Snowshoe/Backpacking to Mammoth Mountain Inn

Time: 10:00am, 6 hours
Meal: Freeze-dried granola, scrambled eggs & oatmeal at 9am. Cliff bar at 12pm, trail mix & nuts at 1:30pm.
Distance: 7.5 miles, 1500 vertical foot climb



I caught a chest cold so this was a particularly difficult day and certainly was not any fun. My pack weighed an (estimated) 40 lbs, and I must have given at least 5 lbs to Scott about 1/3 of the way to the top. It was slow going, and I experienced rises and drops in my energy periodically.

My chest was very congested so I took quite a few "hacking" breaks. Surprisingly, my muscles felt pretty decent and I did not experience any excess soreness or weakness. My only weakness was as a result of experiencing shortness in breath and slight asthma (pretty much the same thing, I guess).

We didn't pack a full lunch for this day. It worked out O.K. but I have a hunch that a well-balanced meal might have helped to spike my energy level a bit!

Day Snowshoe to Devil's Post Pile

Time: 12:00pm, 4 hours
Meal: Freeze-dried granola, scrambled eggs & oatmeal at 9am. Freeze dried pasta salad (yuck), trail mix and cheese at 2pm.
Distance: 6 miles round trip



Still slow going today but not having the 40 lb. pack helped a lot. We did one very steep include and that felt o.k. The Devils Postpile in winter is really a unique sight! Very beautiful!

I still didn't get a whole lot of sleep, which continues to contribute to my exhaustion. Given that, I think I did o.k.

Snowshoe/Backpacking to Minaret Falls Campground

Time: 11am, 4 hours (includes 1/2 hour lunch)
Meal: Scrambled eggs, croissant, O.J. @ 9am. Ham Sandwich & Trail mix plus Gatorade for lunch @ 1:30pm.
Length: 6.5 miles



A long week of late nights and early morning followed by a late, emotional night made this a tough day. Last night my best friend Kelly called me to telll me that her dad had passed away, so all day I had doubts about even going on with the trip. Anyway, I physcially felt o.k., just slow moving for a variety of different reasons.

We cut across the mountain from one road switchback to another, so there was a good mile of very steep decline. The pressure hurt the tops of my feet and ankles after a while, and I felt a distinct tightness in my glutes. I survived, though - it was a pretty good hike.

The weather during the day was an incredible 60+ degrees. At night, however, it dropped down to 20 or below and I was FREEZING! I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I really enjoy this camping in the snow thing.

Track Training, Santa Barbara City College

Time: 6pm, approx. 1 1/2 hours

• 1600 warm up
• 3 laps strides
• stretch
• 3 fast 200's (1/2 lap) with a 200 rest in between each
  
• 4 fast 400's with a 200 rest in between each
• 2 fast 200's with a 200 rest in between each

Meal: Salad at lunch, Cliff Bar at 5:30pm.

I felt "iffy" for much of this training, but nothing intolerable. Finally, towards the end, I caught my wind and felt really great about the workout. My fast 400 is at 2 minutes, which is pretty good but I feel like I'm pushing it really hard. However, I'm comfortable that this speed will become more natural in time.

I spoke to Jeff (one of our coaches) about my sporadic training, as well as my upcoming overnight snowshoe of the weekend. He felt good that I will be o.k. in the training, especially if I can handle a 16-mile snowshoe trip!

Gym - Treasure Island in Las Vegas (Yay!)

Time: 1pm, approx 45 minutes

• Run, 30 minutes
• Upper body strength training, 15-minutes
• 50-minute massage (melt)
• naked hot-tub time :-)

Meal: Breakfast buffet, 11am.

Don't worry, I'll get to "naked hot tub time" in a minute.

I skipped training yesterday because I wasn't feeling well. I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes, gradually working up from 5 miles per hour to 7 miles per hour. I was worried about getting sick, but the more I ran the better I felt. My time was only cut short by my massage appointment, so I wasn't able to stretch as much as I would have liked to. The massage was good (not great, but still very relaxing). I'm actually starting to feel like I'm almost back to normal.

On naked hot tubbing - I think if everyone had 15 minutes of naked hot tub time per day the world would be a better place. One can enjoy this luxury at many spas across the country (if they don't have a hot tub in the privacy of their own home - which one woman at the spa was absolutely shocked to hear that I couldn't afford such luxury). "Wet", The Spa at Treasure Island (or TI as all all the cool kids are calling it these days) is incredible and has been added to my list of happy places. I highly recommend it. I was in for naked hot tub time and a massage on New Year's eve a few months ago as well, Tye was one of the best massage therapists I had ever been to.

Track Training, Santa Barbara City College

Time: 6pm, approx. 1 hour

• 1600 warm up
• 3 laps strides
• stretch
• pacing, 13 minutes
• 3 lap cool-down

Meal: Turkey avacado sandwich @ 3:30pm

My first day back to training after suffering head injuries on Friday night (in short, I had a wee bit to drink, stumbled backwards and hit the back of my head, got up too fast, stumbled forward and hit the front of my head, and spent all night in the emergency room...not fun). I have been feeling very depressed and on and off naseous all week, and the combination is making it difficult to eat properly. Also, I'm aware that I'm not drinking enough water.

In any case, I started easy in the warm up and worked up to my normal warm-up pace. I felt good but fragile. The pace drills were a combination of warm up, one-mile, one lap, and stride paces. They started at warm up for about 30-45 seconds, then jumped immediately to one-lap pace, then down to 1 mile (I lost track of time), then back to one lap. I felt great until this point, probably only 5 or so minutes into it, then got hit suddenly with nausea. I had to slow completely to a walk. When the feeling had passed, I increased to warm-up pace but the nausea came back instantly.

I walked one more lap then called it a night. All things considered I guess I should feel pretty good by what I was able to accomplish.

Cross Training - Softball

Time: 6:30pm, 1 hour
Meal: Cliff bar at 6pm

Can softball count as cross training? :-) I meant to run or hit the gym but time escaped me. I sprinted to the outfield, did a lot of jumping up and down, I say "good enough"! Running bases takes a toll on me, it really makes me feel like I'm out of shape!