Overview...

What started as an awareness raising and ethnographic styled walk through Sierra Leone, this site now details the encounters of a not so academic academic who spends more time occupying Wall Street and squats than a university...

Friday, July 9, 2010

Training...

Funny now that with all of these goals of going to Sierra Leone and trekking through the country that I don't spend much time thinking about physical aspects of the journey.  Things like walking 20 miles (32km) a day for a few months come to mind.  I am working on my 'training' a bit, I've been running on the Appalachian Trail (AT) regularly, staying relatively 'in-shape'.  But there is another huge aspect of it all.  Heat and temperature.  It is going to be hot and humid there.  I will not be inside an air-conditioned room, I will be out walking during the heart of that heat.  My body will need to get acclimated.  This heat that we've had here in the northeast US is going to be the norm there.  It will be well worth it for my body to only be used to it, but comfortable in it.  Everything from the sun to standard body temperature.  Why is it that 80 (26C) degrees in March feels like a sauna, but 80 degrees on Tuesday felt chilly after a high of 102 (38C) degrees?  Our bodies get used to things, we adapt to the sun, to temperature, and to our environment in general.  Just as I need to get my legs in shape I need to get my regulatory system in shape.  Next time its going to be hot like that, I'm gonna get up straight away, throw a pack on my back and go do 20 miles (32km) on the AT.  I was kicking myself when I thought of it Tuesday evening.  I need to get some of my stuff together for hiking, camping, communicating and get out there and go.  No AC, no icy stuff, lots of hiking, lots of running, lots of  being barefoot (or in the vibrams), and definitely lots of sweating...  Get used to that life which I will be living...  

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