Fitness Quest Update

I've been pretty quiet about diet and exercise the last month or so.  This isn't because I've given up but I've certainly been off track.  That said, in Ireland I experienced a lot of the benefits of my previous hard work and while it's been hard to stop 'vacation mode' living,  the fear of hurting myself and screwing up vacation is behind me and it's time I started getting serious again.  To that end I dusted off my backpack and hit the trails for the first time in a long time yesterday.

My destination was the summit of Mt Cardigan.   I've climbed Cardigan many time before (albeit years ago) and it has one of the best reward/effort tradeoffs in the Whites.   It has an awesome granite cone summit topped by a fire tower.  The steep rock is both challenging and a lot fun to scramble across.  The picture flattens it out a lot but trust me, it's a leg burner.   There was also still quite a bit of snow and ice in the shady places so that created some additional challenges.

I've never been very fast going up hill and that hasn't changed but in my younger days I was a speed descender and I would always push myself to cover a lot of downhill fast.  While the itch to reach the car isn't gone the old knees weren't going allow that so slow and steady was the pace.  Even so It was pretty uncomfortable.  The fact is I'm pretty damn sore today and Naproxen will be my buddy till at least Tuesday. 

I'm pretty excited about this however.  Being able to hike a hill like Cardigan again and live to tell the tale was a goal from the start.  Compared to some of the hikes I want to complete this summer, this was an easy one, but it was an important first step.  Hopefully the old body will heal up and I'll be even stronger on the next.  That's the plan for now anyway.

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