Hiking: Building lung strength at high altitude

The Shield, from the Rincon of north Sandia Mountain

We arrived in Albuquerque New Year's Day and attempted a short hike in the Sandia Foothills to commemorate the end of our long journey from Boston, which began just before Christmas. The thin, cold air and mile-high altitude did us in after about a mile and a half along the trail - surprising since our last couple of hikes had been been five miles each and were a piece of cake!

Then again, those hikes were along the Missouri River bluffs outside of St. Louis, Missouri (Lewis and Clark Trail at just over 500 feet) and on the banks of Clinton Lake near Lawrence, Kansas (George Latham Trail at just under 1,000 feet). So it's understandable that we felt totally unprepared for hiking at the foothills' 5,700-foot elevation. But hey, we tried!

On the trail with Diego, George Latham Trail, Clinton Lake, KS

In the past week or so I've been building lung strength by doing several hikes of varying lengths and elevation changes of up to 1,300 feet (starting at nearly 6,000), as well as doing some biking and at-home fitness training. I feel I'm starting to gain the lung capacity I'll need to manage the kinds of hikes I'm accustomed to - I like to spend three to five hours on the trail several times a week.

Last week, after a week of walking down in the lower elevations of the Rio Grande valley, I hiked twice to Eye of the Sandias, which is a moderately difficult hike at Sandia's southern end. It's a four-mile lollipop loop with an elevation gain of about 1,300 feet. That's the greatest elevation gain I've tackled, period, so I was feeling confident I'd become used to things around here. But subsequent hikes have still been difficult, maybe more so. But I get out there at least every other day and am sure I'll be tackling the big mountain full force by the time it warms up a bit later in the month.

Sandia Foothills trails near Piedra Lisa Canyon

Yesterday Khizer and I hiked about a half a mile in on the south Piedra Lisa Trail (this one's not the Piedra Lisa Canyon loop we did on our first day - this one's located in the Rincon, just west of the iconic Shield, Prow and Needle of the northern Sandias). We were turned back as we were unprepared for the icy conditions. So we headed south to a volcanic mound near Los Lunas, about thirty miles south of Albuquerque.

That hike - to the top of El Cerro Tomé (Tome Hill) - was amazing. The hill is surrounded by flat farmland with the Sandias, Manzanos, Magdalenas and other famous New Mexico mountains off on the horizon. Being in the valley, and with a minor but steep elevation change of just more than 400 feet, this was a great hike to do for respiratory training!

Along the Canyon Trail at Kasha-Katue with Khizer

Today was another hike, this time with Khizer and our friend Kristen. We went to Kasha-Katue, also known as Tent Rocks, and hiked the Cave and Canyon trails at the national historic site near Cochiti Pueblo. The total hike was about three miles with about 500 feet of elevation gain, so it wasn't too difficult breathing-wise, but it was a bit technical because of snow and ice in the narrow slot canyons climbing up to the amazing overlook. This was an incredible hike, and it felt good to complete it without feeling as tired as other recent hikes have made me feel.

Monday we will likely do another three-mile hike along Jaral and Juan Tabo canyons in the north Sandias. I'm going to try to get in at least three hikes of three- to five-miles each at the mid-range elevations this week as well as do a few significant bike rides of at least 10 miles each. Along with that, I'm going to begin posting another thread related to the Cycling Merit Badge starting this week, so stay tuned!