What Grade is that Climb?

Because I'm kind of sick and wanted to learn more about the Marathon and the 17 mile "fun run" that happens on the trail we hiked last week, I went back and looked a bit closer at the website for the run. This is what I found about the climbs of late day 1 and all of day 2 of our trip.

8 Ridge Passes:
Missouri
Hurrican Knob
Brier Creek
Leader
Brushheap
Brushy
Big Tom

Max elev. 2028 ft     Min elev. 1023 ft     Climbing Gain 4600 ft 
Climbing distance 7.10 mi       Avg Grade 12%

Nice. So the marathon involves all these climbs- twice? It's an out and back. My original assumption that these people are crazy still holds.

Spring Break Hike

Several weeks ago, my stepson David asked us if we would take him backpacking for Spring Break. I couldn't let that opportunity pass! A trip that we have planned several times but never made happen was waiting for us. We could start the Eagle Rock Loop , the longest loop trail in Arkansas, in less than 2 hours drive time from home. Monday morning bright and early we packed up the car and headed straight into adventure.

We started at the Albert Pike Rec Area in Langley, AR. We each got our gear out, changed into boots and looked down the trail. Immediately all the information about water crossings that we had read and heard  came roaring to the surface. There was a low water bridge and a small stream crossing within 0.1mi of the parking area. It's going to be a wet day. A fantastic, beautiful, scenic, lovely, wet day. Which meant a slow start because the camera was out. A lot. Within a couple of miles we ran into a large youth group from Illinois who had sheltered overnight in the rain and snow flurries of Sunday. They stayed with us until the first river crossing. It was thigh high (for me anyway, knee high for the guys) and I learned a lesson to last the rest of the trip: Choose your path carefully before you step into the water. It's cold in there! The group went in search of a better crossing spot and we didn't see them again. I hope they had a good time enjoying the sunshine after the rain.

One of the most popular sections of the 

Little Missouri Trail  is Winding Stairs. I found a you-tube video from Exploring Arkansas with Chuck Dovish about this part of the trail. We found the perfect spot for lunch and took our time enjoying peanut butter and honey sandwiches while listening to the rushing water and dreaming about using that rope swing over the deep blue swimming hole on a hot summer day. This part of the hike gave us a lot of small stream crossings, I think we stopped counting at 10 by mid morning.  Most of them were rock hoppers but a few were sit down and put on the Tevas or Keens. At one rather deep and wide crossing we ran into some girls from OBU on a day hike. I think they learned some lessons that day too. Like believe it when someone tells you you're going to get wet. And don't wear so much cotton. David got to play the chivalrous knight and offered advice from the far side, a hand as they made it across and shared his Shamwow to dry their feet. No ladies, chivalry is not dead. At least not on the trail.

We knew the section of the Athens-Big Fork trail was going to involve multiple steep climbs over mountain ridges so we tried to get one over with before we made camp for the night. We made it up to Eagle Rock Vista about 3:30 p.m. and spent a few minutes enjoying the view. The climb up was moderately strenuous for the old  'rents, but the boy just went up like he had wings. In the valley we found the perfect camp spot with plenty of room for both tents, off the trail, and next to water. We were pleasantly surprised at the number of campsites along the way. It was still relatively early so we hunkered down for a lengthy UNO game before making our standard first night camp dinner of Mac n Cheese with Summer Sausage. Don't judge, just understand that some traditions hold dear, even if it means carrying a pound of sausage in your pack. J could barely keep his eyes open and though we all debated about the dangers of going to bed too early lest we all be up at the crack of dawn...we crashed and didn't get up until after 7 a.m. the next morning.

Finishing the Athens-Big Fork trail will be the toughest part of the hike. We all know it and we're ready for the assault. Up. Up. Lots of Up. and killer down. Did I mention there was a lot of water too? We had 5 ridges to pass over and lots more stream/river crossings. I can't believe this was once a mail route between Athens and Big Fork. There is a marathon and a "fun run" in this area. See these people? These people are nuts. This is a tough trail. Look what it did to my boots!  These trails are rocky and require sturdy soles and souls. Thank God for duct tape and prayer. Amen. 

A recent controlled burn made parts of this trail seem a bit desolate, especially since life hasn't had time to "green up" even in areas not burned. Still there is beauty to be found in the desolation, you just have to dig a little deeper to find it. Like this guy. He was finding the beauty in a sunny day on the trail until I almost stepped on him. No I did not leave the starburst...snakes don't like sugar. That's how they keep their slim figures.

The plan for the day was to hike as long as we could, at least until 5 before we started looking for a camp site. We made it within 0.25 mile of the Little Missouri Falls Rec Area which we thought was pretty good since the last 6-7 miles would be much easier terrain than the day we just completed. After setting up camp and making jambalaya for dinner, I brought out the treat of the day- Chocolates. It's rare we have the right temps to carry anything chocolate and they were a welcomed treat out there in the woods.

