In Praise of the Foam Roller

It's Sunday and I'm feeling pleasantly tired after a weekend of big activity. On Saturday I led a CHS1 hike to Navaho Pass. The weather was awesome and it became a bit hot as the afternoon approached. But the folks I was with brought plenty of water and were good at accessing their needs and taking it slow so as to not overwork themselves in the heat. What a great group! 

Today I got up early and met with my running partner, Kim, and we did a trial run for the Cutthroat Classic (we're running it in late August) up Rattlesnake Ridge. We ended up doing a little over 11 miles and almost 3000 feet of gain on our run, coming in well under our desired 3 hour time point--even with a bit of loafing around and picture-taking. My walk/run strategy worked well for keeping us mostly down in the aerobic zone when going up the hills and running down the hills on the return trip was absolutely exhilarating. A celebration breakfast afterwards was very welcome! 

After all of that activity, you might wonder how I deal with tired and sore muscles. Besides the stretching I do before and after most exercise, I also use a tool called a foam roller to alleviate tightness and soreness in the myfascia covering my muscles.  

If you've never heard of the foam roller, allow me to introduce you to it. I've you've heard of them but haven't though they were worth the investment, let me change your mind. I bought my first one a little over a year ago, when I got into running and have found it to be an excellent tool to ease post work-out tightness in my muscles from both hiking and running.  

If you've never seen a foam roller before, it's a cylindrical tube made of foam that you use to massage the myofascia covering your muscles. Laying the tight/sore area on top of the roller, use your body weight and arms to roll the affected area back and forth over the roller, mashing the muscle against the roller. Use it on all of the tight muscles in your body including calves, quads, hamstrings, gluts, and your back muscles. It's also really effective on a tight IT band--the connector tendon that runs from the outside of your hip down the outside of your knee. Both hikers and runners will find that all of these places get tight on them after activity.  

You can cut down on the amount of tightness and soreness you feel if you use the roller shortly after the workout or at least before you go to bed. I usually use my roller every night, regardless of my level of activity during the day. I must admit to having a love-hate relationship with my foam roller. As hiking and running are so leg intensive, rolling out your quads, calves, and IT band after a long hike can be exquisitely painful because those muscles get so much use, but it's so incredibly effective in getting the fascia and muscle to relax that the pain is worth it. I grit my teeth when using it on these parts, but I find that using it on my glutes or back muscles actually feels really good and is very relaxing.  

The best way to learn about foam roller uses is to buy one (they cost around $20+) and to check out different ways you can use it--most of them come with a little instruction booklet. Here's a quick video on YouTube which talks about the myofacia and using the foam roller to address two key spots on the body that hikers will appreciate: the IT band and quads:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvUZJxO-RCk 

I bought a short foam roller that I can take with me on trips. It fits into my book bag that I take on the plane, allowing me to my rolling even when I'm away from home.  

Check it out--I hope you develop a love/hate relationship with a foam roller soon!

Trail Running and Lessons for Hiking

One of my purposes in writing this blog is to talk about my outdoor adventures in hopes that readers will learn something from the mistakes that I make. If all I wrote about are my successes, what good would that hold for you and your outdoor education? So, if you're looking for the writings of someone who does everything perfectly, then I'm sure there are other blogs out there for you to follow. If you're looking to read about someone who has a pretty decent background of outdoor experience, but still has some challenges to deal with, you've come to the right place. 

My latest adventure involves a trail run I did in Stehekin with my friend and running partner, Kim. We're both training to do the Cutthroat Classic in August. While we are both avid and strong runners, hikers, and backpackers, trail running is a new endeavor for us.  As the title implies, it involves running (instead of walking) on trails. You need to have good reaction times and flexibility to react to and deal with trail hazards at a much faster pace than hiking. You also need to have the good sense to know when to walk instead of run. You have to learn a whole new way of pacing yourself that's different from hiking and different from running. 

