I got to the gym all of once, and it was way too cold for hiking (never minding that it wasn’t my turn anyway). My work schedule was insane this week – just no time for working out. I ate reasonably, but still managed to pick up a pound. I think a bit of that might due to “dinner on the grounds” at church, a rare event where I ate more than normal for a Sunday. But the real issue was not getting to the gym.
So…to remedy work getting in the way of gym time, I’ve rearranged my schedule. Now, I’m going to go to the gym first thing in the morning. The idea here is to get the workout done before work gets in the way. There’s another potential benefit – that of “fasted cardio”, the idea being that cardio workouts are most effective at fat burning on an empty stomach. How will that work for me? I’ll tell you in about a week.
I dropped to 206 even this week, probably leaving a pound on Mt. Chocorua, which I’ll blog about a bit later. When I get to 205, that’ll be halfway to my goal of 50 total pounds lost. I’m happy with the way things are going. I’m eating better, but not fanatically. I’m exercising, but not to the point of obsession. The weight is coming off, slowly and steadily. This works for me, and hiking is a big part of that. I’m really looking forward to warmer weather, when I can hike more, taking the family with me.
Some Days Are Just Perfect: Winter Hiking Mt. Chocorua via Champney Falls & Piper Trails 01/23/2010
I hiked the very popular Mt. Chocorua on Saturday under clear skies and temps in the 20’s. Champney Falls and Piper trails were very well packed out from top to bottom. The last bit to the summit is bare rock, over which I wore crampons to get comfortably to the top. Many others were wearing crampons, but there were those who made it up on microspikes. I tried microspikes, but changed to crampons as I just wasn’t getting the bite on the ice I wanted. I didn’t see any point in leaving the crampons in my pack, when they were there for the wearing. The traction offered by the crampons was outstanding, I must say…nothing like it, especially when you need a toehold on ice and snow going up a steep grade.
The summit was clear all the way around – views as far as there was to see. Mt. Washington and the Presidential range were the standout peaks, majestic white against the blue sky and surrounding darker peaks.
I took the loop trail that takes you by Champney and Pitcher falls. I happened upon 4 ice climbers, who were all nice folks willing to let me watch them do their thing and talk to me about the sport. All and all, it was a perfect day outdoors.
And without further ado, the pictures…
Presidentials from Champney Falls Trail
This and several more shots from the Mt. Chocorua summit…
And now for the ice and ice climbers…
I picked up Black Diamond Contact Strap crampons and a Black Diamond Raven Pro ice axe at Expensive Mountain Stuff today. EMS was having a sale, and I’m thinking Chocorua might be very icy at the bare, exposed summit. So, I’m prepared. I have an ice axe for self-arresting if I fall, and full crampons to make sure I don’t. Man, I love buying gear…
One of those days where I’m just exhausted, more than I think I should be. I didn’t sleep well last night, due largely to caffeine consumption during the day. I don’t drink caffeine but on rare occasion, and I paid for it. The Panera dark roast coffee was good, really good – don’t get me wrong. But I’m not going to get to sleep that night, pretty much a guarantee.
The work day was stressful as usual. I’m a “working manager”, in that my employer is transitioning me into a full-time management position. During the transition, I have to still be the sort of quality network engineer that made them want to put me in a decision-making position to begin with. So, I get to do all the bureaucratic sorts of things required of a manager, while still doing engineer stuff. I bounce from meeting to meeting, phone call to phone call, instant message to instant message, even talking to people in meatspace when folks wander by my cube. Lots of interaction with other people, often having to bounce from subject to subject, “changing gears” at a moment’s notice.
I didn’t have time to get a meaningful lunch today, so I horked down some oatmeal. By the time the end of my day rolled around, all I wanted to do was work out. Today, I spent all my time on the tread climber, the miracle machine for burning calories. I set the machine as high as it goes, which is 4.0 mph with the treadles on “max”. Total workout of 35 minutes, plus a 2 minute cool down netted a calorie burn of 710 – much of what I had eaten to that point in the day which included 200 calories of grits, 210 calories worth of protein bar, and 360 calories of oatmeal. Sprinkle in a few chocolate covered pretzels and miscellaneous, and I was at about 250 calories for the day consumed by the time I left the gym.
