Month #1

Let me start by saying that I am in very good health and have been a walker my whole life. But I started having hip pain in December 2008, and had major surgery on the hip in March 2009. The recovery has been alarmingly slow and I really spent the whole year being quite sedentary. So when El invited me to go on this adventure, I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me!!

Our house is at 5880 feet in the Carson Range of the Sierra Nevada mountains. So for the first two weeks of this first month, I walked from my front door to the stop sign on Joy Lake (I'll refer to this as Walk 1) which is 3.4 miles round trip. It is uphill all the way to the stop sign, and obviously downhill all the way back home. It used to be my "long walk" and now will be my "short walk." I did this as often as I could, but didn't keep track. The hip complained about this a bit, and I swore to resume pilates in earnest (I have a Reformer in my bedroom). Beginning April 1 (the start of the second two weeks) I started keeping track.

Week 3: Walked the golf course (an estimated 7 miles at 4500 feet), did Walk 1 in the new boots (see below), did the 4.6 mile walk to Mt Rose Highway (Walk 2) twice, did a 7 mile walk (Walk 4) from my house to the bottom of Joy Lake and then straight uphill for 3.5 miles and back home with about 3-4 pounds in a backpack. (This last walk is something of a killer and goes from 5370 feet to 6280 feet. Joe has been going with me on almost all of these walks and he hates this one because it is boring). The next day I took a cart to play golf! TOTAL DISTANCE: 26.4 miles all at about 6000 feet.

Week4: Did Walk 4 twice more with sneakers and a light pack, did about 4 miles in howling wind and freezing rain, did a version of Walk 2 (same distance, different roads). Vowed to always take a cart for Thursday golf. All walking should happen at elevation! It appears my commitment to pilates was a myth. TOTAL DISTANCE: 22.5 miles all at about 6000 feet.

GEAR: I rambled through my closet and found I already own most everything I will need. I fretted over boots a lot during the first two weeks. I did a couple of walks in my old Raichle boots and found that at about 3 miles that pain in the ball of my left foot was starting up (I have this pain when I walk around my house barefoot and saw a couple of docs about it last year, since I had already met my huge deductible with the hip surgery. They recommended leaving it alone and quit walking around barefoot!). So, long story short, I bought a pair of Asolo's as they are the only boot narrow enough for my foot. They are heavy. Really heavy, and as of week 6 I have only worn them for about 3-4 miles at a stretch. I worry about this. I haven't yet gotten a blister, but they feel like I am hauling around an extra 10 pounds on each foot.

So I wanted to buy something, anything, for this trip so I bought a Smartwool undershirt and some sock liners. Whoopee. And I bought a dayrunner so I can keep track of the training.

Also during this time I found out there is another woman going with us (Lori), and they might change the route up the mountain from the Machame route to the Umbwe. If you go look these up you will see how horrifying this news was! But El lives near the guy making the decision, and she talked to him and we all felt much better about the change; he also said we could do any route we want. I started reading some blogs about the climb which probably was a mistake (very scary stuff). I have regretted more than once that I already have plane tickets for this adventure!! El and I also decided on the particular safari we wanted after the climb, and I signed up to see gorillas in Uganda after that! Might as well get as much out of this as I can, right? And I read Dian Fossey's Gorillas in the Mist.

Cheers,
Marlene