Another thing that's different about trail running is that you can't carry a whole lot of stuff because you can't carry a day pack on your back comfortably while you're running. Most trail runners will bring a small Camelback-type pack mostly for holding water, a few snacks, and maybe a lightweight jacket to put on. Others just carry water bottles in their hands and snacks in their pockets or wear little hip belts that will hold these items. Forget about carrying the Ten Essentials. It means that you have to be willing to take a higher level of risk when on the trail and you have to be smart about planning your route so that you're not tackling too many miles or too difficult terrain for your ability. 

So here's a quick recap of our trail run:  We set off planning to run on the PCT from High Bridge to Bridge Creek campground and back--about 8 miles round trip with not a whole lot of gain or loss. We got to Bridge Creek and wanderlust took over and we decided to do an additional mile up the PCT. It got brushy and boring so we turned around, headed back to Bridge Creek and then decided to take an alternate route down on the old abandoned road which we were told the previous day was still passable if we could bushwack around a washout. The road ended back at the High Bridge trailhead and was not too much longer than the taking the trail. We discovered a few miles down the trail, that part of the old road was impassable due to high water. We had to turnaround and retrace our steps. Our 8 mile trail run turned into 14 miles. 

What I learned on this trip that's applicable to hiking: 

• Tell someone who is responsible where you're going and stick to that plan: It's a good idea to write down trail, destination, and estimated return time and leave it with someone who is knowledgeable enough to do something about it if you don't show up. You can also let them know any possible detours on other trails you might make. Kim and I didn't do that. We told our friends we were running on the PCT, but didn't give a destination or turnaround time. If something bad had happened, it would've been hard to find us. 
• Bring the proper nutrition for your planned mileage and then bring a little extra: One of the Ten Essentials involves carrying extra food and water. Even trail runners need to do this. I only brought enough water and snacks for an 8 mile run. I ended up having to take untreated water from a creek. Not the end of the world, but I was taking a chance on getting a waterbourne illness. Fortunately I also had additional water and food in my backpack which I'd hidden at the High Bridge trailhead 
• If you decide to do extra miles, make sure that you can physically do extra mileage beyond  the planned mileage in case you need to backtrack: As I mentioned, Kim and I are already strong hikers and runners and are able to both hike and run 14 miles. However, if we were only used to doing up to 10 miles, and then discovered that we had to backtrack several miles, we would've been pretty tired doing those additional miles and tired people make stupid mistakes and don't always have the best footing.  
• If you're the adventurous type, own your decisions, and choose your hiking partners carefully: If you like to go out and push the envelope from time to time, make sure that the people you bring along with you are also into doing that. Both Kim and I have a curious nature to us and like to explore new areas. We're both generally positive and are able to handle some adversity without turning cranky towards others. We also take responsibility for our actions and don't look for reasons to blame others when the going gets tough. While neither of us was pleased that we had to backtrack, we talked about what food and water we had to share, and we both remained calm and upbeat. While we were both tired when we got back to the trailhead, we both saw our outing as an adventure and a pretty fun time.  

Hope this gives you some food for thought for your next outdoor adventures. Hope to see you on the trail soon! 

Hiking Nutrition, Revisted

I had a glorious hike up to Pollalie Ridge near Salmon La Sac today with hiking friends. It was a hot day and we got a bit of a later start than I would like, but the views were incredible and we didn't see any other people on the Tired Creek trail--amazing! Hope you've been able to get out and enjoy this weather on a trail this weekend. 

I promised in an earlier blog to follow up on the hiking nutrition discussion that an earlier posting sparked. The discussion centered around several points, but one of the main discussion points was the main nutrition components (carbohydrate, fat, protein) and the suggested levels that they should appear in your diet when hiking.  

My initial assertion was one that I had learned several years ago when I was just learning about hiking and that was a 60/20/20 mix or 60% carbohydrate, 20% fat, 20% protein consumed during hiking. As much has been written recently on the proper levels of nutritional components to consume, I thought it would be a good idea to find more recent literature on the subject.  

