downtime really hurt. But I'll work through it, even if I have to come up here every week.

The mutts were right out front there though, making it look easy.

Up near the top. Old Civil War fortification built by the Yankees.

"The top! Yay! And look at the view. Gee, you're sweating, Boss!

Belle takes in the view while Murphy racks out in the shade. Maybe I'm not the only tired one.

Happy Belle.

Further along, the dogs pose where a hundred-pounder cannon used to sit and lob 100lb. cannon balls at anything that dared come up the Potomac River in the background. The 27,000lb. cannon were left here after the war, but alas, they were taken out during one of the World War One scrap drives and melted down.

Down to the scenic overlook we walked, to take in this great view of Harpers Ferry below.

"Aw, yeah, man! This was worth the climb!"

Happy Belle, again.

Everybody's relaxing and just enjoying the sun and the breeze.

"Uh-oh! People! Get between the boss and the people!"

It was crazy. As soon as other hikers showed up, Murphy and Belle practically surrounded me as I sat on the rocks. They made it pretty clear that no one was going to be allowed over by me.

"You shall not pass! No, seriously...go somewhere else!"

Funny dogs. Never seen them do that before.

So we hiked back down the short way, which is quick but necessitates us crossing the canal the hard way.

I can climb down these walls and up the other side, but guess who has to be "assisted" down six feet and then boosted six feet up the other side. That's right...heavy dog and heavier dog.

But we got through it, and by now, the only parts of me not sore are the plastic and steel parts.

Still, it was a good work-out and a fun day, and two well-behaved dogs earned a reward at the Swiss Miss ice cream shop:

"Best day EVER, Boss!"

Yay me!

With one final three-mile run last night, I met the final requirements for a President's Fitness Challenge Gold Medal.

I started this in October, 2008, just a week before I ran the Army Ten-Miler for the first time. Since then, I've kept track of time spent running, swimming, weight training, martial arts, cardio work and even walking. It's simple: Do the exercise then log in and plug in what you did and for how long. It keeps a tally and eventually you can earn awards. It's a great way to track your progress and at least in my case, it motivates me to get out there because I feel slack if I don't log some work every few days or so.

My proudest achievement: Per the records, since starting, I've logged 76 hours running. (Would that be 152 hours for someone with two legs?) At my average distance pace of 10 minutes per mile, that's 456 miles.

I also logged 17 hours of swimming and I can easily swim a mile now without stopping.

Lagniappe gets credit too, of course. I also logged all of our walks that were over half an hour in duration, and together we logged over 90 hours of walking and hiking, to include quite a bit of time spent on the Appalachian Trail and Maryland Heights across the Potomac from Harpers Ferry. If you've climbed to the Old Stone Fort as we've done numerous times, you'll know that the hike's no joke. We worked, and he earned his own Gold Ribbon, which is on the way along with my medallion. We celebrated last night with a glass of Bushmills for me, and a deer bone for him. Very happy.

Now that I've hit the Gold Medal on this program, I'm at a loss for something else to work on. I can't stop now, and I'm in search of another workout program. Any of you have any suggestions?

Sunday ramblings

I'm tired.

I just got back from an afternoon hike with Lagniappe. For some silly reason, we (I) decided to hike up to the Appalachian trail from a parking spot down off of Mission Road on the west side of the ridge that the trail is on. Elevation of the parking spot is between 500 and 600 feet. The Appalachian trail on the ridge is between 1600 and 1700 feet in elevation. So it made for an invigorating hike. Add to this the fact that there's no marked trail between these two points--just a number of criss-crossing paths and fire-breaks--and you've got the makings for an afternoon of adventure.

Lagniappe was in fine form today. I let him off leash and he ran up and down the trail, picking up big sticks and branches to run with as he did. He always stays within sight of me on the trails because as soon as he gets around a bend and out of sight, I hide and then he has to run back and try to find me. I've trained dogs like this for decades, beginning with a Golden Retriever who used to stand in the middle of the trail and cry when he couldn't find me. (That worked, because I'd always laugh and then he'd find me behind whatever tree I was using for cover.) Lagniappe doesn't cry--he just sniffs me out. I can never hide from him. But he still learned the lesson and stays within sight of me as we walk.

