Days 5 and 6
Day 4, Friday, started with good intentions, as far as conditioning for hiking. However, my responsibilities with the family took over. I ended up subbing a half day at Glendale High School for the baseball coach. Which was cool because Taylor is on the team under a different coach. It was a good day.
Today, however, I kicked butt! Today was the first Saturday that we had no major plans. Thursday and Friday were off days, so I wanted to really push myself and put some miles under my boots. So, after a bit of a lazy morning, I took off around 10:30am and went to the Galloway Creek Greenway Trail. I hit the trail at 11:00am, straight up. It was a really easy trail with minimal elevation changes and no tricky footing (it's all paved). So, I wasn't worried about strength as much as I was worried about challenging my endurance. I wanted to hike 7 miles in 2 hours with a 20 lbs. pack. Of course, the entire way, I was thinking: Colorado is not flat, and this 20 lbs. is half of what I'l be carrying. So, I was excited about what I had done, but realized I had much farther to go. I feel like I did challenge myself by revving it up every time I started to slow down. I didn't want to just walk. I wanted to get on the move. I wanted to see if I could push past the exhaustion or the desire to quit. I successfully completed over 7 miles in exactly 2 hours.
One thing that helps when you're on the trail, whether it's on a mountain, valley, or paved sidewalk is that you have to get to where you're going. You can't stop. The motivation that comes from realizing that stopping and staying is not an option pushes you past the exhausted muscles and transforms your state of mind. You can't quit. Your car, or campsite, is miles away and you have to make it there before you stop. You have to get there before you can enjoy that "enlightening" moment when the weight drops from you shoulders and the constriction eases off your feet and you start eating that Clif bar, setting up camp and thinking about dinner.
A lot of times I'm asked why in the world would you walk that many miles with all that weight on your back? Well, other than the fact that you can't see a lot of the stuff I've seen in your car; you can't experience hearing a water fall, then coming around a corner to be blown away; you can't isolate yourself so completely in an RV; it's the sense of success when you get to the campsite. It's the ability to look behind you at all those miles and feet of elevation and say, "What's next?" Hiking challenges me on levels that I've never challenged myself before. Camping is the reward for a long day's hike. That's why we do what we do.
Today, however, I kicked butt! Today was the first Saturday that we had no major plans. Thursday and Friday were off days, so I wanted to really push myself and put some miles under my boots. So, after a bit of a lazy morning, I took off around 10:30am and went to the Galloway Creek Greenway Trail. I hit the trail at 11:00am, straight up. It was a really easy trail with minimal elevation changes and no tricky footing (it's all paved). So, I wasn't worried about strength as much as I was worried about challenging my endurance. I wanted to hike 7 miles in 2 hours with a 20 lbs. pack. Of course, the entire way, I was thinking: Colorado is not flat, and this 20 lbs. is half of what I'l be carrying. So, I was excited about what I had done, but realized I had much farther to go. I feel like I did challenge myself by revving it up every time I started to slow down. I didn't want to just walk. I wanted to get on the move. I wanted to see if I could push past the exhaustion or the desire to quit. I successfully completed over 7 miles in exactly 2 hours.
One thing that helps when you're on the trail, whether it's on a mountain, valley, or paved sidewalk is that you have to get to where you're going. You can't stop. The motivation that comes from realizing that stopping and staying is not an option pushes you past the exhausted muscles and transforms your state of mind. You can't quit. Your car, or campsite, is miles away and you have to make it there before you stop. You have to get there before you can enjoy that "enlightening" moment when the weight drops from you shoulders and the constriction eases off your feet and you start eating that Clif bar, setting up camp and thinking about dinner.
A lot of times I'm asked why in the world would you walk that many miles with all that weight on your back? Well, other than the fact that you can't see a lot of the stuff I've seen in your car; you can't experience hearing a water fall, then coming around a corner to be blown away; you can't isolate yourself so completely in an RV; it's the sense of success when you get to the campsite. It's the ability to look behind you at all those miles and feet of elevation and say, "What's next?" Hiking challenges me on levels that I've never challenged myself before. Camping is the reward for a long day's hike. That's why we do what we do.
Labels: camping, endurance, fitness, hiking, inspiration
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home