Weekly Activity
Long Run
This weekend’s training was a bit of a hodge-podge, which was fun. On Saturday, Veronica and I went down to Alaminos – one of our favorite spots on the island – and ran along the beach for a few miles. Here’s the Strava info:
On Sunday, while Veronica attended a friend’s baby shower, I snuck off to do a hike and get some time on the trail with my pack. For these “training hikes”, I load my pack up with just about everything it can hold including everything I plan to take on the trail as well as a full food resupply and 3.5L of water. With all of that, my pack weighs almost 35lbs! That’s significantly more heavy than what I plan to hike with on a daily basis on the AT, since I will rarely have that much food or water. However, it’s good to know what that feels like on my back and how it affects my pace. I did about 12mi on the E4 trail, and it was tough! Having a full pack is much harder than just a running vest, that’s for sure. Anyway, here’s a few shots from the day out:
I won’t bother to post the Strava info for this one, since it wasn’t all that accurate anyway. I’ve been experimenting with various modes on my Suunto Ambit3 Peak GPS watch, and had it set to “OK” mode for tracking, meaning that it only updates your location once every 60 second. This greatly extends battery life of the device, but cuts down on the accuracy. Here’s a good article by Andrew Skurka that illustrates this effect. So in testing this, I found the distance to be about 20% off which was frustrating. I also forgot to shut the thing off when I got back in the car, so my pace and distance readings were totally useless! Despite that, it was a nice training hike in the mountains.
In Other News
This week I wrote up my Race Report from the Akamas 50k last weekend. I really can’t say enough good things about the course or how well-organized the event was. As I mention throughout the report, the competition was insane and since it was a training run for me I really didn’t push it too hard. It was just a great day in the mountains. With the conclusion of that race, I have now shifted focus to backpacking in preparation for my FKT attempt (starting this Friday!) and, of course, the AT (less than 30 days!).
Also, I have just recently finalized my AT gear list (which I haven’t yet posted about – coming soon!). Here’s a sneak preview:
Also, here are a few of my more popular Instagram posts of the past 7 days.
Weekly Jam
I can’t believe this song is 24 years old! It just goes to show the work of quality artists is timeless. Everything about this track hold up, and it’s one that I still listen to today.
Summary
This week I changed a lot of my training over to backpacking. Gone for now are the long runs with a minimal vest, and ushered in are shorter morning runs with plenty of pack time – usually in the form of inclined treadmill walks and extended weekend hikes. I start my FKT attempt on Friday so I won’t have much of an update next week, however I will definitely publish a report of the trip after I return.
Wish me luck!
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Brandon Chase is a writer, endurance athlete, and guide based in Maine. He is a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and spent nearly a decade overseas serving at embassies in Egypt, Cyprus, and Pakistan.
Along with a 98-day thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, he has summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, hiked the West Highland Way, fastpacked in the Himalayas, and trekked around New Zealand and South Africa. He also regularly competes in ultramarathons at the 50k, 50-mile, and 100-mile distances. He is a Lead Guide for Andrew Skurka Adventures and the New England Outdoor Center.