The morning started out a bit cloudy and threatening. We stopped at the Falls to take in the view.

Pretty soon we came to a section of the trail with multiple crossings of the Little Mo River. I don't know what it looks like in the Summer but it was flowing fast and was knee to thigh deep on me at every crossing. At the 3rd big crossing of the morning we caught up to a couple from Texarkana who were on their first backpacking trip. They had camped on the opposite side of the river from us the night before. We had a nice chat and were back on our way. About 2 miles from the end of our trip, the clouds parted, the trail became green and life was good. The boy was making it hard to keep up with his long legged strides and I unfortunately could not help but break into song every few minutes. This is an annoying trait, I recognize and embrace it. A few more small stream crossings and we were back to the low water bridge, tired and grinning from ear to ear. And most likely smelly. And most certainly carrying good memories in those heavy packs.

Another week, another $2.00

Tuesday: warm up with CORE and agility ladder
25 pushups
25 chair pushups
25 weighted pushups (PU with a 25lb plate on my back, wish I had a picture)

outside run 800m forward, 400m backward, 800m FW, 400m BW.

Running backwards becomes the theme of the week.

Wednesday: lighter CORE workout to warm up
"The 300"  50 of each exercise done in sequence
wall ball x 15lb ball
box jump 24" box
pull ups (assisted by a band of course)
kettle bell swings 20lb
push up
thrusters 65lb (front squat with push press)

Thursday: CORE again.
5 x 10 hang clean 45lb bar
21 single leg jumps (used plyo machine on this set at 60lb)
400m run backward
200m sprint forward
15 single leg jumps
400m bw
200m fw
9 single leg jumps (used an 18" box this time)
400m bw
200m fw

Friday: CORE, again. Ouch.
3 rounds of:
tire flips x 15
tire hits x 20  - baseball bat coated in tape till it looks like a bowling pin, wood chop over head and hit tire.
plate push 2 x 20yds - 1 x 45lb 2 x 35lb
weighted step ups 12 ea leg -  1 x 25lb DBs on 24" box 2 x 20lb on 18"
bench dip x 10-elevated feet, 1 x 12 x 10lb plate in lap, 2 x 10 x 25lb plate
seated chest press x 15 ea arm x 30lb

I'm tired. And my shoulders are a little sore

I'm late, I'm late...

We've been busy. Really busy. Last weekend J, the small one and I saw Eric Clapton Live and Elvis's grave at Graceland.She spent most of the concert with her mouth hanging open. It's great to watch her appreciate talented musicians. Not only were Mr. Clapton and Roger Daltrey (who opened) just phenomenal, but  their bands were equally impressive. There was some fantastic musicianship all across that stage.
Just a quick shout out to Memphis Tourism. You guys have it down. We've made several trips to Memphis lately. Every one of them a success. From the time we arrived to the time we left people were helpful and nice and get this...they were POLITE! I felt like I was actually being served instead of my patronage being an inconvenience. I hate when in a restaurant, hotel or entertainment venue I am treated as though they are doing me a favor to take my money.  So thanks Memphis. It didn't even ruffle my feathers that the nice lady at the concession stand at the Fed Ex Forum called me honey, baby and sugar all in one conversation while she apologized that I had to "gasp" wait in line to buy a soda.

The small one had asked to go to Graceland before but honestly we thought she wouldn't enjoy it. Imagine my surprise when she looked at me after we spent several hours there amidst a large group of young girl scouts (and a few screaming siblings) and said "thank you." Wow. Was it the gold records or the sequined jumpsuits? Perhaps the fancy cars and motorcycles? Maybe it was the fur covered furniture in the jungle room? I think she was amazed to find out that what would be an average sized home for some of her more affluent school companions, Graceland really was once considered a mansion.
We were going to eat at the famous Marlowe's BBQ after Graceland, alas it didn't open until 4 p.m. and we had to be back on the road to LR before then. So we searched 'area restaurants' in our TomTom and an address for Sam's Down South BBQ and Hot Wings came up. As we drove down the street the small one expressed some concern about the condition of the neighborhood. Upon arrival we discovered a smoker on the cracked front sidewalk of a strip mall. With window bars. And peeling paint on old concrete walls. But it smelled so good. So we entered. And were immediately greeted with "you folks aren't from around here are you?"  I am not kidding. That's a quote. What? They don't see "our kind" there? How sad. The cook watched us warily for several minutes, commented how nice it was to have a loving family in his place and asked us all kinds of questions to make sure he fixed our meats just the way we wanted. Nice. After he finally figured out that we just like to eat, he sat down with us-there were no tables, just a couple of beat up old vinyl chairs-and we had a nice conversation while balancing styrofoam boxes full of MEAT. He even brought out some of the meats we didn't buy for us to try.  We had ribs, wings and a pulled pork sammie between us but we tried the brisket which was heavenly, pork shoulder mmmm and rib tips. Sam thinks his rib tips are the bomb and he might be correct. Sam, those were some of the hottest, meatiest, messiest wings we've had in a long time. And yes you were right, the ribs are better dry.

