It's a date

It's final. I'm starting my attempt on Thursday July 19th. Ken and I fly down to LA on Wed. July 18th and meet up with Nate. The three of us then drive up to Lone Pine and spend Wednesday night at a hotel. Early Thursday morning (3am or 4am) we start up Mt. Whitney. I expect us to summit around noon, where we'll have a nice meal and I'll try to nap. Following that, the three of us will start back down and my clock begins. At the pass, I'll head down the back side of Whitney and Nate and Ken continue back to Whitney Portal where they start the drive back to LA. If all goes according to plan I arrive at Happy Isle in Yosemite Valley on the evening of Tuesday July 24.

Six Weeks or less ...

I haven't written in a while ... sorry ... to much working and walking.



I recently met with Gillian and Don, the owners from ZombieRunner.com. They offer a coaching service for ultra-distance runners and while I don't run much I figured they might offer some sage advice, considering their combined 280 distance races. I was right. They were great. (I'll be meeting with them again.) They helped refine my pacing and sleep strategies for the actual attempt as well as helped me think through my final 6 weeks of training.

Speaking of which...

I'm planning my attempt some time between July 19th and July 23rd. (I'm getting closer to a specific date.)

My last 3 weeks will be a ramp down, probably 20 miles, 10 miles, and then none. I'll be combining this with some heat training to help my body conserve salts.

My next 3 weeks will be intense. I've been hiking about 40 - 50 miles-a-week for a month and I need to step it up. This last Friday was my first official sleep deprived hike. I slept 5 -6 hours on Wed. and Thurs. then slept 2 hours Friday. (Actually Sat. morning 1am - 3am) After waking I headed out and hiked 27 miles from my house to Rancho San Antonio Park in Cupertino. It was 22 miles to the park where I met Mike and we did a 5 mile loop before heading to Chili's for lunch. It was also my first trial with all (at least 95%) of my gear. I finished alert and strong. Next, I need to camp out with my gear. Maybe this weekend or next.

Training update

Three weeks ago I hiked a 44 mile week. In general, it went well but I felt my body was heading toward injury. I was not recovering as fast as I should, I was starting to have some right knee pain, and I was getting minor shin splints in both legs.

I needed some changes if I was going to continue training. First, I took a rest week 2 weeks ago and only hiked 22 miles. I also went out and bought a pair of road running shoes. I was training on pavement more than expected and it was taking a toll since I was in trail runners. After some research it seemed that tight calves could be part of the shin splint problem so I started stretching at least 3 times during training hikes. Finally, I reduced the speed of my hiking to roughly 3.5 miles per hour. In order to maintain a 4 mile per hour pace I hiked with a different gait than normal. I believe the exaggerated gait was causing a majority of the problem.

This past week I hiked 41 miles, 21 miles Saturday morning was my longest training hike to date. With the new shoes, additional stretching, and the slightly slower pace, I ended feeling very strong with no problems at all. Back to increasing mileage.