TnT's Forward Momentum!

Exactly right. @wanna_be a small tarp and emergency blanket are a great idea.

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Today I bought: new shoes, didn’t like the others and these have an awesome return policy (rei), space blanket, water purifying tablets, and a signal mirror. Tomorrow I’ll grab some tape and a headlamp and batteries for a small flashlight I’m bringing. Still gotta look into the TSA rules on things that create fire as I’m not checking a bag. Gonna grab some small rope/para cord as well at some point. REI was stupid expensive on that stuff. Also gonna snag a small iPhone tripod that folds really small to hopefully get some decent photos.

Should be getting close to everything I need which is good considering I’m leaving at 5am Thursday morning lol. Leg day is Wednesday, think I’ll take it easy :joy:.

Also been wondering if a small monocular would be worth purchasing.

This is a short list of some snack ideas I’ll get once I get there:

Nuts
Protein bar
Banana peanut butter Sammy
Jerky
Apples/oranges

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I personally prefer binocular for watching wild life. I find monocular are great for spoting land mark but not my favorit for observation. Ask to try them out at the shop. Don’t go cheap, they last a long time.
Magnification of 8 to 12 is good. Larger then to create a lot of movements if you don’t use a tripod.
42 is the largest I like to carry but the larger the lense the more light get in so better for low light times.
I have Nikon prostsff 8x42. I would have like a notch better like the monarch but that was out of my price range.

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9/13/21, Monday

Road-trail ruck

  • 1:12:29, 4.04 mi, 821 ft ascent/ descent, 29.0 lb pack weight
  • Mid hikers and Thorlo hot weather crew socks.

My leg ached the first .25 mi but felt increasingly better throughout the ruck. 29 pounds is a good weight for now; I’ll next increase distance to 6 miles once a week, then increase pack weight. The goal is a 12 or 15-mile ruck with a 35+ pound pack; I haven’t decided the specific weight, distance, and time I’m aiming for.

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Weekly weigh-in

  • 9/14/21, 198.2 pounds.

Last week, I dropped the 0.4 pounds I’d gained two weeks ago. I had let my diet and exercising slip, but last week I made somewhat better choices - five cardio/trail days and one solid deadlifting session, along with less junk food.

I misread the ortho appointment date and missed the appointment. Now, the earliest I can get in is November, so I probably won’t do upper body workouts for another couple-few months. Doggone it. I plan to do two lower body sessions each week, based on squats and deadlifts, and have at least three trail sessions and will hopefully see 197.X at next week’s weigh-in.

9/15/21, Wednesday

Trail walk

  • 34:40, 2.02 mi, 508 ft ascent/ descent
    Tired today. A mellow recovery walk hit the spot.
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9/17/21, Friday

Trail walk

  • 33:35, 2.06 mi, 525 ft ascent/ descent, 8lb hydration pack
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9/18/21, Saturday

Deficit deadlifts

  • 135 x 10
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 255 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 300 x 5 sets x 2
  • 245 x 2 x 9

Push-ups

  • bw x 4 x 20, supersetted with

Walking lunges w/ DBs

  • 25s x 3 x 8

Oddly, I puked after the superset. I’ll make up the calves, abs, and rear delt flyes on Monday.

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I like your log. You must live in close proximity to a national or state park to get all those hikes in, eh?

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Thank you! The mountains in my pics are a 40-minute drive from my house. The desert trail I often ruck and walk is five minutes from my house and built along the edge of a 500-foot-tall plateau between my town and a neighboring town. The desert is also a five-minute drive from my house, with dirt trails everywhere.

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9/19/21, Sunday

Mellow trail walk

  • 34:32, 1.72 mi, 362 ft ascent/ descent, 10 lb hydration pack
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9/20/21, Monday

Quarter-Mile Crusher
With 45 lb dumbbell/ hand + 10 lb pack:

  • 25 paces → 5 deadlifts → 10 push-ups
  • 12:52, 10 rounds to complete the track

2-mile walk

  • 34:03, 10 lb pack

This workout was freakin’ fun! Exercise selection is limited while my elbow/ biceps heal, but this simple group was effective. I’m glad I started with light dumbbells, but the farmer walk aspect was the least difficult, with pushups being the toughest. 2.5 months away from direct upper body work is showing.

The track is part of a park with pull-up bars, so I can foresee a weekly workout here. The exercise combos are only limited by one’s imagination. When I’m able, I want to try farmer walks - double rack front squats - dumbbell rows - RDLs - push-ups.

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I love that.
Hey we’ve both had elbow issues, have you told me specifically about yours?
I had medial epicondylitis for a long time, it finally healed, and now the crazy thing is the same elbow is damaged in a different way. I don’t know the name of the injured part but once again I have to avoid elbow flexion.

Doggone, I’m sorry to hear your elbow is injured again! Are there any preventive exercises you can start doing?

Mine was injured when a guy at a furniture store dropped a table I was getting from a loading dock five feet above me. I hadnt positioned myself, and only my left hand was under the 150-pound table. When he dropped it, I felt a pop in my elbow at the biceps tendon, and my arm was paralyzed for a few seconds. I could barely move it for several days after. A doctor in my primary’s group said nothing was torn, but I’m waiting for an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to find out what’s going on.

Similar to your elbow problems, I had shoulder issues for at least 15 years. It appears to be genetic - between my dad, uncles and grandpa, they’ve had 16 shoulder surgeries. I stopped pressing with a barbell and all overhead pressing for around a decade. I wonder if your elbow structure lends itself to injuries and, if so, what you can do for corrective measures. For my shoulders, wide-neutral grip rows, band pull-aparts, and pressing with dumbbells more than barbells works.

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Sorry to hear of your injury! That had to suck.
Hiking is the perfect thing for you then!

I’ve run the gamut of rehab/prehab exercises for the elbow. Currently trying straight arm hangs. Right now it is preventing rows, chins, curls, and shouldn’t do power cleans either. But I’m not focused on any of that st the moment so I’m happy to let them go.

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Thanks! It’ll get there, but I want it better now! Haha. I can’t do any elbow flexion either (rows, pull-ups, curls, cleans, same as you.) I’m chomping at the bit to do my upper body lifting at the park, centered around a quarter-mile crusher with weighted pushups and DB rows and weighted pull-ups and DB OHP as the warm-up. Gotta have a healthy elbow first!

Have you tried direct forearm exercises? They’ve always helped me when elbow tendonitis flares up.

Good luck healing.
I have not had success in direct forearm work, it always made things worse, but I haven’t tried it with this flavor of injury. It may help, so thanks for the suggestion!

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Thank you, and likewise! YTLWs always hurts my shoulders, so I can empathize with correctives being counterproductive.

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9/21/21, Tuesday

Hilly road walk

  • 1:21:36, 5.14 mi, 1,011 ft ascent/ descent, hydration pack

I finally broke the 1,000 foot climb/descent barrier. Next up: 2,000 feet.

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9/22/21, Wednesday

Mellow walk

  • 33:15, 1.75 mi, 382 ft ascent/ descent, 10 lb hydration pack

Weekly weigh-in

  • 197.0
    Freakin’ sweet! 195 shouldn’t be too long from now, and 190 is in sight.
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