Then J and I went off to Eureka Springs for 3 days while he attended a work conference. We were just in that gorgeous little town right after Christmas for some R&R. I knew I couldn't shop-or rather I shouldn't. Instead I  ran the winding and hilly historic loop (from our hotel it was about 2.7 mi) where all the quaint little shops and restaurants are located, did hill repeats in our hotel driveway and then walked the loop again to get lunch. The following day I was completely lazy and read books, mostly cookbooks that I had "won" at the silent auction the night before. I watched more TV that day than I had in the last month I think. I became addicted to some show about people who "do" hair. How did I live not knowing about Shear Genius? Yeah. Whatev. I haven't watched it since that day and I can't say I've missed it. But THAT day, that day it was essential to my mental well being.


In December, I insisted that no exercise would be part of the trip. It was relaxing remember? But this time we took our mountain bikes and finally got to try out some of the trails at Lake Leatherwood. Here we are on Miner's Rock Trail. The sweeping downhill was so worth the climb up! Sweet Ride. That's a really nice little city park. Well done Eureka Springs.

There is no workout program...

that makes up for a bad diet. Damn straight.

Sunday 7th: 5 hours of early morning trail work then 3.5 hours sitting in a car. Ate a lot.
Monday:  2.7mi hilly run, hill repeats to pain mode on short steep hill (about 8 sec runs each), chair pushups on the "porch" of our hotel room : ) , chair dips too, then a walk of the run route in the afternoon. Ate AND drank a lot.
Tuesday: Abs and a little in room cardio/calesthenics food wasn't quite as bad today, I even ate quite a bit of fruit but come on!!?? what's with the fried food frenzy?
Wednesday: an hour or so of pretty tough mountain biking and another long car trip
Thursday: NADA
Friday: back to morning class  
10..9..8..7.......1 rep workout
Weighted stationary lunges 10,9,8 rep @ 20lb dumb bells 7,6,5 @25lb  4,3 @30lb  2@ 35lb, 1 @ 40lb
Incline dumb bell press 10,9,8 @ 20lb  7,6,5 @ 25lb  4,3,2,1 @ 30lb  tried and failed with 35.
Dumb bell push press same as incline press

Finished off with 2 x 20 each sumo squats and walking lunges carrying a 15lb medicine ball. Yes my glutes were sore, thanks for asking.
then had a great pasta and wine dinner with Sweet Sarah Smiles.

Saturday: 7 yes I said 7 hours of trail work. Followed by another 3 or so in our own yard on Sunday. Criminy.  No more raking for a while please. Pretty please. With a showgirl on top. Maybe even 2.

Full week

Hit the 5:30 a.m. workout 5 days in a row this week!

Monday: warm up with core (seated twists w/10lb plate, V-ups, plank, etc)
5 pull ups
10 pushups
15 squats
20 rounds in 20 minutes!
then 1000m run/jog in 5'50"

Tuesday: warm up with core
50 pushups
bench press 2x3x80lb, 2x2x95lb, 1xFx100lb
10..9..8..7..6......1  start with 10 reps, then 9 then 8...so on down to 1
superset: dumb bell bench press and elevated pushup (feet on 8 in box) to failure
          db press 25-30lb, avg push up 7
superset: push press and plate raise to failure
          push press ended rep 1 at 65lb but tried at 85lb and could do 4 reps...25lb plate raise avg to F was 10

I ruined it all by eating fried catfish and onion rings for dinner, but man was it tasty!

Wednesday: warm up with core and speed ladder work
Sprints day
8 sec sprint:8 sec high knee holding the support bar (same speed)
11 sprints @ 9-11mph, flat incline
4 x 12 sec sprint @12-12.5mph    tried 13mph but tripped and burned my back on the treadmill. Doofus.

Thursday: warm up with core and ladder again
3:00 circuit of ea exercise 20 sec work: 10 sec rest
box jumps switching between 18-24 in box x 3 rounds
plate push switching 25-35lb plate x 3 rounds
lat pulldowns 70lb/DB row 30lb x 2 rounds
tire flips avg 14 flips in 3 min x 2 rounds
DB military press  20lb x 2 rounds

Friday: warm up with core
5k outside in the cold
finished off 3 x  20 x 8lb wall balls

Then, the weekend. But that's another post.