I chose to see what Mountaineer member and personal trainer, Courtenay Schurman, had to say on the subject in her recent book, The Outdoor Athlete. Turns out the 60/20/20 ratio consumed while engaging in a sustained physical activity (such as hiking) is still fairly valid. However, Schurman does suggest that athletes should experiment with the level of nutrient components to see what they actually feel better with. Some folks may feel very energetic with the 60/20/20 levels, but others may find that their body responds better to raising fat and protein levels 5-10% and decreasing carbohydrate levels correspondingly.  

Some people's bodies convert nutrients to energy very quickly and thus would do better with a higher level of protein and fat in their hiking diet; others are slower and would benefit from the higher level of carbohydrates as they are converted in glucose more quickly than protein and fats. The only way you can tell is to see how you feel after consuming higher protein/fat meals and then see whether you feel energized after doing so. If so, then it would be a good idea to consume a higher percentage of protein/fat (25%/25% or so) in your hiking diet as well and see how your body responds. Others may find that consuming a higher protein/fat level makes them feel sluggish after eating and thus they would be better off consuming a higher level of carbohydrate (towards the 60% level). 

Regardless of the  percentage level of carbohydrate you choose to eat, try to choose those that are complex in nature such as those found in starchy or fiber-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and so on. They require more digestion time and will leave you feeling satisfied longer. Simple carbohydrates (such as my cherished Cheetos), provide very short-term energy and empty calories without useful nutrients (they sure taste good though!).  I would suggest carrying a few simple sugar items to quickly eat in case you start experiencing low blood sugar. Items such as Smarties and workout gels/chews that contain quite a bit of sugar are very quickly converted to glycogen by your body and thus can avert that "bonking" feeling you get when you don't pay attention to eating enough while you hike. 

So my takeaway for you here is to not to take my word (or anyone else's) as gospel on what you should eat, rather you should experiment with different levels of nutrients and see what your body responds to. That was a point that a few commenters to my original blog stressed and that was obviously a very useful suggestion in light of recent research.  

So once again, I would ask that folks who are experimenting with their hiking diet let us know how it goes for them. I myself have been incorporating more protein into my hiking fare including an incredibly tasty nut/fruit mixture that I enjoy as a snack while I hike. I still sneak in some tasty junk at lunchtime (Cheetos or Cheese-its are my favorites), but I just have a few bites of them and pay more attention to my sandwich components (protein and fat included). Egg salad is my current favorite with a healthy does of crunch vegetables to go along with it. Had one on the hike today and it really hit the spot!  

Bad News Blisters

I hope you haven't missed my pithy commentary too much over the past few weeks. Family and other obligations have kept me pretty busy during the times I usually write the blog. My goal is to always put up one entry every week, but I won't always succeed at that.  

Today I want to talk about that dreaded malady of hikers and runners everywhere: blisters. As you may remember from an earlier post, I developed a blister on my right heel during my trip to Utah with friends. Up until that point, I hadn't had a blister in several years. During the trip I wore a relatively new pair of trail runners, which up to that point, had not caused me any blister problems. But a powerful combination of sand and water combined to weaken my skin in that area and plague me with the dreaded affliction.  

Fast forward to now and I'm still suffering from a recurring blister in that same  spot. It usually shows up during when I'm hiking, but it also has more recently been popping up when I do some of my running--particularly during trail runs when running uphill forces more contact between my heel and the shoe. It's mostly showing up with those same trail runners, but now I also have to careful in my running shoes due to fact that the area is just not very tough since I seem to keep aggravating it.   

I've tried taping the area before hiking or trail-running to limited success. Sometimes it works, more often lately it doesn't. I've had to stop using my trail runners to run and I will probably need to figure out something to do for hiking--or at least stop hiking for awhile if I want to give the skin a chance to heal fully. Since I’m training to run the Cutthroat Classic in August, it's difficult to stop running for a few weeks as it will interrupt my training regimen, and besides it's not really the running shoes that's causing the problem. If this keeps up, I may end up hiking and doing my trail runs in my road running shoes!  

