Hiking Training Plan 3.0: Week 7 Recap

Weeks: February 28 - March 6
Miles Hiked (Week): 0
Miles Hiked (January/February): 0
Miles Hiked, (January/February Goal): 0
Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 0
Minutes Walked: 75
Minutes Walked (Weekly Goal): 80 
Pounds Gained (Weeks): 2.2 (1.2 + 1.0 correction for previous week)
Pounds Gained (Total):  4.8
Weekly Goal Met: No
Nights Camped (Week): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 0
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 0

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good week.



But Andrew, you went up 2.2 pounds! How could it be a good week?

Easy there, voice in italics, I'm getting to that. Yeah, I gained 1.0 pound during the week (the other pound is a correction for last week, which I inadvertently miscalculated). However, I decreased over the week from a high on Monday. The high on Monday was due in large part to a weekend of junk food thanks to a 24 Best Picture Marathon in downtown Chicago. The loss, however, was due to a restoration of my exercise plan and my "simple meal" experiment.

Both of these improvements have worked out OK so far. Four of the five weekdays during the week I met my walking goals. The only one I didn't meet was a day that was rather icy and cold, plus I was incredibly busy at work. Even then I still found time to get part of the goal accomplished. As the weather warms up, this is something that should get easier to do.

On the dinner front, the simple dinners worked out for the most part. We had food provided for working late during all but one of the days in the period, but this actually worked to my advantage. Save for a paczki filled day on Tuesday things went pretty smoothly. In fact, they went so well, I'm continuing the "simple meal" idea for a while longer. I think it has the greatest chance of success of the ideas I came up with (the others being planned meals and swapping controlled dinners for controlled lunches, both of which just don't feel like they'd be successes). Save for one meal, I was able to improve my habits this past weekend, so hopefully week 8 will continue the downward swing of things.

In addition to the improved adherence to my plan, I also was able to get some experience walking on ice and snow during my movie marathon weekend. It snowed both Friday and Saturday while I was downtown, and although many of the sidewalks were cleaned, some weren't. Save for a couple slick slush spots, I was able to get through it fine. Unlike this winter, next winter is going to include some snow hiking, so it was good to get some experience walking through icy conditions, knowing that I won't instantly fall down in it.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going for right now, and am looking forward to this Saturday. This, of course, is my return to the trail. It will be about 2.5 miles I will try to hike, most of which I'll try to do on level ground if I can. I'm eager to get back out there, if only to have more interesting things to write about.