Mt. Elbert

 A few posts ago I talked about General Physical Preparation (GPP) which is the basic training principle that you prepare yourself physically for any task that could be thrown at you, and handle it with some relative ease and comfort.  Yesterday I realized that hiking a mountain is great for GPP, because of all of the physical and mental demands placed upon you. There are times when you must make short sprint-like bursts, there are long periods of time where you must test your endurance, and because of the length and altitude you must rest--you must also know how much rest to take and when. There is also vital lessons in preparation and nutrition that are also learned.

Well, yesterday Coach Neale, my long-long-long time friend Justin, and I set out to tackle Mount Elbert. This Mountain is near Leadville, is the highest mountain in Colorado, and is the second highest mountain in the lower 48 states. It is 14,433 feet high. The hike starts at somewhere around 10,000 feet, so over the span of the ~5 mile (~10 mile, round trip) hike you gain >4000ft in elevation.

This was not my first 14er, and I found it to be my easiest yet, but the demands of this kind of hike are unlike any other kind of conditioning you can do at lower altitudes--sometimes 10 steps up there can feel like the hardest 200m you've ever ran. Mount Elbert was Coach Neale's first attempt at a 14er, which he handled very well, but still left him very surprised at just how difficult it was. Here are some pics:

 Left: Neale looking as fulfilled as ever after his conquest of Mt Elbert

Right: Coach Neale, mid sandwich, at the top of Mt Elbert after a 3.5hr ascent

So, in conclusion, I recommend athletes take on a trip like this during the offseason (during good weather, of course, because it is great fun, it gets us outside, it is mentally challenging, and it is always a greater physical challenge than one might expect. More Pics to finish it off.

 Left: the aforementioned Justin enjoying a sandwich as you can see--the sturdy mountain goat of the group.

Right: As always, Coach Nack, sickened by myself for breaking my rule of taking my own picture.

Nack

PS.  Yes, I did this hike in my Five-Fingers. It felt great on the way up, but neither pair of shoes I had could handle the way down--I have some very sensitive skin on the underside of my tootsies as I'm sure you've always wanted to know. Blister City, baby.