Week 8: Things Are Looking Up

– – Training Week 8 started Monday with some yoga, and I FINALLY had a chance to get back on my new Vertical Climber for a 35 minute session.

Still just lifting my own body weight, but I’ll see how it goes and probably add some pack weight later in the week.

I hiked up about 2000ft, and I  did 3lb weights on each wrist to work my arms and back a little bit harder.

This week I needed to “look up” and focus more on vertical gain training, either with actual uphill hikes, or treadmill or vertical climber workouts.

Tuesday was my fun/exploration day because the weather was amazing!

Started with kickboxing in my home gym, then went over to Umstead State Park.

My goal was to take a look at a social trail on the far side of Big Lake that I hadn’t been on for several years.

My time was limited, so I  ended up hiking only about 4 miles, but it was good to get out in the unseasonably warm day and see what had happened to the social trail.

Wednesday I led a small but mighty group of hikers on a long hiking route I hadn’t done in a couple of years.

We started from the Pleasant Green trail access on the Eno River and hiked the Laurel Bluffs, Quarry and Pump Station Trail for a 12.5 mile RT hike.

We also had about 1400ft elevation gain, which I’d forgotten about (ugh!). 

But I only had 5lbs extra in my pack, so it wasn’t that bad 🙂

It was a gorgeous hike, and I was also able to take the group on a short detour from the Laurel Bluffs trail to the old Cabe Cemetery site I found a couple of weeks ago.

We stopped for a break along the river at the Pump Station ruins, and then reversed our route back to Pleasant Green.

This hike kicked my butt!   So Thursday was mostly a stretching and rest day 🙂

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Are You Getting Closer to Your Goals?

It’s Week 8, so it’s time to do a final progress check.  (You can click here to sign up and download your FREE “8 Weeks to Awesome” PDF.)

By Week 8:

• • • Your weekly Long Hike should be full goal-hike length, and
    • Your Strength Building hike should include full goal-weight pounds in your pack.

To Track Your “Awesome” Progress at Home  Click Here! 

You’ll get instructions and three printable trackers: 

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

 

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Friday I had to drop off my car in the morning for some maintenance work, so though the afternoon was nice, I was limited to exercise I could do around home.

So I did some longish yoga, and about 4 miles urban hiking in my neighborhood.

Saturday began with kickboxing and upper body weights in my home gym.

Later in the day I met with That Man and the puppy at Falls Lake for some exploratory hiking in the woods.

We have a short hike that we usually do from the Baptist Rd trailhead to a bench along the lake that’s along the MST.

We wanted to continue from there to the intersection with Hwy 98.

The closest equivalent I could find was MST Hike L, which they say is about 6-7 miles RT.

We thought our route would be slightly shorter because of where we were starting, but…No!

It was actually longer.

We ended up going about 8 miles, which was a very long way for That Man (who is rehabilitating a knee) and the puppy (who has very short legs). 

Fortunately the route is mostly soft underfoot with pine needles and leaves, and doesn’t have much elevation gain .

Even so, we barely made it home before sundown and pretty much flaked out for the rest of the evening 🙂

Between kickboxing, weights, AND 8 miles of hiking, I think that was just the thing to do!

Sunday I led a big group of hikers on a  9 mile Company Mill and Sycamore loop in Umstead State Park.

The weather was perfect, the pace was good, and everyone had a great time 🙂

And so ends Week 8.

Don’t worry if you haven’t reached your goals yet – just because it’s an 8-week program doesn’t mean you have to stop at 8 weeks.

In my case, I still have some training to do in terms of elevation gain. 

Maybe you’ve still got some work to do, too?

Fortunately for me,  my epic hike event doesn’t happen for about another 8 weeks.

So, I’ll just keep training from here – while trying to NOT over-train.

And I’ll bet you thought this was going to be my last Training Log post! Not so fast, Grasshopper  😉

I’ll also keep posting weekly because telling you guys what I’m doing helps keep me motivated-  and you know you’re all my accountability buddies.

But I’ll bet some of you are heartily and justifiably sick of these training posts – it’s just too much me, right???

Believe me, I’m getting kind of sick of me, too… 😉

So I also want to get back to writing about great  parks and hikes you can try out – we’ve all got that to look forward to!

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TAKEAWAY LESSON:  For any kind of training – ongoing or towards a goal – it’s a good idea to stop every once in a while to appreciate how far you’ve come.  But if you still have a way to go – don’t stop!

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

You could also take a look at my Asthma Diet , if you want to see what kind of things I’m eating.   It might work for your diet goals, too.

Thanks for stopping by – see you next time!  LJ