Day 7 5-25-2015 Sleep 2215-415
Miles 302-354
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| Peace and Love everybody! |
As the sun rose, I realized how absolutely beautiful the canyon I was in really was. The trail was cut into the side of the canyon the whole way, nothing more than a two foot ledge. It was rolling downhill and once again I was cruising. When I crossed Deep creek for the last time at the bottom, I stood right in the creek to soak my feet while I cameled up. I knew it was going to be a long hot section in the sun and it was already feeling hot at nine or so in the morning. Boy was I right. I kept trucking but I felt like I was totally out of it. I was glad my pack weighed next to nilch. This was the first test of my nutrition training and man was it paying off. I packed enough food from Paradise Café to barely make it to Cajon canyon. If I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, I would suck up the four miles and get a resupply in Big Bear Lake. Well as I rolled by Big Bear, I decided with confidence that yes indeed I would go for it and I would surely make it. I had three Nature Valley bars and two packets of Ramen at the start of the day. 1,300 calories for 40 miles. I got this easy I thought. Why? Because for over a year I have been working on my nutrition. I discovered that, indeed the human body is capable of a lot more than anyone thinks. It might be uncomfortable, but you can go very far with no food and limited water. So training; all winter long, I would have my big meal at night 1700-1800 because that is when our employee meal is, I know the time. I would go to bed. Get up 5-6 in the morning. Get all my ski gear together/on and start hiking. I would hike for as long as I could without eating anything. Then I would slowly sip on juice I had packed along. Often times this meant I hadn’t eaten anything for 15-16 hours. And I would slowly be supplying some carbohydrate for the body to use up immediately. Often times I would hike for eight to ten hours on two or three liters of juice. On days I was spoiled I would also have some energy cake leftover from the evening past. Why would I do this? Well it works out nice that you save time not packing a lunch and don’t have to carry it. But no, the real reason is to teach my body to get used to running on fat and fat only. Also, to get used to how it feels mentally to only run on fat. It is important for your body to be able to utilize fat very well, but equally important you have to be comfortable with the feeling. It is different then when you have some carbohydrate. When you have carbohydrate you feel fresher and crisper mentally. When you are running on fat, you feel sluggish and foggy mentally. Once you get used to the feeling though, it is not that bad.
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| When the sax part of Baker Street comes on, flying |
And so, I knew I had some food, but if I had to I could make it to Cajon Canyon with nothing more. Carrying less food, means less weight. Less weight is important when you are doing something like this. Less weight means less work, which means less calories burned. It also means less work your muscles do and less impact when running downhill. On a hot day, you ultimately are doing less work, therefore creating less heat and staying “cooler” And by having a lighter pack, mentally I feel lighter and feel more like running or moving faster. Yes, I am that obsessive and nit picky, every little thing makes a difference when you are going long. So cruising through the heat feeling lighter and cooler, I reached the top of the ridge. All that was left was the long downhill to my resupply at Cajon Canyon. A Cheveron…my favorite resupply (gas station). I felt like I didn’t even have a pack on at all. Such a good feeling had me flying. I got to the road and started the rehearsal of my resupply. I got my OJ and all while drinking, I fill my stuff sack with the appropriate amount of junk food. I was out quick, damn I am getting good at this. As I went under the bridge overpass, there was a group of hiker’s setup for the night playing drinking games. They offered me a beer and told me to setup camp with them. Man, I sure would have loved to. No thanks was all I said as I kept walking. All I could think was, I still got another ten or so miles to hike…probably as many as they did the whole day to get there, ugh. My pack felt so heavy in comparison, damn I thought, this is what 200 miles worth of food feels like. Wait it is only 100 miles to the next resupply. That is right! I got extra food to pig out while I walk up this hill. And so the feast began. Luckily for me, I can’t eat that fast while walking and it saves me from over doing it and laying comatose on the side of the trail. None the less, my stomach hurt and I thought I might knock it off. The last hour and a half I didn’t eat a thing and my stomach finally cleared. Perfect. Set up camp and passed out satisfied with a great week of hiking, well running, or speedmoving? What am I doing? And also a feeling of vindication of my training and that it is working for me.
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| Bomber trail, dem ridges; got me excited! |
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| There is a sunrise and sunset everyday, go get it! |
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| Delicate Sky |
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