A Three Mile Sweat

Today was a busy day. Appointments in the morning and didn't get home until almost 3:00 pm. Tonight's gear clinic was at 6:30 pm at REI in Mountain View, which meant I had to drop our son off at the babysitter's by 6:15 pm. That left less than three hours to fix my son dinner, help him finish his homework and complete some household chores. Could I squeeze in some walking?

Leslie Sansone to the rescue! I popped her DVD into the player and away I went! After one mile, I had worked up a pretty good sweat, which is impressive for a walking video done at low impact speed. I also held a 3.5 pound weight in each hand. I'm going to need more upper body strength to help me on the cables at Half Dome. I completed three miles today.

I really don't care to sweat. It makes you stinky. You have to wash in the middle of the day. You have to change your clothes. It's inconvenient and it takes too much time. So it's weird when my t-shirt reveals sweat marks. It is, however, definitely getting easier to move. I don't feel as much like an uncoordinated dork as I did when I started this adventure. I notice I have somewhat more energy. I need new blue jeans. I may have to break open one of the boxes of "too small" clothes that I put in storage. That would be a nice reward!

After taking care of chores and dropping our son off at the babysitter, I headed over to REI for tonight's gear clinic. We sat and listened to an REI representative give us information on the best kind of socks, underwear, boots, over wear, hats, poles, packs and more. I tried on two more pairs of boots tonight and wasn't thrilled with either of them. These ones were wide enough, but not quite long enough. I gave up for the evening. I'll try again later.

I also discovered something called Superfeet. This is a very supportive insole that you can buy to replace the insole that comes in the hiking boots.

One of the packs that our REI representative showed us was the pack we had already purchased, pictured at right, above: a Venturi 30. This pack will hold approximately 30 litres of gear and a hydration bladder. I especially liked this pack because the only thing against your back is a mesh. The pack is actually held out from your back a few inches by the frame. This gives your back plenty of breathing room, keeping your back cool.

Duane found the sports beans tonights. These are Jelly Belly jelly beans, which are loaded with electrolytes. They're lighter to carry than a bottle of Gatorade G2, even though you still have to sip water when you eat one. They are reportedly a bit hard on the stomach if you don't dilute them. He bought several packs of these, one in each flavor, to try out on our next conditioning hike: this Saturday at Sanborn Park in Saratoga.