Mt. Monadnock Hike - Sunday, July 31st, 2011

Stats

Total Distance Up and Down: 4.54 Miles

Time Up: 01:09:00

Time Down: 01:17:35

Total Time: 02:28:35

Avg. Heartrate: 125 BPM

Total Calories Burned: 1796 

This was a challenging hike.  A lot of negative self talk flew around the first 30 minutes of the hike.  I knew I was capable of completing the hike, however I questioned my overall conditioning.  I just don't do this sort of cardio.  The first half of the hike is in deep wooded forest.  There is little sunlight, and the slope is steep. I soon forgot about my conditioning when the forest thinned and the rock climbing started.  It is fun scaling the rocks.  When the trees begin to break, one can see 60-80 miles in all directions on a clear day.  It is invigorating.

I hiked Monadnock with both of my sisters.  My younger sister is a cross country runner.  Her conditioning level is high enough to run a half marathon any day of the week (seriously).  My older sister is an avid hiker and also in extremely good shape.  She recently climbed Mt. Washington.  Anyone in the New England area knows that sort of hike is no joke.  Only people in great condition can complete it.  The average time to the summit going up our trail is exactly 2 hours.  This includes people of all ages and skill levels.  We did it in 1 hour and 9 minutes.

The summit is absolutely magnificent.  We hung out for about 20 minutes, laying on the rocks and enjoying the view.  We also drank plenty of water, and everyone had one Clif Bar.  I also had  a banana.  This was the perfect amount of calories to refill glycogen and just give a little boost for the descent.

The descent was much harder than I anticipated.  Intuitively, walking down a steep mountain should be easy.  However, this is not the case when you are walking down miles of steep decline.  If  you aren't use to it (I certainly wasn't), this part of the leg can be very challenging.  My legs turned to jello.  They quivered hard with each step. I actually asked the sisters to slow down a little for this.  Descent can get dangerous when your legs become extremely weak.  Being strong (i.e. heavy) works against you if you tumble down huge boulders face first.

This wasn't my typical workout, but I loved every second of it.  It was completely refreshing, and a great way to end my vacation.

Here is the MiCoach feedback.  Notice the heartrate is considerably higher than Gap Mountain.  This was not only longer, but steeper.

The Ascent

The Summit