Since I plan on doing a lot of trekking and mountain climbing in Peru, I’m going to need to do some serious training and conditioning so that I will be as physically prepared as possible. Now that the weather is getting cold, I will be heading back indoors to the YMCA. I’m pretty excited to get back to the gym, especially since the YMCA by my place has just been renovated.
A couple weeks ago I took my little canine friend Quincy out for a hike at Birds Hill Park. He enjoyed it and he even had the opportunity to meet his first horse. Quincy also discovered that horse manure tastes good. Yuck! Needless to say we left the area where the horses are allowed and went to a different trail where horses are not allowed.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of hiking, running, and cycling. Even though winter has officially arrived, I still plan on cycling to work. Well, at least when it’s not -40 outside. I picked up some studded bike tires last week and man is it ever fun to go ripping around on the ice and through the snow with these tires on! I’ve also been stair climbing at my apartment. I guess I could consider that a bonus to living on the top floor in a high rise building.
I’ve started a training program used for climbers who are preparing to climb Mount McKinley (a.k.a. Denali). The one thing that I really like about this program is that it is geared towards those who don’t have access to a nearby mountain. Something we are definitely lacking in the prairies. The program progresses on a month to month basis, and progressively gets harder.
With that in mind, if anyone knows of any places close to Winnipeg that have a lot of hills, please let me know. I’ve been talking to my cousin who goes dirt biking out by the Garvin pits, which is not to far from Birds Hill Park. He says that the area is quite hilly and would probably be a good place to train. This place sounds promising and I intend to check it out next weekend, as long as the weather is favourable. Time to load up the pack!