Date: 2015-02-04
To: ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂTrain as you fightÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ
Miles today: 0.0

49 Days left to prepare as I enter my second phase of training. Last Sunday my wife came home from shopping. She walked into the house and saw me in the living room with all of my stuff everywhere, I mean just everywhere. And there I was, in the middle of all this chaotic stuff. She just stood there in the hall, looking, hand on the hip kind of look. Then came the words: ¢What are you doing?¢ ¢Practicing.¢ ¢Practicing what?¢ ¢You know, ¢train as you fight¢ kind of practice¢ as I pulled my tent out of the bottom of the pack and began to set it up. ¢So, does this mean that you will be setting the tent up in the shower next?¢ ¢No, why would I want to do that?¢ ¢To simulate rain!¢ Then came: ¢Why don¢t you set-up outside?¢ ¢Are you kidding, its 7 degrees out there, and there¢s about 2 feet of snow on the ground!¢ ¢Well, it might be that cold in Georgia.¢ ¢In March!?¢ ¢The average temperatures are 69 to 44 degrees.¢ ¢Well, what¢s the coldest it¢s ever gotten in Georgia?¢ I know this, I looked it up!   ¢17 degrees below zero.¢ Well, then, there you go...it does get below 0 in Georgia!¢ ¢Yah, but, that was back in the 1940s.¢ ¢Well if it happened once it could happen again!¢ was her reply. ¢Anyway, you could set the tent up on the screened-in porch; that way you would be protected from the ice and snow.¢   ¢No-thanks, I¢ll stick to the shower for rain practice...¢Then just the other day I went to the Rec to practice incline hiking on the treadmill. I arrived at the Rec around 1900 took off my coat and put on my pack. It weighed out around 17.7 pounds (just a start). I got up onto the treadmill and started to walk ¢ incline 0 speed 1. You should have seen the looks I got ¢ Oh boy, the homeless person just walked into the gym kind of look. Anyway, I started increasing the speed: 1.5... 2... 2.5... 3 and then 3.1...3.2... 3.3... back to 3.1. Then every minute I increased the elevation: 1.... 1.5... 2 ... 2.5 and so on to 13 then I started to work my way back down on the incline. I must say it was a strange sensation...I think I will walk the track for 10 minutes then do the 30 minutes on the treadmill next time. So, back to the treadmill... Besides the looks I got, there was this guy next to me who just kept looking at me. His head would swivel back and forth, facing front, then me, then front again, then me. This went on until about my last 5 minutes on the treadmill... He finally leaned over and asked: ¢What are you doing? Practicing to climb a mountain?¢ ¢Yep, you¢ve got it! Just that.¢ He just looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. I got off the treadmill. Got my coat loosened all the straps and dropped my pack. Simple, not so fast... You see, I¢m not a hiker by nature, I have never owned a real Backpack. In the Army I had a Rucksack and we did Ruck Marches we didn¢t Camp we Bivouacked. What I am getting at here is you don¢t simply loosen the straps and drop the Backpack... Safety tip... You FIRST MUST UNCLIP the sternum strap otherwise you will hang yourself standing erect... I know... It happened. When I got home my wife asked: ¢Why is your neck so red?¢ I just said: ¢Safety tip: ALWAYS UNDO THE STERNUM STRAP BEFORE YOU DROP YOUR PACK!¢ ¢Oh.¢ Have a great February and Happy Valentine¢s Day to all the ladies out there who are following me... Thanks.