The trail--such as it was--was steep and rocky, and gave me a good work-out. It took me about an hour and a half of steady hiking to get to the ridge line. But it was worth it. I could look one way and see Charles Town, WV below, and on the other side I could see well into Virginia. Definitely worth the climb...once, at least.

Going down, Lagniappe led the way. And to his credit, at every trail intersection, he unerringly made the correct choice and picked the one we'd come up. As a habit, I always position a stick or a couple of stones at the intersections so that I know. This was the result of a lesson learned in the old abandoned mines under Cripple Creek, Colorado years before, when a simple hour or so exploration turned into a very frustrating three and a half hours lost because I'd missed a turn somewhere in that pitch-black labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels. Now I always mark my changes in direction.

But Lagniappe got to every intersection before me on this hike and always made the right selection without any hesitation or input from me. I have to give it to this dog. He's smart.

Now we're home, and I'm drinking beer while he's dozing on his perch on the stair landing.

And the best news: This hike, coupled with yesterday's marathon gym workout, gives me enough points to get a Bronze Award in the President's Fitness Challenge--the self-paced activity program that I've been participating in these past few months. I urge everyone to check this program out (it's also perma-linked from the left side of this blog) and consider using it in conjunction with any fitness or fun exercise program that you have. I've found it helps me keep track of what I've done plus it motivates me to do more. I have my eye on that Gold Award that they give to people who go the distance. It may seem like a trivial cookie in relation to the months and months of effort, but hey--I'm all about the cookies.

And yesterday's gym workout was a good one. Once a week, I meet with this merciless trainer that I've written about recently and we see just how much harder I can push myself compared to the previous week. Saturday was the day this week, and I definitely made some gains since last week. Of course the thought of eventually getting this mean, evil vixen into the boxing ring for a few rounds at the end of our program is motivation here. Sometimes you need a little more than a medal.
We did do ten minutes of boxing this time, and she's not bad. I've definitely got to learn to keep my chin tucked and my face protected, but fortunately, she hits like a girl so it don't hurt much. (Hee, hee!)

And for those who wondered, I got through Thursday's truck drive with the minister and only said one bad word when I got cut off by a woman driver (naturally...) in a Toyota who just had to zip across four lanes on the Beltway to get into the far left lane for no apparent reason. She caused me to have to slam on the brakes, and of course the descriptive noun "Motherf^&#er" escaped my lips before I even thought about it. Whoops.

Oh, and deer-wise, my deer come daily now, and my herd is comprised of one mama deer with two fawns, another mama deer with one fawn, and three fawnless does, all of whom come every afternoon right around dusk. In fact, some of them are out there eating the corn right now as I type this. I can tell the fawns apart but I'm gonna have to get different colored collars or something for all the does.

All in all, it's been a good week-end. Now I'm gonna fry up some eggs and bacon for supper. That just sounded good when I was in the store buying my celebratory beer.

Later!

Swam a mile today. Yay me.

I got to the gym today and realized that I'd forgotten something--my running foot.

Dammit. Mama always said that I'd lose my head if it wasn't glued on. She never said nothing about feet, though.

So I decided that since running was out of the question, I'd swim longer to make up for it.

Now I've only been swimming in the club pool for a few weeks, and when they told me that 35 laps in the 25 meter pool was a mile, I was sure that it'd be a long time before I hit that mark. Scuba diving aside, it'd been years since I'd seriously swam and it took a bit of getting used to again before I could just relax and focus on coordinated, efficient movement. There was, of course, also the whole missing foot thing to deal with. That adds another element to the equation because the kick cycle is no longer even.

But today just felt right, and instead of quitting after half an hour like I've been doing, I kept on. It was probably easier today because I hadn't run a 3-5 miles on the treadmill before hitting the pool. But whatever the reason, I was able to keep on for an hour and a quarter and knocked out 37 laps--35 for the mile, one for a victory lap, and one more because I still had some left.

A mile. Not bad. Not bad at all. I'm feeling a little soreness coming on now, but it's a good kind of sore. A "did something" sore. I feel good.

I might have to start looking into one of those run/swim/bike triathalons this coming year.

Of course that means that I have to start riding a bicycle again, too. I probably ought to get me one of those come spring.

Where does this "fitness" stuff stop, anyway?