{"id":2464,"date":"2014-10-01T22:50:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-10-01\/2464"},"modified":"2014-10-01T22:50:54","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:50:54","slug":"what-i-learned-on-my-personal-best-mt-hiei-climb-6-just-how-stupid-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-10-01\/2464","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned on My Personal-Best Mt. Hiei Climb #6 (just how stupid I am)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\nPanasonic DMC-TS3 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/10, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBig Stupid Dummy<\/span>\nme, after a personal-best fastest hike to the top of Mt. Hiei\n\u99ac\u9e7f<\/span>\u306e\u79c1\u3001\u6bd4\u53e1\u5c71<\/span>\u306e\u5c71\u9802<\/span>\u3067\u3002\u65e9\u304f\u51fa\u6765<\/span>\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3051\u308c\u3069\u3082\u3001\u9014\u4e2d<\/span>\u3067\u53f3\u8db3\u9996<\/span>\u3092\u306d\u3093\u3056\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I made my sixth hike to the top of Kyoto's Mt. Hiei yesterday, with the\ngoal being simply: fast I could<\/span> get to the top? I really<\/span> enjoyed\nlast week's hike with\nDamien<\/a>, because he's fun to chat with and it's enjoyable to hike with friends,\nbut it left me wondering how fast I could<\/span> do on my own, if I concentrated<\/span> only on\ngetting to the top quickly. No stopping<\/span> for photography, no stopping for rests, no\nstopping for energy snacks, no stopping to chat with other hikers. No stopping<\/span> to enjoy nature. Just go. Fast.<\/p>\n\n

To recap my history here, my first hike 2½ years ago was a\nglorious<\/span> failure, recounted in the appropriately-titled “<\/span>The Agony Where Bravado\nYields, In Spectacular<\/span> Fashion, To Painful<\/span> Reality<\/a>”<\/span>. I hadn't<\/span> realized\njust how out of shape I had<\/span> been, so it's that hike that spurred me to get\nin shape. I think<\/span> I've done pretty well, and now, at 48, I'm in the<\/span> best\nshape of my life.<\/p>\n\n

On that first hike 2½ years ago, pushed by the unrelenting pace of my in-shape hiking partner,\nthe trip from the small shrine near the trailhead<\/a>\nto the small clearing about half way up<\/a> took 48 minutes.\nYesterday it took 41.<\/p>\n\n

Seven minutes faster is nice, but it's an underwhelming improvement for 2½ years of work. However, I was in<\/span> much better shape\nfor the rest of the hike to come, and forewent the 10-minute rest stop here (and other rest stops I'd needed that first time),\nand continued past without pause to the meaty part of the hike<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

I made good time to the scenic end<\/a> of the hike proper.\n(I consider<\/span> “<\/span>the hike proper”<\/span> to be from the shrine near the trailhead to this scenic rest spot.)<\/p>\n\n

The hike proper took 127 minutes (2h 7m) the first time, but only 82 minutes (1h 22m) yesterday, an improvement of 45 minutes.<\/p>\n\n

\u4e8c\u5e74\u524d<\/span>\u306e\u7b2c\u4e00\u56de<\/span>\u306e\u6bd4\u53e1\u5c71<\/span>\u30cf\u30a4\u30ad\u30f3\u30b0\u306f\uff12\u6642\u9593<\/span>\uff17\u5206\u9593<\/span>\u304b\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3002\u4eca\u56de(<\/span>\u7b2c\uff15\u56de\u76ee)<\/span>\u306b\u306f\uff11\u6642\u9593<\/span>\uff12\uff12\u5206\u9593<\/span>\u304b\u304b\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n\n

That's a great improvement, but the real achievement is in the\nsurrounding context. That first time it had taken 181 minutes (3h 1m) to\nreach this point by foot after leaving my house, and by the time I got<\/span> here I was<\/span> almost\ncomatose with thorough fatigue<\/a>.\nThis time that same trip took only 111 minutes (1h 51m), and yet I felt<\/span> great. In fact, I\ndidn't<\/span> even break stride as I passed<\/span> the\nend of the “<\/span>hike proper”<\/span> to continue the short distance to the bus stop at\nthe summit.<\/p>\n\n

From front door to summit: 116 minutes (1h 56m). That's a lot<\/span> better than the first time I\nhiked<\/span> to the summit (my second Mt. Hiei hike<\/a>),\nwhere with ample stops it took more than five hours.)<\/p>\n\n

One key in going fast was not stopping. During yesterday's hike, between\nmy front door and the summit, I stopped<\/span> moving\nonly three times. One was for<\/span> a red<\/span> light early on at an intersection in the city on\nthe way to the trailhead. One was at<\/span> the\n90-minute mark where I stopped<\/span> for a few<\/span> minutes for a drink,<\/span> in\nhopes that it would rejuvenate the tiredness that had sunk in. (Answer: it\ndidn't, so it was just a wasted<\/span> three\nminutes.)<\/p>\n\n

