Hiking Training Plan: Week #19 Recap

Week: October 22 - 28
Miles Hiked (Week): 13.48
Miles Hiked (October): 30.03
Miles Hiked, (October Goal): 30
Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 100.96
Pounds Lost (Week): 0.6
Pounds Lost (Total):  19.0
Weekly Goal Met: No
Nights Camped (Week): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 8
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 1

It took a mostly unprecedented weekend of hiking, but I hit my fourth straight monthly hiking goal, with three hundredths of a mile to spare. It helped that most of the trails I hiked where fairly level with good footing, although a couple were on horse and mountain bike trails, and a short portion was an unintentional bushwhacking session over a woods covered ridge at Rock Cut State Park near Rockford. I guess I did also hike a bit through sand along Lake Michigan at Illinois Beach State Park, so that was a bit difficult, if flat, walking. By far this was the longest weekend of hiking I've had in three years, and is a good rehearsal for next summer, when I will need to average 15-20 miles a week to hit my monthly goals.

For now, the 30 miles in October was the high point, as we head on towards winter. November will only have 20 miles as the goal, and December and January will only have 10 miles as their goals. After a trip to the Smokies and North Georgia in about a week, I'll be taking it easy on the hiking front.

As such, it will become even more important for me to get back on track with the non-hiking exercise and nutrition. I lost weight this week, but at a minuscule rate, especially considering my heavy hiking on the weekend. I actually took the effort to buy some groceries this week, so hopefully it will go better.

I've decided to switch the weekly weigh-in (and thus the period covered by the recap) from Monday to Tuesday. The reason is mainly because of Tuesday has pretty much been the regular day I've done it the past few weeks, and will be required in week 21 as well. It's not a big change, but I figured I'd let everybody know.