I just finished a hike up grouse grind carrying our son and he's definitely bulking up! He's now 37 lbs, I'm 176 lbs, pack is about 13 lbs and we were 57 minutes. A month ago, I carried up our 31 lb daughter in 54 minutes. I sure notice a difference from last year for 2 big reasons. They are obviously heavier than last year, though I'm lighter by more than their gain. I had thought the two would cancel out. The other big difference is that I've had a knee injury for the past 2 months that's held me off of doing the grind with them, and doing leg and shoulder strengthening exercises like drop squats. By this time last year I'd carried one of them up 7 times and was under 50 minutes with our then 25lb girl.
The lesson learned seems to be that I have less muscle and aerobic conditioning than the same time last year. Now the question is what should I do over the next 3 months leading up to the Grouse Grind Mountain Run. I had thought that I'd try get down to last years race weight 3 months early ( which I've done) and that would yield similar times to last years race time of 33:45, but without kids I'm in the low 36s. So now I'm not sure whether I should be doing more strength training or keep going as I am with lots of running. It's hard for me to figure out the best way to shave 10% off my time.
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