This is a great series that you're doing, both the Don't's and now the Do's. I hope the videos reach more people! The people in ball caps in the Canyon, just kill me. They're just being fried all day. Great tip on the cooling towel. We've used those, and also the ones that are like a rope shape. Life savers! When we were backpacking there as a family, I would pay the weight penalty and take a pressurized mister, and we would mist our faces and necks all the time during the climb out. It was heaven. I'd even offer a mist to others on the trail. The tip about toilet paper and a change in bowel function is on the money. The toilet paper in about a 100mi radius of the Grand Canyon is sand paper. I'm guessing it's because of the water usage issues that part of the state has, and that most areas and gas stations are on some kind of septic system. Needless to say, you'll start sand papering yourself as soon as you get into the area, and it get's much worse with the paper that is used in the Grand Canyon. A tube of old school "A & D Ointment" is a must have, and keep yourself using it!! A couple other contributing issues is eating differently, especially people who show up and start eating peanuts, and bars. The other issue (just a guess) is that drip feed of adrenaline, that you get. I think it literally triggers a "I need to be empty to be surviving this..." privative response. I actually adjust my eating in the week before a run there, in order to avoid all of the voiding that typically occurs on the first half of the run, and I'm yet to be truly successful.
Todd. great thoughts! Also, GREAT info on the TP situation at GC. Have always brought my own and after your comments will continue to do so! Hope the knees are doing well.
@@ageingungracefullypushingt7135 Knees and everything else are doing so great that it's a bit ridiculous. They completely destroyed in the medial compartments, so I'm on extremely borrowed time, but with the re-alignment due to the HTO surgeries, and all of that torque and load removed from those medial areas, both knees are so pain free that I almost never think about them any more, AND, I sleep all night, completely pain free, even after a ridiculous training run, day of hot-lapping on the ski hill, or mtb ride. Prior to the HTO surgeries (Jan & Mar '23), and especially prior to the stem cell PRP injections in June '22 (which is what sent me on the journey to have HTO surgeries), I was in constant pain, could only run once a week, and every night, unable to sleep more than an hour at a time, before being awakened by the worst stabbing/searing pain in both knees. Literally, the constant pain, combine with the lack of sleep, and then the episodes of nearly screaming out in the middle of the night because it hurt so bad, was starting to make me just a tad "crazy." It was horrible. High quality Hyaluronic Acid capsules taken daily actually resolved all of the night pain, and a significant amount of daytime pain, and then I went in search of the stem cell prp injections. Bit of a long winded story there, but I've come a long way since early/mid '22.
One thing I don't do the morning of a hard hike is drink coffee, or eat pears unless they are part of an oatmeal breakfast. Also, obviously, try and go to the toilet before you begin.
Bill, when you start out, how much water do you carry and what would you say the total volume you drink is?
This is a great series that you're doing, both the Don't's and now the Do's. I hope the videos reach more people!
The people in ball caps in the Canyon, just kill me. They're just being fried all day. Great tip on the cooling towel. We've used those, and also the ones that are like a rope shape. Life savers! When we were backpacking there as a family, I would pay the weight penalty and take a pressurized mister, and we would mist our faces and necks all the time during the climb out. It was heaven. I'd even offer a mist to others on the trail.
The tip about toilet paper and a change in bowel function is on the money. The toilet paper in about a 100mi radius of the Grand Canyon is sand paper. I'm guessing it's because of the water usage issues that part of the state has, and that most areas and gas stations are on some kind of septic system. Needless to say, you'll start sand papering yourself as soon as you get into the area, and it get's much worse with the paper that is used in the Grand Canyon. A tube of old school "A & D Ointment" is a must have, and keep yourself using it!! A couple other contributing issues is eating differently, especially people who show up and start eating peanuts, and bars. The other issue (just a guess) is that drip feed of adrenaline, that you get. I think it literally triggers a "I need to be empty to be surviving this..." privative response. I actually adjust my eating in the week before a run there, in order to avoid all of the voiding that typically occurs on the first half of the run, and I'm yet to be truly successful.
Todd. great thoughts! Also, GREAT info on the TP situation at GC. Have always brought my own and after your comments will continue to do so! Hope the knees are doing well.
@@ageingungracefullypushingt7135 Knees and everything else are doing so great that it's a bit ridiculous. They completely destroyed in the medial compartments, so I'm on extremely borrowed time, but with the re-alignment due to the HTO surgeries, and all of that torque and load removed from those medial areas, both knees are so pain free that I almost never think about them any more, AND, I sleep all night, completely pain free, even after a ridiculous training run, day of hot-lapping on the ski hill, or mtb ride. Prior to the HTO surgeries (Jan & Mar '23), and especially prior to the stem cell PRP injections in June '22 (which is what sent me on the journey to have HTO surgeries), I was in constant pain, could only run once a week, and every night, unable to sleep more than an hour at a time, before being awakened by the worst stabbing/searing pain in both knees. Literally, the constant pain, combine with the lack of sleep, and then the episodes of nearly screaming out in the middle of the night because it hurt so bad, was starting to make me just a tad "crazy." It was horrible. High quality Hyaluronic Acid capsules taken daily actually resolved all of the night pain, and a significant amount of daytime pain, and then I went in search of the stem cell prp injections.
Bit of a long winded story there, but I've come a long way since early/mid '22.
One thing I don't do the morning of a hard hike is drink coffee, or eat pears unless they are part of an oatmeal breakfast. Also, obviously, try and go to the toilet before you begin.