Some Upcoming Physical Challenges

Tis the season for physical challenges so if you are looking for a challenge--not a Barkley-type challenge as once again no one won last weekend's run--but something a bit similar, consider participating in these upcoming events...

• May 4: Great Saunter, a nice 32 mile walk around Manhattan.
• June 16-August: Sri Chinmoy, a nice, if repetitive, 3100 mile/52 day road race.
• July 11: Vol State, a nice 315 mile ultra run.  Through the deep south.  In July.
• July 15-17: Badwater 135, a nice 135 mile run. Through the desert.  In July.
• August 9-13: Bigfoot 200, a nice 200 mile run with 42,000+ feet of elevation gain. 
• September 22-28: Grand 2 Grand Ultra, a nice self-supported, week-long stage race.

Needless to say, these aren't the kind of events that people jump into on a whim but nearly anyone can start with a "couch to 5k" run and with enough dedication and training find themselves participating in these extreme physical challenges.  These are good for your health (?) and good for your prepping skill set.

Let's Talk About Feet

Your feet to be specific, the ones you use to propel yourself through life.  Living in the land of tourists--and their requisite flip flops--I've seen cattle with better shod feet.  But feet are important.  It is nice to have the best guns and oodles of survival equipment, but without the basics--like being able to walk a good ways during a survival situation--you will be screwed (no offense to people without legs or feet that work, that is a whole other survival issue).

The problem with feet can be many--athlete's foot, hammertoes, blisters, corns, callouses, gout, bunions...the list goes on.  I know some people who spend more time taking care of their firearms than they do their feet when feet, for the most part, are even more important than a firearm on a daily basis.

Here's how to take care of your feet:

• Take care of systemic problems that can affect your feet like gout and diabetes.  These are serious medical issues that can lead to debilitating foot problems (up to and including amputation!).
• Learn the basics of foot care (like keeping your feet clean and dry).
• Wear the right shoes (I'm still on an apparent never-ending quest to find the perfect shoe...trail shoes, lug soles, zero drop, heel slip, toe box...there are about a dozen things to consider when looking for the perfect pair of shoes).
• Fix common foot problems (you haven't talked foot issues until you have chatted with a group of runners or long-distance backpackers, they can discuss this topic all day long).
• Consider orthotics (I'm a fan of Super Feet).
• If you are hard on your feet (long distance runners, nurses, mailmen on a walking route), take extra care to be kind to your feet.
• Here are some examples of trashed feet (trigger warning--these photos are not for the squeamish).  Part 1   Part 2
• Finally, here are some runner tricks to make improve your running/walking (some are quite extreme): removing your toenails permanently, special shoe lacing techniques, after-run recovery techniques. special toe socks

10 Ways We Are Disconnected From Nature (And Why That Isn't Good)

As the US has increased it's wealth throughout all classes, especially over the last few generations, we have moved further and further away from nature. This isn't good. Here's why:

1. Decades ago, before computers, video games, VCRs, and more than three channels on the TV, kids were encouraged to go outside and play. Actually "encouraged" isn't the word...it was more like: kid "I'm bored", adult: "go outside and play". This conversation repeated itself a dozen times a day. When I was growing up, that was the standard answer no matter if the weather was 20 degrees or 110 degrees, just to keep the kids out of the way of the adults. Kids had to use their imaginations and make up their own sources of entertainment (stick ball, cowboys and Indians, hide and seek, etc) rather than having commercially created entertainment force fed to them on a 24/7 basis.


2. I'm no scientist but it seems quite odd that so many kids these days have asthma and severe food allergies. When I was a kid, maybe one kid in an entire school has asthma and no one in the entire school had food allergies to things as common as eggs, peanut butter, shellfish, etc. Why is this? I don't see these problems in third world countries where the kids entertain themselves by playing in polluted water, eating everything even marginally edible, and spending the entire day from dawn to dusk outside.


3. Many people in developed countries don't know how the steak they are eating gets to their plate. People literally "freak out" when they see an animal being butchered. Years ago this was, well, the way that food got on the table--deer hanging in the shed so it could bleed out, grandma wringing a chicken's neck so that it could become the evening's meal--it was just the way food was procured. If people suddenly had to start providing their own meat, who would be around to do this? Certainly not your average American.


4. People cannot provide the most basic food stuffs for themselves. Victory Gardens, even in the smallest city lots, were quite common during the war. People knew that if they didn't raise their own fresh food, they may not get any. Fortunately during the war years, the people were not too far removed from the farm so gardening skills were still known. These days, if people had to grow their own food, I'm afraid many people would be ill prepared to do so.


5. Kids (as well as older people in today's world) have missed out on the opportunity to develop self esteem by being successful at useful things. When kids bring back a string of fish and are praised by their elders for their skill and for providing food for the family, it build their self-worth. When a boy (or girl) gets a deer, tills acres of land, or helps bring a calf into the world, they have visible reminders of how useful and skillful they are. Without this connection to life, death, and hard physical work, the connection doesn't get made. IMHO this is why we have so many shiftless, depressed, trouble-making people in the world today--they haven't done anything to build their responsibility and self esteem.


6. The world is too "safe" these days. Granted when you have a loved one lost in the wilderness, I'm sure being able to reach them by cell phone is immeasurably comforting, however years ago, people had to rely on themselves to find their way out of difficult situation, provide their own basic medical care, and send word anyway they could (I remember the ubiquitous paper plates with messages posted on them and nailed to trees in the wilderness as a way of providing information to others who were following).


7. Wilderness skills are a lost art. Start a fire without matches, sheer a sheep and end up with a knitted sweater, find your way by the stars, snare a rabbit...the list of skills that one needs to be able do in order to provide for themselves is long, the number of people who could actually do such things these days is few. Sad.