The ride home was slow and miserable, with horrible weather blanketing NH. Snow and slush was it, poking home at 50mph instead of the normal highway speeds. My wife, heavenly cherub that she is, was just finishing up cleaning the snow out of the driveway with the shovel and snowblower. I couldn’t have been more pleased. I didn’t want to clear snow in any way whatsoever, especially since I was out there for 2.5 hours yesterday moving it from the prior storm.
So what did I learn today? Mostly that a lack of food kicks my tail at the end of the day. I should have eaten lunch. Caffeine is bad for me…somehow knowing that doesn’t stop me from ingesting it on some days. Here’s hoping this all turns into some weight loss by next Monday. There are no get-togethers I can think of this week where I’ll be facing more food than I should eat, and weather-permitting, I’m hiking on Saturday. I hope to sneak into the 205’s by Monday.
I didn’t get to hike this week, so no “nuclear option” relating to my weight loss. I am down to 207 even, though, so a net loss of four tenths for the week. I’m hoping to get out on the trail next Saturday, weather permitting. We’ll see how it goes.
Last week I was 209 even. This week 207.4, thus 208 since I round up. I had to move the scale around a bit to get a realistic reading. I appreciate that the scale’s trying to help me out and all, but I just knew that the 206.6 reading I got first two tries wasn’t right. Anyway, 208 is heading back in the right direction after a badly behaved holiday season.
On a side note, my wife and I are fans of Food Network’s Alton Brown. He appears on his own quirky show Good Eats, and hosts Iron Chef America. We just watched a recent Good Eats episode where Alton discusses how he lost 50 pounds. The show is not an in depth diet plan, but Alton does give a lot of useful pointers without being preachy or displaying an unattainable body. He just changed his diet and lost weight. He knows a lot about food, so it was for me a mesmerizing watch. I still have it on my DVR and will probably watch it a few more times. Alton stressed discipline in eating, and also shifting from energy-dense foods to nutrient-dense foods.
I found the Good Eats program “Live and Let Diet” on YouTube in 3 sections. I don’t know if these are up on YouTube with Food Network’s blessing or not, so my apologies if you find the links are dead.
Alton Brown / Good Eats / Live and Let Diet / Part 1
Alton Brown / Good Eats / Live and Let Diet / Part 2
Alton Brown / Good Eats / Live and Let Diet / Part 3
Despite some recruiting efforts, I ended up doing a solo hike up Sandwich Dome yesterday. I followed Drakes Brook Trail in and out, 4.4 miles to the summit according the AMC book. As it turned out, I was the first one on the trail. This meant I was “breaking trail”, in the sense that although the trail was pretty well packed out, there was anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of powder I was snowshoeing through. Near the summit, after Drakes Brook Trail merged into Sandwich Mountain Trail, all prior footprints had been obliterated by the wind. So, the last few tenths, I was going through drifts, although the snow was still so tightly packed that this did not represent an extraordinary effort on my part.
On the way down, I passed about 25 people who were ascending, split among 3 groups of various sizes. Most of them were in microspikes or mountaineering boots as opposed to snowshoes, so the trail was broken up badly. For that reason, descending was more challenging then ascending. Coupling a light and powdery snow texture with other climbers breaking up the trail, and my snowshoes were hard-pressed to get a bite in steep sections. I found that the firm edges of the trail had been chopped up into the unpacked portion, meaning there was no mercy if I stepped on the trail edge while traversing a switchback or other steep section. The surface would just break away, and I’d be sliding.
I have this new Mountain Hardwear fleece hat I’ve been wearing, which is awesome for warmth. It covers my ears, it stays in place, and it moves moisture. However, it’s a cone of silence. You can’t hear nearly as much when it’s on. That sort of bothers me. One of the attractions of Drakes Brook Trail is listening the brook running. Couple that with snow crunching underfoot, and it’s the best sort of noise you can let into your head. What’s worse though is when a fellow hiker you’re passing says something generic like “how’s it going”, and you have to ask them to repeat themselves. They don’t want to repeat themselves when offering the pointless pleasantries most of us exchange on the trail. Heh.
I capsized three times during the ascent, all for the same reason: catching the toe of one snowshoe on the tail of the other. What happens is that you take a step in a narrow or otherwise awkward section, and accidentally step on the toe of the snowshoe in back. Then you go to lift your other foot to make the next step, and go over like a load of bricks. Most of the time, no big deal – you catch yourself on a knee or your palms, push back up, and off you go. Maybe you get some snow in your mitts, but the trees don’t care, so you can move on with your ego intact. One time I fell in dramatic style, though. I caught my toe, and planted my pole hard to save myself from falling over. The pole sank 2 feet into the soft snow off the side of the packed trail, and so I went over…kind of like a bug on its back. I was on my side in a strange position, one pole trapped underneath me with my wrist stuck in the strap, my snowshoes sticking out at a weird angle, etc. Yeah, good times – quite a bit of shuffling around to be able to stand back up again. I’d left a big print in the snow, which I walked all over to remove evidence of capsizing, because hey – we’re all pros destined for Everest, right? 