Hopefully you have not been dealing with blisters as you've been increasing your hiking this season, but if you have, here's a link to a good article on the Internet about dealing with blisters both proactively and retroactively. One thing I would add is to work with some lacing techniques if your heel is slipping (see this YouTube video for a really great demo of the technique). You can also use your laces to in a similar fashion to tighten or loosen other areas if you find they are rubbing in bad ways. If you need more help, go to an outdoor store and get an experienced staff member to help you with some different techniques.  

One thing I don't like about my trail runners is that they don't have conventional laces; rather they come with a "quicklace" system which while making it easy to tighten the laces and keep them tight, doesn't allow for customizing the lace fit in different areas of the foot. If I tighten the laces enough to keep my heel stabilized, I also tighten them equally around the sides of my feet--which is too tight for my comfort. So I may be in the market for a new pair of trail runners--this one with good old fashioned laces! 

Of course, this advice comes with the admonition that you must deal with the hotspots that are the telltale signs of blisters-in-the-making as soon as you start feeling them. Blisters don't get better if you ignore them--they get worse. And you're not slowing the group down by dealing with them in their infancy--you're taking care of yourself so that you can continue to enjoy the trip and not injure yourself. Happy feet make for happy hikers! 

Hope to see you on the trail soon--without blisters, of course!

Nutrition--Revisited

My blog from last week on nutrition had a couple of good effects: (1) it generated quite a bit of discussion on the Facebook page and (2) some of the comments posted on it got me thinking about my hiking food and how well the mix of what I eat is working for me. 

I learned about day-hiking nutrition back when I started hiking in 2000. At that time, the suggested food composition for day hiking was 60/20/20 (60% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fat). Since adopting those guidelines and discovering foods that worked for me and were tasty, I must admit that I really haven't put much thought into what I eat when I hike--or even how well I was conforming to my adopted guidelines. I feel generally energetic when I hike, so why mess with that?  

Well after last week's discussion I really started thinking about how much of my day hiking diet is fueled by junk food (quite a bit). One person also pointed out that I wasn't even conforming to my own guidelines when it came to the amount of protein I was consuming (less than 20%). I'm also really not sure if given the current state of research, if the 60/20/20 mix is still the recommended mix of nutrients or if there is some better thinking out there. There's been a lot written in the past few years on the increasing importance of both proteins and fats in the diet, as well as a larger focus on the "quality" of carbohydrates in that there's a difference between the type of carbohydrates and how quickly they're converted by the body into useable energy. 

So I've set a new assignment for myself--delve into recent nutrition advice written specifically for hikers and see if the 60/20/20 advice has changed given recent findings. I'm starting my education by reading The Outdoor Athlete written by Courtenay Schurman--a Mountaineers member and owner of the wilderness sports coaching company, Body Results (http://www.bodyresults.com). I'll report back to you what I learn, but feel free to obtain your own copy of the book (or another one that you find helpful) and learn along with me. 

I'm also going to work on bolstering the amount of protein in my hiking fare so I'm at least consistent with the 60/20/20 guideline and also work on replacing some of junk food I bring along with more nutritious items. You may still catch me with a bag of Cheetos in my lunch, but it'll hopefully be a smaller portion of the total calories of my lunch. After a few months with my updated hiking fare, I'll report back and let you know how I'm feeling while I'm hiking. 

Stay tuned!

What Are You Eating?

I don't know if any of you caught the really nasty cold that seemed to hit in April just as spring returned, but I was nailed by two different versions of it. It seems like I've been recovering from having a cold for a month! I'm mostly better now with the exception of a really chesty cough that seems to hit me mostly after I'm done exercising or when I lie down to sleep at night. It's very annoying and just seems to hang around forever. I have still managed to get out do some running training and do a few hikes, but I don't really feel on top of my game. My energy level is lower than usual and I'm more tired after my long runs than I should be. 