8. Nature is reality. It is cold, it is wet, it is beautiful, it is tragic...in nature the only sure thing is change. Parked in front of a computer all day, you miss out on these things. One could literally stay inside for a year attached to a cell phone/computer/video game and miss all of the seasons, the changes in trees and flowers, the smell of fresh air, etc.


9. Living close to nature requires a wide variety of skills. When I ask a farm kid what they can do I hear: rototilling, running the backhoe, taking care of the horses, gathering eggs, welding, building, roofing, and a myriad other skills. When I ask an average suburban kid what they can do, I hear very few things..."Can you cook?" "We eat out everyday". "What skills do you use during the day?" "Texting, email, chatting online..." "Can you find your way to the next city?" "My mom will drive me." Frightening.


10. Nature is anything but dependable which means that people learn how to be flexible. Raining today? Stay inside and do sewing or reading or baking. Plant the corn today? It will grow at its own rate, you can't speed up nature, and you get to learn to be patient. Nature is fleeting. If it's sunny and the wheat is ready, it gets harvested today--you can't be lazy and put harvesting off until you feel ready to do it.

Now maybe these examples make the situation look much worse than it is, but being so far removed from nature can't be a good thing. As long as we live in an insulated, climate-controlled world when you can call for food to be delivered or you can simply shop for the things you need, I guess survivability of the masses will continue. However should TSHTF, having the skills to live in and with nature will be worth its weight in gold.

Physical Preparedness 101

At the most basic level of preparedness is your body. How is your hearing? Have you had it tested lately? Do you need hearing aids? Being able to hear well is one of the most basic warning systems the human body has. How is your eyesight? Have you had it tested lately? Do you need glasses? The ability to see what is happening around you is another first line of defense. Smell, taste, and touch are our other senses that warn us about dangers in our immediate area. Keeping your senses as sharp as possible is one of the most basic ways to up your preparedness abilities. This is why tactical shooters practice with shoot/no shoot pop-up targets--it tests their ability to quickly view a scene and make a split second decision. This is why skilled trackers use all of their senses to efficiently track their prey. While you are taking an inventory of your senses, don't forget your sense of intuition. When you talk to people who work on the front lines (cops, soldiers, etc) you will often hear how intuition helped them make the bust or avoid a deadly situation. For more on this often under-rated sense, check out 'The Gift of Fear'.

CNI Challenge #4--Can You Walk a Marathon?

A marathon...that's 26 miles. Could you do it with now? With practice? In a dire emergency? It sounds crazy and I wouldn't expect you to run 26 miles but it is necessary, in many survival situations, to be able to walk yourself away from a disaster, a war zone, or other unsavory situation. Besides being a necessary survival skill, walking is also an easy way to exercise, and best of all, it can result in lowered blood pressure, lowered blood sugar levels, and lower cholesterol.

Think of all of the people who suffered in the Louisiana Superdome for more than a week after Hurricane Katrina. Yes, people said they couldn't flee the city because they didn't have a car or couldn't afford gas, but aside from the ill, elderly, and those with many small children, I wonder why they didn't use the two feet God gave them to get to higher ground. I know, it's easy to say "why didn't you...?", I wasn't there and have no idea what other factors influenced these people's decisions, but the ability to take yourself from one location to another (no matter the distance) under your own power is necessary. If nothing else, walking a few miles or more every day will result in better health, but in a disaster it could save your life.

Here's some walking resources:

• Volksmarchers http://www.ava.org/
• Map My Run http://www.mapmyrun.com/
• The Walking Site http://www.thewalkingsite.com/
• Fat Man Walking http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/

Top 10 Physical Skills to Master

Since you never know what kind of situation you may find yourself in, it is imperative to be physically ready for all possibilities. The best way to do this is to master the following ten physical skills:

1. Swimming. Everyone should know how to swim. Besides its positive impact on strength, flexibility, and cardio, the ability to swim may save your life should you find yourself in a flood, overboard from a boat, or making a hasty, water-borne escape.
2. Climbing. Rock and/or ice. Climbing improves strength, flexibility and balance and teaches you how to plot a course while moving your body from one location to another.
3. Self defense. Judo, boxing, karate, tae kwon do...pick one. All of these forms of self defense increase strength, flexibility, and balance while teaching you how to fall and take a punch.
4. Strength training. Sometimes you just need to power through a situation. Ongoing strength training (lifting, pushing, pulling, etc) is a valuable addition to your physical skill set.
5. Ball sports. Football, baseball, volleyball--any sport that develops speed, quick decision making, and hand eye coordination is a welcome addition to your physical abilities.
6. Balance training. This could range from rollerskating and ice skating to ballet, surfing and log rolling. What all of these sports have in common is the necessity for balance which is an optimal skill to develop and can come in handy in many situation.
7. Dance. Dancing of any kind (salsa, cha cha, tango, et al) will benefit you physically (cardio, balance) as well as socially (an excellent way to integrate yourself into many social situations).
8. Walking and/or running. Obviously these are good cardio and strength skills, however developing the ability to transport yourself over a series of miles under your own power is the real benefit.
9. The scare yourself silly sports skills. OK, some people really enjoy base jumping, sky diving, bull riding, and roller derby, however many people would just as soon avoid these situations if at all possible. It's a good idea to experience as many of these sports, however, since you want to know how your body will react under the influence of fear and adrenaline.
10. Physical team sport skills such as paintball, football, water polo, and basketball. What all of these sports have in common, besides the obvious physical skills development, is the ability to learn how to read others in team situations, know how to rely on others in team situations, and how to lead others in team situations.