Normally, the hike is a 2-3 day hike to the summit. I will be trying to climb 11 miles up and 11 miles back down in a single day. In other words, my group and I will be doing an extreme hike.
An extreme hike sounds interesting except for the fact that I get winded walking up to my mailbox (anyone who has been to my driveway understands that there is no disgrace from being out of breath after walking up my driveway).
Anyways, my buddy, Scott has been following my progress on Facebook and has offered me advice when I've asked for it. My latest attempt at understanding where I am (and where I need to be) with regards to training occurred when I told Scott my training regimen.
"Well Scott, I've been going to the gym and setting the incline on the treadmill to 15. I just ran a 5k road race and I've been on a couple of small hikes."
He replied, "Sounds good. Try doing long distance runs or hikes at least once a week and climb 3-4 thousand foot elevations and you'll be fine."
Is that all? I'm having a problem with the "you'll be fine" line.
I just climbed the highest summit in Connecticut three weeks ago. The elevation was 2,316 feet, but the actual elevation gain for that hike was a mere 1,560 feet.
Two weeks ago, I did a 10-mile hike up and down two moderately sized mountains (mere hills when compared to Whitney) and was limping the last 1 1/2 miles back to my car. Going downhill was taking its toll on my knees to the point that I was wincing in pain with each step. Never mind the fact that I couldn't walk for nearly two days after the hike.
Last week, I flew up a mountain and back while wearing knee support and I felt fine. Of course, my pace was 26 minutes per mile. Let's see, if I use 26 minutes per mile as a baseline. For the sake of my poor math skills, we'll round up to 1 mile per thirty minutes or 2 miles per hour. At that pace, I should complete the 22 miles in 11 hours.
But wait...the books say it takes 16-20 hours to complete the round-trip journey. It looks like I would need to hike at a 1.25 mile per hour pace to be in that range.
This past weekend, I went up three grueling mountains and back and felt great. No knee pain and was able to walk afterwards. Although it seems like the training is paying off, the hike was only 5 1/2 miles. Twenty-two miles is a whole other ballgame.
Let's talk about my group.
It seems like there will be five of us. Scott, his youngest son, Gus, and two of Scott's California friends (Tim and Kevin).
While communicating with Scott he told me they all have nicknames. I don't know if this is a ritual sort of thing or tradition when you attempt Mt. Whitney, but Scott is known as Scott the Wolf. His son, Gus is known as Gus the Bus. Tim the Dragon is on board as is Kevin the Brown Trout.
Me? Well I can't help thinking of the movie Animal House. The scene where John Belushi gives everyone their Delta Tau Chi names.
It seems that Scott has proclaimed that from now on, my Mt. Whitney name is Arturo the Viking.
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