It's just some stairs, what's the worst that could happen?

Once again, this was going to be an easy week. John was going to come to Seattle, Joe and I were going to have the shorter drive for the first time and we would have an easy morning. You'd think that after the previous weeks I would know better than to assume anything of the sort.

I picked Joe up and he had his pack loaded with 50 pounds of weight and a plan to do six trips up and down the steps at Golden Gardens 2 walking, 2 running, and 2 with the uber-pack. On paper this doesn't seem too bad, what's so hard about some stairs after the hikes we've done? As we discovered, everything. There are over 250 steps with two sections at almost a 45degree angle.

I ran first and failed. My legs weren't warmed up enough and working till midnight the night before didn't help. Running just wasn't going to happen. On the second round I carried the big bag. 50lbs is nothing to sniff at and combining it with a bunch of stairs is a tough, tough haul. Just like the first week, without Joe pumping me up the whole way I wouldn't have made it. I had to go one step at a time, it was the only way my legs would agree to this obscene task. The third trip was, as expected, the easiest. Walking after the "run" and the bag was a piece of cake.

Towards the end we were running short on time so I got one more "run" in, this time much easier, and a bag trip. Johnny got off easy since he was the third with the bag he missed his last one. I had to get to work so we cut the day short.

Without contest this was the hardest single piece of our training so far. The big hike from last week had flat parts and food. This was nothing but up with weight and pain.

Till next week
Cheers,
Sean