So, really good progress here as I increasingly narrow my focus on being ready for Bolivia (last half of May). Over the past month or so, I travelled the 200 mile trip down to Shenandoah National Park on three separate occasions and put in 9 fairly significant hikes/treks/climbs. Here is the raw summary:
There is a lot of data here, much of which is pretty informative in my view, and I think provides a clear picture of this, the critical emphasis of my pre Expedition training program. Let me make a few observations:
Trip 1. The first trip in mid-March was exclusively to the steeper Central District (at that point both the North and South Districts were closed due to downed trees across Skyland). This trip was cool but pretty much ideal for aggressive hiking. The mornings were in the low 20s and the highs in the mid 40s with nice sunshine and little wind for the most part--although it did snow some the first day.
You can see the steepness reflected in the average grade--essentially more vertical change per horizontal distance. I put in 19+ hours and covered 36 miles. My long hike was 13.1 miles over 7:10.
Trip 2. This trip had beautiful, clear weather with a light breeze. It was about 55 degrees in the mornings but reached 80 by the end of each hike--so it was more physically challenging and hydration became an issue on the longish hikes.
That said, I felt quite a bit stronger (and I had lost a fair bit of weight by then) and I went nearly 43 miles (19% increase) and was 18% faster. Some of this represents fitness gains but some of it was no doubt related to the less steep grades in these 3 North District climbs. Indeed, this lowered my average vertical change/hour (climbing speed). All three hikes were between 14-15 miles--very solid effort.
Trip 3. Just returned from this one. Great trip! Quite warm again but I did a much better job with hydration management. I put together my two longest climbs ever at SNP. 15.3 and nearly 17 miles. The later took over 8 and a half hours.
I was definitely stronger on this cycle. Longer over harder terrain. Compare Climb 7 to Climb 1 which were essentially the same climb (I tacked on 2.5 more miles for Climb 7). I went 19% longer but was 8% faster in horizontal speed and 7% faster in vertical speed. This is a meaningful and rewarding jump in fitness.
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Not surprisingly, these nearly 60 hours of hiking over 9 days has driven a very high volume of training time over the last 6 weeks:
3/11 28:11
3/18 35:28
3/25 23:07
4/1 35:21
4/8 34:34
4/15 36:41
This an unprecedented streak of training for me. 4 of the last 6 weeks (including the last 3) have been in the mid 30s in training hours. This would normally be a cause for concern (over-training) but given that its focused on principally hiking I think it makes sense--at least, I feel like its really working and I seem to be absorbing the volume well.
In April, I so far have put in 106 hours!! (with 9 days left in the month). Of this, 55% has been hiking/trekking/running and 35% biking and 5% swim and 5% other. My normal distribution is about 55% bike/30% run/10% swim/5% other. Because I can absorb hiking pretty well, this is what is driving the huge increase in training time.
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I've been on a fairly focused diet regime over the last 6 weeks and combined with the above training have dropped about 20 pounds to under 180. I feel like I'm well positioned for the Bolivia expedition in 3+ weeks.
Onward and Upward!
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