Week 0: Climb For Clean Air – Baselining

I wasn’t going to write anything from the previous week since I didn’t really have a plan.  Sorta.  Just spur of the moment and a commitment to do the climb but when I really thought about it, I actually did have (somewhat of a plan)

Monday:  Rest
Tuesday:  Cardio, 30 minutes
Wednesday:  Cardio, 30 minutes
Thursday:  Cardio, 30 minutes
Friday:  Rest
Saturday:  Rest
Sunday:   Short Hike

The actual:

Just a bit background here to get everybody in the same page.   I. am. out. of . shape.  There.  I said it.   I am starting fresh and not comparing myself to my old-self who summited Mt. Rainier 6 years ago.   I haven’t been in the gym for a very long time and the last time I was out hiking, well, let just say, it’s been way too long.

Tuesday:

I was at the gym at 6am.   Hopped on elliptical machine for 30 minutes.  Resistance 6, Incline 6.  I stayed on 80% of Max HR (or tried to) but needed to slow down since I was panting a lot.  People, this is what happens when you are back in the gym for the first time in.. err.. years?

Wednesday:

Back at the gym at 6am.  I was at the elliptical machine again for another 30 minutes for same resistance and incline, which is still 6.  Still struggled with trying to be in the endurance zone.   Oh.  To be noted, I watched the entire video of Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) on Wait Stats on my iPad the entire time I was doing my exercise.  Not sure why I picked that one.  Maybe the topic.  Or the Richard Simmons.  Or the leg.  Either one, it worked.  30 minutes gone by just like that.

Thursday:

I was dilly-dally and didn’t get to the gym until 7am.   Decided on stair climbing machine for 30 minutes, resistance 4.  This one get my heart rate going like no tomorrow and I had a hard time keeping it in the zone.   I can’t even focus on any video or music since I was panting too much.   Definitely needed some performance tuning on this area

Sunday:

It was a cold day and I was one nudge away from just keeping my behind at the couch but I wasn’t going to be the one that said it first.   So after I scrambled around and tried to dig out the hiking gear from the bin, we drove to Rattlesnake Ledge Trail.

It was cold, so I had 4 layers on me.  I had my sleeveless underneath my long-sleeve hiking shirt, soft jacket plus a hard shell.  Yes.  I went all out.   Result.  Overheated Yanni.   Not good.

I paced myself really well for the first 30 minutes which exactly at the end of the second switchback of the trail, then I started to feel my heartbeat was beating a wee bit faster than I want it to be.   I slowed down a bit, tried to get my breathing under control and kept on walking.   We got to the top of the ledge within 57 minutes.

Things to noted:

1.  I didn’t strap my backpack correctly.  I’m paying for it now since my shoulder is kinda achy
2.  My right boot lace wasn’t tie properly.  Yes, that’s right.  My ankle is paying for it now
3.  I wasn’t stopping at all to take a sip of water, even when I knew I needed one.
4.  My pace was too fast for the first 30 minutes which cause me to have to slow down in the second 30 minutes.

Conclusion:

I gathered some baselining (borrowing this term from Erin Stellato (blog | twitter) post about baselining and performance tuning for my training to find out that I have a lot of tuning to do.  My statistics are out of date, my index need some serious tuning, and my query need some serious rewrite.   Good grief, this is going to be a lot of work!  Maybe I should hire a consultant to climb the mountain for me?

I have exciting week ahead me.   Stay tuned for the next update.