cairns on mountain paths

[Jack Dahlgren]

Rick "Edward Abbey was lucky to survive some his his mistakes" Denney

I think it was Nietzsche who said "That which does not kill me only makes me cockier".

[rdenney]

After three knee surgeries (30 yrs of basketball, 10 yrs of wilderness trailwork, tree planting, etc), when my knees start to hurt, it means I have not been spending enough time on the bicycle.

Make sure that when you ride the bike to improve the muscles supporting the knee that you keep your cadence high. The higher the better, within the limits of your coordination, of course. A higher cadence in a lower gear will reduce the force applied on each stroke, minimizing any risk to the joint.

Rick "who NEEDS to get back on the bike" Denney

[Vaughn]

I bike toured with a 4x5 in NZ way back when. Started to have real knee pain about halfway through. I had about 300 pounds on the bike (me and gear). Took a long break (more walking/hiking than biking), lowered my seat about 1/2 inch and really upped my cadence -- all that helped a lot.

Lower gears are my friend!

Vaughn

[walter23]

As a hiker, I appreciated cairns as denoting the path. I guess I'd react poorly seeing some jerk who has no ownership in the area kick over something that isn't theirs. Of course there seem to be no shortage of folks who regard the property of others as theirs - as they know better how it should be used.

First, I'm not talking about hiking markers when I talk about deconstruction (afterall, these serve a purpose); I'm talking along beaches, which is where I usually encounter driftwood and stone constructions.

To claim anyone has ownership over these is ridiculous. They are constructed out of scattered debris on a public beach, and returning them to that state is neither good nor bad; it just is. I'm arguing this only because sometimes (well, okay, only once) I have actually been confronted by crazies while taking apart a driftwood pile on a beach ("DID YOU BUILD THAT, YOU JERK?"). It's a totally baffling reaction to me - it's a public beach and there are no rules about these things and nobody can reasonably expect them to last forever - so I'm taking the opportunity here to argue vicariously with them.

[Vaughn]

Walter -- those can be very obnoxious. I look at them as eco-groovy grafitti. Nice that they are all natural, but still can be an eyesore.

Vaughn

[PenGun]

Let me try again: I didn't provide you with enough description for you to determine whether I was or was not causing an overuse injury by doing squats every day. You think that is enough information, but only because of your mental image of squats in relation to your own fitness and knowledge.

I did, however, outline a long history of endurance sports and training activities.

I did not outline for you all the discussions I have had with professional trainers and doctors about a wide range of issues. You are assuming blindly that I have not had all those discussions many times. I have not engaged the topic of recovery with you at all, because that is not the point.

My thesis is that people who are describing their own fitness program or experience as the implied standard for who is qualified to hike in remote areas (with our without cairns) are really just bragging about their program or experience (or toughness). If people actually took those implied standards to heart, they would not achieve anything--you have to push through the periods when you don't meet standards in order to attain them, which means taking risks.

You keep reinforcing my point by extrapolating what works for you, or what you read in a book and applied to your own program, or that even you heard from your doctor, and making it TRVTH for everyone else. Recovery is for intense exercise taken to the limit. World-class runners, including those who run successfully into old age, run every day. They don't run fast every day, but their slow days may be fast to you or me. Yet they never stop running. What makes it work for them? Good genes, for one thing, and good biometrics for another. Guys who train in the gym at a high level, even into old age, don't take every other day off. When I worked out in gyms, the same guys were in there every day I was in there. They may work light on legs today and heavy tomorrow, but I think you'll find they take at most one day a week off. Do you think Lance Armstrong only rides every other day to allow his legs to recover? Do you think he avoids sprints on a given ride because it's an easy day? He may not focus on sprints or do hill repeats every day, but 13 days out of every fortnight he's on the bike. When he's fit, his poke-along recovery days would kill many of us. There are ways to do squats that are intense and require recovery, and there are ways to do them that are not and don't. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially when it becomes the prescription for everyone else.

To bring the point back to topic explicitly, just because many don't need cairns doesn't mean they aren't useful to some. And those who dismiss the arguments made by those who appreciate the cairns as reflecting inadequate experience should remember that the experience they have was never as good as it is now, and may not even now be as good as they think it is.

Rick "Edward Abbey was lucky to survive some his his mistakes" Denney

http://exrx.net/

I just did my legs etc. Squats, deadlifts, calves raises and reverse calf raises.. I lifted a total of about 13000 lbs. I do this about every 5 days. It took me a while to get to this level and as I am getting old I just maintain at this level.

All the parts that I used to do that are considerably stronger, and more importantly, much more resilient than if I had just sat on my ass.

From what you have said you don't seem to understand the difference between aerobic/endurance and anaerobic/strength muscles and their conditioning.

[rdenney]

From what you have said you don't seem to understand the difference between aerobic/endurance and anaerobic/strength muscles and their conditioning.

I dub thee the extrapolation master!

Some people can't climb one flight of stairs without an anaerobic burn. For them, stair climbing is strength training. Some can't do 10 squats, or 2 one-legged squats. It's strength training for them, too. But some people are strong enough to do dozens of squats, or climb stair two at a time for 20 or 40 flights, without getting out of breath and without that anaerobic burn. For them, those same exercises are endurance training, and maybe even fully aerobic. As I said about 100 posts ago, it depends on how strong you are. For most fit and strong people, squats have to be done with extra weights to be real strength training.

Rick "who knows the difference between strength training and endurance training, and who has done plenty of both, but whose point is not based on that knowledge" Denney

[PenGun]

I dub thee the extrapolation master!

Some people can't climb one flight of stairs without an anaerobic burn. For them, stair climbing is strength training. Some can't do 10 squats, or 2 one-legged squats. It's strength training for them, too. But some people are strong enough to do dozens of squats, or climb stair two at a time for 20 or 40 flights, without getting out of breath and without that anaerobic burn. For them, those same exercises are endurance training, and maybe even fully aerobic. As I said about 100 posts ago, it depends on how strong you are. For most fit and strong people, squats have to be done with extra weights to be real strength training.

Rick "who knows the difference between strength training and endurance training, and who has done plenty of both, but whose point is not based on that knowledge" Denney

http://exrx.net