And at 21 minutes into the hike proper, I\ntwisted<\/span> my ankle while running on a\ndown<\/span>-slope portion of the trail. One\nmoment<\/span> I was<\/span> running with the grace of a\ngazelle<\/span> floating on the wind, and the next I was<\/span> hitting\nthe ground like a sack<\/span> of rocks unceremoniously\nshoved off the back of the Stupid Truck. At that\nmoment<\/span>, withering in pain, I decided<\/span> it\nwas time to take a short<\/span> rest.<\/p>\n\n\n

\nPanasonic DMC-TS3 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>60 sec, f<\/span>\/3.3, ISO 320 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nForced Rest<\/span>\ntaking a survey for broken bones\n(the photo was to mark my location, but my stupid Garmin GPS unit<\/a> failed to keep the track)<\/span>\n\u306d\u3093\u3056\u3092\u3057\u305f\u6642\u306b\u3002\u75db\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3002\u305d\u306e\u5f8c\u306e\u30cf\u30a4\u30ad\u30f3\u30b0\u306f\uff11\u6642\u9593\u4ee5\u4e0a<\/span>\u304b\u304b\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

To offer a bit of background, recall that on my 3rd Mt. Hiei\nhike<\/a> four months ago, I'd actually<\/span> hiked back\ndown the mountain instead of taking the train<\/a>\nor bus<\/a> I'd taken other times.\nHiking downhill has always been really hard on my knees,\nbut it turned out that the biggest danger was that I\nkept<\/span> twisting my ankle. After half a dozen<\/span>\nsmall twists (each resulting in a painful<\/span> crash\nto the ground, and much swearing and worrying about broken bones), you'd\nthink I'd figure out how to walk properly, but no matter how careful I was,<\/span> it would still happen over and over.<\/p>\n\n

So yesterday, on the way up, when I\nencountered<\/span> a section<\/span> of the trail with\na downhill<\/span> slope, I'd pick\nup<\/span> the pace to a fast<\/span> jog, but was\nextremely<\/i> mindful of my propensity to twist my ankle. I was<\/span> very<\/i> careful.<\/p>\n\n

In particular, when I approached a\nparticularly<\/span> rough area, my active thought was “<\/span>be extra<\/i> careful here”<\/span>, and with that thought forefront in mind, I suddenly,<\/span> inexplicably<\/i>, found myself crashing\nto the ground with great force. I peppered<\/span> the\npalm of my left hand with holes from rocks or roots or whatnot, and did the\nsame to my left knee (and my new Under Armour compression\nleggings<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

The only two reasons I can imagine for twisting my ankle despite such attention is that either\nI'm blind or stupid.<\/p>\n\n

I'm not blind.<\/p>\n\n

Peppering my body with painful holes is one thing, but it's my right\nankle that got most attention. Oh, and as a data<\/span>\npoint for health-care researchers: cursing loudly in English in a Japanese<\/span> forest does not seem to mitigate the\ndamage from a sprain.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

After a few minutes, I stood up to gingerly give it a\ntry.<\/span> I still<\/span> had more than an hour of hiking to the top, so\nif my ankle was too bad to continue, I could<\/span> hobble back to the trailhead which,\nconveniently, is off the parking lot of one of Kyoto's best hospitals, so\nI'd be able to get immediate treatment. But it\nwasn<\/span>'t that bad, and I continued<\/span> on. It\ndidn't exactly hurt<\/i>, but it remained noticeable longer than before.\nFor a half<\/span> hour it felt “<\/span>hinky”<\/span> (for lack of\na better<\/span> word), but it seemed to have worked\nitself out by the time I reached<\/span> the summit.\n<\/p>\n\n

Until I stood up after a few minutes' rest. It was\nbothering<\/span> me again. An hour's bus ride<\/span>\nback down and a short<\/span> walk home, and I took<\/span> off my socks to reveal that I'd done some real\ndamage.<\/p>\n\n

\nPanasonic DMC-TS3 at an effective 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f<\/span>\/3.3, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nJustice Served<\/span>\nif you are stupid in how you hike, you get troubles like this\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I'd been planning to do a couple of fairly active classes at the gym, but I bailed<\/span> on those and just\ndid some upper-body weight training. In the evening<\/span>, I treated<\/span> the swelling with copious amounts of jasmine plum wine<\/a>\nand baked chicken at Uroko<\/a>, with Damien.<\/p>\n\n

Today it's starting to turn pretty colors, and is very stiff. If I hobble<\/span> carefully, I can\nget<\/span> around without pain, so the sprain is mild by most\nstandards.<\/p>\n\n

So a few days after trumpeting being back in the\nsaddle health wise<\/a>, I'm back to<\/span> limited activity. I went swimming<\/span> for a\nwhile<\/span> this evening with Anthony, and that went fine, so I hope<\/span> that bodes\nwell for a quick<\/span> recovery.<\/p>\n\n

My next goal for a Mt. Hiei hike is to do it quickly and<\/i> not\nstupidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made my sixth hike to the top of Kyoto's Mt. Hiei yesterday, with the goal being simply: fast I could get to the top? I really enjoyed last week's hike with Damien, because he's fun to chat with and it's enjoyable to hike with friends, but it left me wondering how fast I could do on my own, if I concentrated only on getting to the top quickly. No stopping for photography, no stopping for rests, no stopping for energy snacks, no stopping to chat with other hikers. No stopping to enjoy nature. Just go. Fast.<\/p>

To recap my [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}