The summit was deathly cold. I’m estimating 10F, with a good stiff wind coming up over the ridge. The limited views were incredible (see below), but I only had a chance to snap a half-dozen pictures or so and get back into the woods. My bare right hand (needed to so I could work the camera) got uncomfortably cold really fast. My fingertips hurt a lot, so I had to get moving again.
Here’s some shots from the summit, one of which I used to make the new header for the blog. Enjoy!
My footprints, the summit cairn just behind me.
I went back through my camera’s compact flash, and I have a couple of older hikes to post pictures from. I’m going to back date them to the date I did the hike. This whole winter hiking thing is pretty cool.
I’m sure there’s science that could answer my question, but I’m wondering how many hours before a hike I should be loading up with energy food, i.e. carbohydrates. The idea is to consume food my body can easily turn into energy while I’m trudging up the side of a mountain. Backpacking is a significant calorie burn, somewhere in the 500 – 700 calories an hour for someone of my weight, depending on which calculator Google comes up with for you.
Of course, carb-loading is maybe a bad idea depending (again) on what Google brings up for you when you search. For me, the issue is that I don’t want to bonk part way through the hike. I want to have enough juice to make it in and out without dying the last mile or so, which is just no fun. So, tomorrow I see if eating some extra carbs ~18 hours earlier makes much of a difference. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about – how I actually felt.
I had a good workout Monday. Yesterday was a no-show at the gym, as I worked late and just ran out of time. Saturday I’m planning to snowshoe Sandwich Dome, which I believe will be a really great winter hike. Mostly sheltered from the weather, plus I have a T3 Techwick shirt on reserve at the EMS store in Concord, NH to pick up.
If you want to come along to hike, please let me know. The more the merrier!
After the holidays, I settled in at 209 even, 4 pounds over my goal. What happened was simple: too much eating, not enough exercise, especially during the last 2 weeks of December. A few parties and family get-togethers with lots of food around, and I chose to eat more than I needed to. With the holidays behind, I’m back to my normal diet and exercise routine. The goal for 2010 is to lose 29 (more) pounds. I would like to be at 180 a year from now. At that point, assuming I’m somewhere close to that goal, I’ll take stock of my body fat percentage and decide what to do next. I don’t just want to be “skinny”; I want to be fit, meaning that I might well need to add more lean muscle.
There are two recognized New Hampshire 48 4,000 footer lists: climbing them all period, and climbing them all during winter. The reading I’ve done suggests that Mt. Tecumseh is the easiest of the NH 4,000 footers to bag in winter. Well, it’s done, my wife with me, in a pretty good snowstorm. One down, forty-seven to go for the winter list.
I did this hike as an exploration of what this whole winter hiking thing was about. Cold weather is one thing. A snow covered trail is another. I must say I love winter hiking completely. With the proper clothes to keep you warm and dry, plus decent traction to keep you moving, the experience is a pure one.
I started for real winter hiking by ascending little Mt. Morgan, since it’s very manageable, and I’m very familiar with the trail. I wore microspikes and ascended easily. Descent was actually fun. I could sort of ski/slide my way down on the steep sections with my boots and microspikes.
I have consumed more sugar in the last couple of days than I care to admit. Except that I am obviously admitting it. Anyway.
Sugar comes in many blissful forms: donuts, as in Boston Creme, sugar-glazed chocolate sticks, and strawberry frosted. Fudge…peanut butter and chocolate varieties. Cream-cheese frosted pistachio cookies with chocolate icing. Cookie dough wrapped peanut butter cups. That’s just in the last two days.
I’m almost scared to go to work tomorrow, what with the holiday party. The party organizers have been making sure everyone is bringing in what they signed up for. I made a baked mac and cheese (cooling on the stove right now). I don’t remember what anyone else signed up for, but I bet we’ll have over a hundred thousand calories represented when everyone brings in their dishes.
I’ll try not to eat too many of them. The 205 halfway mark is not that far off…
