You know there's something I've
discovered on the trail. When you do one thing over and over again, you think you're not
getting hurt, but you could be getting hurt. Your body could be wearing out in certain
places. For example, if I hike 4 days, maybe 18 miles a day, I can hardly go down hill.
Uphill, I have no trouble, but downhill, I move sidewards like a crab. I go so slowly
downhill that it sometimes it takes me an hour, or an hour and 15 minutes or even and hour
and a half if its really steep to just do 1 mile. Now 1 mile is about 20 city blocks. How
slowly would you have to move to take an hour and a half to cover 20 city blocks? Well,
how slowly would you have to go to do just one block at that speed? There are 60 minutes
in one hour... and I have an hour and a half... so that's 90 minutes. 90 minutes to go 20
blocks. That means how much for 1 block? Well, I know 20 goes into 80 four times. Which
leaves a little bit left over. So it's a little over 4 minutes to go 1 block. Try to walk
one city block and take 4 minutes to do it. That's how slowly I'm moving downhill when my
knee is sore. But if I take a day off, I'm fine the next day. So if you're doing some
exercise, or using the muscle the same way for a long period of time, you need to take a
rest. Whether its typing or running or swimming or climbing stairs or sliding on your
belly, every once in a while after you do it a lot of times, you have to stop and do
something else for a while. That's what I discovered on the trail. Vary your exercise.
Don't always do the same thing the same way all the time.
- Jacques d'Amboise |
