June 12, 2014
I have begun to progress strongly with the strength and endurance training for the continuation of next winter’s trip on the Continental Divide. However, one part of my body is not progressing. The painful sciatic nerve condition in my lower back continues to hamper me. Yesterday I did what I now consider a light walk by ascending more than 1700 feet over a distance of 5.3 miles in approximately 2 hours.
I came off the walk feeling okay. With a 500 square feet carpet-cleaning job in front of me though, I was unsure how the rest of the day would go. As it turned out, by the time I left the job site in the latter afternoon, pain was piercing through the small of my back. For the remainder of the day and then in bed last night the back wobbled between painful and uncomfortable.
With that in mind, for today and tomorrow, I have two larger sized carpet-cleaning jobs to complete. For that reason, there will be no training today and likely none tomorrow. The largest job, at 1200 square feet combined with 15 stairs that have to be hand cleaned on my knees, is today. Tomorrow’s work is approximately 2/3 that size, and fortunately is without stairs.
This route has a resounding familiarity. It looks like last summer’s training, which is how I ended up ill prepared in 2013 for the winter Continental Divide trip that was to begin in February. Besides the two illnesses in September and November, there were other substantial interferences through last summer, autumn, and early winter with my daily exercising, which in turn contributed heavily to my failures last winter.
I note that until the winter of 2008, which was when I completed a 150-mile double crossing of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, I exercised two hours every day, that included an additional 10 to 12 minutes of resistance training. Often I would do this while carrying a 45-pound backpack. Afterwards I would clean carpet for much of the day. Now with my aging body and in particular because of my back, I am unable to maintain that schedule. Yet that is exactly the level I have to be at if I am to have any chance at continuing the Continental Divide trip next winter. While I will not be walking or resistance training today and probably not tomorrow, I will have to get to that level this summer, in the next 30 days. Beyond that, at some point I am going to have to start training with a load on my back. Hell!
In addition this summer, I must hike 254 miles of traveling along sections of the Continental Divide in Montana and Idaho. My daily exercises and carpet cleaning is similar to the regimen of climbing mountains with a load on my back. That is why I must be able to exercise daily on Mount Helena and then continue the rest of the day carpet cleaning. If I am unable to maintain this daily level, there is ample reason to doubt my ability to climb with a heavy pack on for multiple days and weeks this summer, much less next winter when the load is far bigger and the travel conditions are far worse.
Through the years, I have found that regardless of the doubts and feelings of hopelessness, which is the state of my present condition, I must continue exercising, work through the pain, and attain that higher level of physical fitness. It almost goes without saying that at times like this it becomes necessary to use the action of one day at a time, or if need be, break it down to just putting one foot in front of the other.