While you can't always control your energy levels due to health issues, another thing that dramatically affects your energy level is the food you consume both before and during the hikes.   

As we get closer to our June hikes, you’ll notice that the hikes will be getting a little bit more difficult, including more distance and gain. I encourage you to take a look at the food that you bring along with you and make sure that it’s adequate for your needs on the trip. All groups will be in the 8 mile range which means that you need to not only need to bring a filling lunch, but you also need to bring snacks to have along the way. Make sure that the food you are bringing along is around 60% carbohydrate, 20% fat and 20% protein. Your snacks particularly need to be mostly carbohydrate as that will provide you with quick energy as you hike. Make sure your snacks are accessible without taking off your pack, so you can snack as soon as you feel the need.  

After you get back from a hike, assess how you felt during the hike. Did you feel generally energetic and able to tackle the challenges of the trail, or did you feel listless and lack energy? While some of this can be attributed to physical conditioning, it can also be affected by what you eat and when you eat it. Don't wait to eat food until you're hungry or feeling your blood sugar plummet. Be proactive and have a small snack every hour or so--more often as your energy output increases during the season. 

And be sure to have a good breakfast before you head off in the morning to meet your group; or if it’s too early for you to feel like eating, bring something with you to snack on during the car trip. Don’t start a hike feeling hungry, you’ll already be low on energy if you do and will have a hard time getting into your hiking pace and then you’ll be playing food catch-up all day—not a great place to be in energy-wise. My favorite breakfast foods are homemade smoothie, (banana, other fruit, yogurt, water or watered-down juice, and a scoop of whey protein  powder) and oatmeal (nicely beefed up with a bit of brown sugar and whole milk). Both are fairly easy to take along with you and eat in the car if you can figure out a way to keep the oatmeal warm until you can eat it.  

Happy hiking (and eating)! 

Getting in Some Hill Work

On Saturday, Matt and I met up with a couple of CHS hiking friends and hiked Umtanum Ridge. We met up at the Preston P&R and imagine our surprise when we encountered two other groups of CHS hikers rendezvousing for their hike also! It was nice to see seasoned and new CHSers heading off for a fun hike on a beautiful day! 

I'd never been to the Umtanum area before and had heard that the flower displays this time of year are pretty spectacular. It did not disappoint--my favorite lupine was in abundance everywhere and smelled wonderful! It was also a nice day and the views were pretty spectacular from the ridge as well. If you haven't done this trail before, it should be on your early season list. But one thing I should warn you about is the steepness of the hike. The last quarter mile of the hike up to the ridge is incredibly steep and knowing how to do the rest step is important. It's also extremely helpful if you have seasoned yourself on a few hills first too. 

There are a few ways to prepare for hiking up hills that you can do around town in a short period of time. If you work in or near a building with several flights of stairs you can walk up and down the stairs with or without weight. It works even better if you can turn it into an interval or Fartlek training session by walking fast or running up the stairs for 30-60 seconds and then walking down the stairs for double that time.  Repeat that 10-15 times each. Throw in a warm up and cool down period and you've got a quick workout that will prime you for hiking hills. 

Another way to practice hills is to find a good hill or series of hills in your neighborhood and walk or run up and down them for 45-60 minutes at least once a week. You can also make this into an interval as well. If you live on the eastside near the Tolt Pipeline trail, this is an awesome place to do that. But Seattle is full of good hills so I'm sure you can find something that will work. Throw on a pack with 10-15 lbs of weight to add a little challenge and up the weight occasionally to increase the workout once you've gotten used to previous weight.  

Doing this type of training at least once a week will really help you motor up the hills on your hikes a lot faster and with less exertion. Even the really steep ones will seem easier!