KILIMANJARO: THE MOUNTAIN BECOMES OUR TEACHER

When I first started to play national tennis tournaments, I trained hard.  I loved interval training (cardio workouts based on sets of explode/recover/explode/recover) with a jump rope.  With two toddlers, life was crazy-busy and often it was midnight when I jumped rope under the street light in front of our house.  I gained endurance, but struggled with injuries.  I ignored the fatigue.       I almost fell into the same trap with our Kilimanjaro training.  The early hikes were fine, but once Dave and I built up to 12 mile/9+hr hikes, my body started to protest with sore knees, hamstrings and shoulders. Plus, I added gym and cycling workouts, with no rest days.  All those sore muscles just got more sore and very tight. 
     People who have climbed Kilimanjaro tell us it's really about endurance and the altitude.  Except on summit day when the path both up/down is pretty steep, the trail is a slow walk uphill.  Twelve mile hikes in the Berkshires and the Adirondacks are hard work--constantly scrambling over rocks and tree roots.  These hikes do not replicate the trail in Tanzania.
     So--we tried a different training tactic today and it turned into one of our most enjoyable days!  Mt. Greylock has become our basecamp.  It's easy to reach, the autumn drives have been splendid and we even drive past 6 wind turbines.  In addition to lots of trails, Greylock boasts several roads to the summit.  Today we hiked 7 miles in only 3 1/2 hours by taking the Mt. Greylock Rd. (off Rt. 7).  It's a beautiful unpaved road for about 3 miles, before it runs into Rockwell Road, which goes to the top from the southern flank.  The workout on our quads and hamstrings was just as strenuous as a trail hike.  However, our eyes were not glued to the ground, and we could enjoy the spectacular orange colors, groves of birch trees and see the ridges we were crossing.
     My other training changes include:  rest days (still hard to commit to:  I'll hope for rainy days at least once a week), more hours of sleep every night and stretches, stretches, stretches.  Plan to check out our local Pilates teacher.  Kilimanjaro:  you are a wonderful teacher!       
       

The Mountain Will Come To You

Dear family and friends,

My plan is to write a Kili update on Sunday nights.  So--here's the first one. 

Dave and I need to get our knees strong for the two day descent of Kilimanjaro.  So, today's hike was an attempt to check out our elder-knees.  We hiked a 12 mile loop on Greylock:  Hooper Trail (off Rt. 7) to the summit of Greylock, then to the summit of Mt. Fitch and on to the summit of Mt. Williams and a long downhill hike back to our car at Hooper Trail.  We started at 10 am and finished at 6:30, which means we hiked about 1.5 miles per hour.  The trail was slippery with wet leaves and rain-damp rocks.  We both took spills, but survived with no damage. 

It was beautiful weather, warm for this late in the season.  The crowd today was very internationale:  We met French Canadians (they had hiked in the Himalayas), a Parisian, a group from India singing India folk songs, and a few Germans.  Thoreau's favorite mountain felt like the Alps.

These hikes provide great opportunities to think about some of the Kili problems, such as how to avoid getting dysentry from all the new bacteria we will be exposed to.  To help with altitude sickness we are supposed to drink 3-5 liters of water while hiking.--to keep up with that demand I have to constantly drink.  I use a camelbak system, and can easily sip water as I hike.  Every time I sipped water today I noticed how my hands touched the bite valve that I sipped on---hmmmmm....or the bite valve touches the ground, rocks, trees and leaves whenever I took my backpack off.  Hmmmmmm.....there goes my plan for meditative calmness!

Happy trails,
Linda and David

Only 7 Weeks to Go!

Hello family and friends,

Since a nor'easter is blowing through all the mountains/hills around Albany today, this is our first Saturday since August 14 that we have not been on a hiking trail.  I am using the unexpected time to start the promised blog of our Kilimanjaro adventure.  I hope you will enjoy reading it!  We look forward to your comments and will certainly use your supportive energy to help us get up the mountain. 

Here are a few "Kili" (the name the locals use) facts:

• summit is 19,300 ft.
• Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, near the border with Kenya.  The language is Swahili.  Tanzania sounds like a beautiful country, with the Serengeti, Maasai tribe and a culture that is very family-oriented.  Before we ask our Tanzanian guides and porters how soon we stop for lunch, we are supposed to ask after their families.  Children are very respectful of their elders, starting a conversation with "shikamoo" which means "I hold your feet."  Of course, since I definitely qualify as an elder, I hope that the porters take "shikamoo" literally!
•  Trip itinerary:  Dec. 2: Albany to London to Nairobi.  Visit the Laureus sports project followed by a possible reception at the US embassy. Dec. 6:  Fly to Kilimanjaro airport and start climbing up the Rongai route.  Our trek is 6 days up and 2 days down.  Summit day is Saturday, Dec. 11.    

     To train, we hike weekends, with about 1 hour of cardio (biking or gym) on the non-hiking days.  We started easy hikes near Williamstown Ma., and moved onto 6-8 mile hikes in the Catskills, Berkshires and southern Adirondacks.  We spent the last two weekends at the base of Killington, Vt., hiking 12 mile trails.  Tomorrow we return to Mt. Greylock, for another 12-miler, mostly downhill, so we can strengthen our knees.  Our 60-something bodies are holding up pretty well as we work to get into peak condition. 

     We took 4 of the Burmese refugee kids we help on our Petersburg Pass hike.  They happily turned our trekking poles into swords and spears all the way up the trail!  Cultural barriers totally dropped away and I kept feeling as if I had my three Alaskan grandsons with me, instead of 4 boys who, until a few months ago, had only lived in a refugee camp!

We started our travel vaccinations last week, with another round this week and a final round next month.  The daunting list of shots include:  Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hep A/B, Menengitis, and a Polio booster.  They are also dauntingly expensive.

This expedition is a charity challenge, so we keep trying to get the word out.  On Monday, a channel 10 TV crew will come to the house for an interview.  

I hope to write this blog about once weekly.  Since a film crew is coming on this expedition, I hope there will be some sort of Internet access and I can blog daily once we start climbing. 

Happy Trails,
Linda and David