<p>^^, that is some fast running!!</p>
<p>BTW, how many PU can you do in 60 seconds?</p>
<p>4.77 miles outside today.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I may be on the DL for a bit. Yesterday I took a sharp turn going uphill and tweaked one of my knees. It didn’t bother me but today I tweaked it some more so I think that I’m going to limit my running to a mile a day on the treadmill until it improves markedly. It is nice to run outside but I find that it’s a lot safer running on the treadmill.</p>
<p>Good time to get back to stretching and strength-training for a while.</p>
<p>BTW, I’m at a weight level that I haven’t been at since the early 1990s. Fire doors are now a pain. I now have to work to open them. Before, I’d just walk into them and my weight and momentum would push the door open. Now I have to use arm and leg muscles to open the door. There are some advantages to weight.</p>
<p>No running for me. It was all I could do to get from the car into the house. Made it to the hut on just about the most gorgeous day I’ve ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky. 63 degrees at the car when I started and when I finished. Nice gently breeze.</p>
<p>2.75 miles each way. 2475 feet of elevation gain. Took me 3:35 going up, including an apple break at the first scenic overlook before starting up agony ridge. 45 minutes sitting on the porch at the hut. Then, 2:08 on the return leg.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen anything prettier. The entire length over agony ridge is a steep drop off on one side, then up to the ridgeline of Franconia Ridge. Steep drop off on the other side looking across I 93 to the rock face of Cannon Mountain and down on Lonesome Lake. Really breathtaking.</p>
<p>Agony Ridge is an apt name. Pretty steep stuff for about a mile. Even coming down, I couldn’t do more than 1 mph on the actual ridgeline because it’s just stepping down steep rock slopes.</p>
<p>I did pass [three</a> AMC crew girls](<a href=“http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/nhpr/files/styles/card_wide/public/201207/P1030830.JPG]three”>http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/nhpr/files/styles/card_wide/public/201207/P1030830.JPG) with full loads on their backs coming up the ridge. From that sample, I would say that a sure-fire way to get in shape is to spend the summer climbing up and down Agony Ridge with those kinds of loads!</p>
![http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/nhpr/files/styles/card_wide/public/201207/P1030830.JPG]three](http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/nhpr/files/styles/card_wide/public/201207/P1030830.JPG%5Dthree){kind=link}
<p>I did do a little prancercize on the homeward leg. Not so much going up as it’s pretty much nose to the grindstone on the ascent.</p>
<p>Photos later. Gotta get some dinner. KFC at 10 am was a long time ago…</p>
<p>46 pushups in a minute, but I had to take a break after the first 40.</p>
<p>Usually do 36 pu a day. Just tried the 60 second thing. Did 60 in 50 second and couldn’t go any longer.</p>
<p>BCE- I hope you heal up quickly! Sorry you tweaked the knee.</p>
<p>IDad- that sounds really tough and really beautiful.</p>
<p>Thanks Sabaray, I’ll give it some thought…</p>
<p>Here ya go. The [YouTube</a> photo show](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube). Most of these are from successively higher vantage points going up Agony Ridge or from the the hut itself.</p>
<p>As usual, HD version and full screen for big photos.</p>
<p>Ohio, if you take off 40 lbs you won’t need to run because you can ride and the current day Secretariat can do the running for you. That’s a lot of pushups in 50 seconds! All of you guys, actually.</p>
<p>MOWC, I’m around 8 to 10 now, the first ones better than the last.</p>
<p>BCE, I hope the knee recovers soon. Bummer. :(</p>
<p>iDad, thanks for sharing with us!!!</p>
<p>If you really want to get lean and rip you HAVE to enter the gym and eat healthy. The diet is probably the most important thing to get u in shape about 80%. Also in the gym as a beginner do full body workouts for begineeres and then start targetting each muscle group. Also try afterburn cardio workouts: on youtube type m200s by sixpackahortcuts and intense 1 minutes workout mike chang which you repeat 10 times.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm with us, Bobby. :)</p>
<p>Np if anyone needs any advice feel free to ask. I technically changed my entire body by simple workouts in the gym and not even eating that healthy. :)</p>
<p>That slideshow is wonderful! It’s gorgeous. I’m impressed with both the hike and with how you did the YouTube slides!</p>
<p>Thanks, but not much credit due on the slideshow. I just uploaded the photos and let YouTube’s automatic slide show generator do the rest. All of about six mouse clicks. The vistas from that ridge were the most spectacular I’m seen to date. The full hike is a 9 mile loop that continues up from hut and then along the knife edge ridge connecting the summits in the photos and then down one of the spectacular waterfall trails I hiked last summer. Lots of people doing the full loop today and they had a real treat weather wise. Quite a few families headed up this afternoon to stay in the hut and then finish the loop tomorrow. That will probably be my plan as the full loop in one day is pretty grueling.</p>
<p>I was really happy with my pace and my overall endurance on the hike to the hut. This was a pretty serious hike. I really wasn’t that exhausted, until the two hour car ride. Knowing that I can do this hike helps calibrate a lot of more challenging hikes on my to do list.</p>
<p>I started hiking at 11:30 and was back in the car at 6:00 – still over two hours before sunset. Only saw a max heart rate of 81%, so I did a really good job of pacing on the way up.</p>
<p>Celebrated the National Running Day with a 10K run after work. :)</p>
<p>New Hampshire Public TV hikes the trail I hiked today:</p>
<p>[Video:</a> Bridle Path to Greenleaf | Watch Windows to the Wild Online | NHPTV Video](<a href=“http://video.nhptv.org/video/1638286363/]Video:”>http://video.nhptv.org/video/1638286363/)</p>
<p>And, the high rez photography from the show:</p>
<p>[Bridle</a> Path to Greenleaf | Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/nhptv/3821267220/in/set-72157622038836658/lightbox/]Bridle”>Bridle Path to Greenleaf | Host Willem Lange and his daughte… | Flickr)</p>
<p>Wow, thanks idad for sharing your slide show - the hike is gorgeous!</p>
<p>Awesome looking hike, idad. Makes my elevations look a little prancercise-ish 
I keep meaning to take some pics for y’all. (Here’s the poison ivy. Look, here’s more poison ivy. Hey wait, isnt that poison ivy too? Here’s the evil tree that regularly slaps me in the face…you get the idea).</p>
<p>Joking aside, there are days coming down the hill where the filtering sun sets the forest aglow and I feel lie I’m walking through the cover of the Celestine prophecies.</p>
<p>So, my new aquajogging gear has arrived, and its too freakin cold to swim. Figures. Given the lousy swim weather we’re having so far this summer, my aqua training sessions may be a good deal shorter than my snowshoe season… Unless I want to guzzle natural gas like no tomorrow fighting the chill air by heating the pool, which I may do today…said pool is also quite shaded, so even when it’s hot I usually need to boost the temp. But there’s a point at which it just seems wasteful when the air temps can’t support it.</p>
<p>I know- sometimes it is just so beautiful to be outside that you are grateful that you have the physical ability to BE there! I am a spiritual person, and I always thank God right before I start every run for my presence out there and the fact that I can do it. In the case of a marathon, I try to remember to say thanks at the end, too!</p>
<p>^ great post!</p>