Ridin' Solo

So I wanted to beat my previous Grouse Grind time of 58 minutes. I set out to go today. Initially I wanted to bring some people over with me, but later on realized that hell, I didn't want all these uninspirational whiny kids slowing me down. And plus, I would be able to listen to music during the whole time without having to take my earbuds out to pretend to listen and talk back. I set out solo with a backpack containing my read-on-bus book "The Art of Seduction" and my lunch.

^ at the base of Grouse. Not a very exciting photo due to the thick thick cloud cover


Early on, I felt great. Positive emotions at an all time high, absolutely amazing scenery (partial fog covering the entire forest), only a slight burn on my calves, and awesome music blasting into my ears. Near the halfway altitude point, my legs slowly started to die away, and almost wished that I had a whiny buddy with me to slow me down.

My mini-goal to keep on moving up was to find a girl with a nice ass/legs, tail her for a bit, then move ahead to find the next one. This was not as easy as one may think: it's hard as heck to increase climbing speed all of a sudden, and the weather wasn't too lot, resulting in an unfortunate lack of miniskirts (jkjk) and short shorts. The leggings were numerous though, and occupied me until near the end, when I felt nothing but the pain in my legs.

Eventually, I made it up with a self-recorded time of 1 hour 6 minutes. That's 8 minutes slower than my best :(... I was inclined to believe that I didn't record properly when I scored the 58 minutes.

I'll write down some tips for aspiring grinders.

-You will feel tired very quickly (probably about 10 minutes into the climb). Don't think about turning back, and just keep on trekking forward. That tired feeling will mostly go away by the 1/3 point. Congrats, you have crossed the mental barrier.

-You will later, however, encounter another barrier: your physical barrier. Unfortunately, you can't overcome this just by enduring. It just means that you've been a huge pussy and that you haven't exercised when you should have. As you near the 3/4 point, your physical barrier should be made very clear to you. Adjust your pace accordingly. Aim for consistency over speed: in the end, consistency will always win.

I really enjoy the feeling at the end of the grind - the feeling of accomplishment, of overcoming a bunch of difficulties along the way, of the hot sweat all over, plus the bonus feeling of being a bit fitter than you were yesterday. Likely, I'll make this a twice-a-month event to see how much I can improve myself by the end of the summer. Maaaybe invite people along.