Week 3: What is your “Why”? And don’t panic!

Most recently updated February 3rd, 2023

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

– – Awesome Training Week 3 got off to a great start with some yoga and kickboxing on Monday in my home gym.

Tuesday I led a 9ish mile hike in the morning at Umstead State Park , combining the Company Mill and Sycamore trails.

It was a cold sunny day, but sadly there was bad traffic so only half of my group made it to the hike!  

We still had fun though, going at a good clip, and stopping to look at the carved tree art on the multi-use trail in the middle of the hike.

Then Jody showed me an alternative route for part of the return trip to the trailhead, so I learned something new, too 🙂

Wednesday I was kind of a slug.  Seriously.  But in my defense, I was really very busy panicking.

Why?  Well, remember when we started this training, I hadn’t decided on my goal hike yet? 

Usual “whys” for fitness goals can include feeling and looking better for life in general, or getting ready for a specific event – in my case, an ambitious epic hike!

I’ve been dithering about pulling the trigger on some international travel this year.   

My last international trip was to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in New Zealand just days before the pandemic shutdown about 3 years ago. 

I’ve stayed pretty local since then due to all of the travel restrictions and general airline weirdness.

This week, I finally made the decision to to take advantage of a January sale at my favorite sustainable travel company (read my page about it here.)

Because it’s so expensive to fly now, I also decided to combine 2 of  their week-long hike itineraries for the longest trip that I’ve taken in many years.

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Aaaaand my “why” is… hiking Mount Olympus!  In Greece!!!

The itinerary has us hiking from Prionia up along the E4 to a mountain refuge (6890ft) on the FIRST DAY, and spending the night.

The next day, we’ll hike from there to 2 summits -Skala (9455ft) and Skolio (9550ft) –  and then ALL THE WAY back down the E4 from there to Prionia.  (See AllTrails description of the summits route.)

Seriously, my knees hurt just thinking about it. 

So, immediately after committing and sending the down-payment, I began to worry I’d taken on too much.

So, Wednesday was spent kind of freaking out. 

Why? Because the Mount Olympus hikes are just the beginning.

I also want to be in good enough shape afterwards to do the rest of the trip (and enjoy it)!

But then, I took some time and translated the original hike descriptions from km=miles and meters=feet so I could relate better.

Here’s the rest of the trip’s hike itinerary AFTER the Mt Olympus hikes and summits in the first two days (translated to miles and feet):

Mt Olympus (Day 1-2)	Miles	Elev gain/loss	Est hike time
Day 3: Meteora	5 miles	2548ft	3 hours
Day 4: Zagori Mountain	9.3 miles	1765ft	6 hours
Day 5: Vikos Gorge	7.5 miles	984 ft	6-7 hours
Day 6: Travel to Corfu/rest	Miles
Day 7: Stavros-Pelekas	10.6 miles	2133ft	6 hours
Day 8: Giannades-Lakones	8.7 miles	1800ft	5 hours
Day 9:  FREE DAY!!! Opa!
Day 10:  Angelokastro-Afionas	10 miles	1312ft	5.5 hours
Day 11:  Spartilas-NE Coast	9.3 miles	1968ft	6.5 hours

I stopped hyperventilating long enough to compare these hikes to some I’ve done pretty recently closer to home.

It was then I realized that the projected “miles per hour” on the trip is MUCH slower than I ever go, even on the steepest or longest local hikes.

With that in mind, the freakout dissipated a bit.

Nothing much needs to change with my training except to increase the degree of elevation gain. 

So if I do that and also practice rock some scrambling before the trip, I should be fine.

I could even revisit some of my vertically tougher local hikes, too, like summiting Old Ragin Shenandoah, or head back to the Smoky Mountains for a few days.

And maybe add some time on the “mountain climber” machine at the gym because it LITERALLY simulates what I’m going to be doing. 

I feel much better now 🙂

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Thursday started with a 9ish mile Saturday morning hike hosted by my friend Heidi on the Mountains to Sea Trail, at Falls Lake. 

Specifically Hike N,  which starts at the Cheek Rd MST Trailhead and goes to the Little Lick Creek Bridge.

I do this hike frequently from the opposite direction, starting from the Rolling View side of the MST and going from there to the bridge.

It was interesting to come at this  hike from a different angle, a beautiful sunny day, and a great group!

I only had a little bit of extra weight in my pack, so the 9ish mile hike was good exercise, but didn’t exhaust me too much!

Good thing, because I had a full day after that  with That Man and Colleen (the prettiest puppy), hacking around outdoors and having a pretty great music rehearsal 🙂

The next day, Friday, I had scheduled a favorite 7-ish mile hike at Umstead State Park, this time on the Loblolly Trail going into Schenk Forest and the Reedy Creek Greenway.

This was to be my main “strength-building” hike for the week, so I had 10 extra lbs in my pack.

It was a great group of hikers and a beautiful day!

Saturday was kickboxing and weights in my home gym  before meeting That Man for a frozen (but sunny) test drive on the lake in a pontoon boat. 

I know, in January, really???  But why not?  We bundled up 🙂

The next day Sunday, I led a great group hiking on the Eno river, starting from the Pump trail, crossing the river at the Guess Road bridge and continuing along the Sawmill Trail.

This was the trail I scouted last week and it was my first time taking a group on that trail.  Everyone seemed to like it!  

We did a out-and-back hike of about 8 miles total.

Next week’s weather forecast is for a LOT of rain.

But don’t panic! 

We’ll find a way to get some exercise and time on the trail anyway, and I guarantee we’ll feel better about everything when it’s done.

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NEW: Track Your “Awesome” Progress at Home!

You’ll get instructions and three printable trackers: 

• • Your Hike Plan Worksheet
  • Daily & Weekly Workouts
  • Weekly Meals tracker    

 Click Here to Order! 

A download link in your confirmation email let’s you get started right away. Happy training!  LJ

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Meanwhile, I’ve got to find out if my gym still has a Mountain-Climber machine….

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TAKEAWAY LESSON:  Don’t freak out if your goal seems unattainable, or the weather is against you!  Break your problem down into small do-able chunks until you can see the best way to tackle it.   And keep moving forward 🙂

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I hope you’ve found my Training Log ramblings to be helpful- or at least amusing! 🙂   To see more of them go to my Training Log.

You could also take a look at my 8 Weeks to Awesome Training Plan post, if you want to see what kind of training I’m doing.

Thanks for stopping by – see you next time!  LJ

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