AT's AT Hiking Training Plan, Week Sixteen

Weeks: July 15 - July 20 (6 Days)
Miles Hiked (Week): 8.0
Miles Hiked (July): 25.30
Miles Hiked, (July Goal): 40

Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 113.30

Pounds Lost: N/A
Percentage to Next Milestone: N/A
Pounds Lost (Total):  6.0
Weekly Goal Met: N/A
Nights Camped (Weeks): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 5
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 0

I won't be including weight loss/gain info during these recaps for at least the next couple of weeks. This isn't to hide bad results (although I suspect there would have been a reverse this week after last week's positive result). Rather, it is a broken scale that is preventing me from giving results. I went to change the battery, and the one of the connectors that attaches to the 9V battery snapped off with the battery. So until I get a new scale, I won't be able to record my weight progress (or lack thereof).



Outside of that, I'm fairly happy with how the weekend turned out. I was able to get eight miles in, despite a relatively limited ability to get hiking in due to visiting relatives. While most of the hiking wasn't too difficult, being on a lot of flat or near flat ground, it did include a walk up Hawk Hill at Forest Glen. I feel pretty good about the result of that climb, only having to stop once and for a fairly short time before I trudged up to the top. My secret was taking it slower than my instincts tend to let me. This is a problem I tend to run into going up hill, as I have the inclination to push as fast and as hard as I can when going up hill. Thus, I overexert far too early, and burn myself out well before the top of the hill. By forcing myself to go slower, I didn't take any more time to finish the hill than I normally would, and was able to better pace myself and not feel like collapsing at the top.

Not having a scale to use as a daily method of feedback makes it more important that I stick to keeping my food and exercise log going. By the way, if you want to follow along with that, you can visit my MyFitnessPal profile. You'll have to create an account to see it, but I would recommend it as a good way of tracking calories and other nutritional values. I'm currently on a one day streak, but I am hoping that won't be the ongoing state of things.

This week includes the last weekend of July, which means I'm going to have to push it to hit my 40 mile goal for the month. Fortunately, 14.7 miles is a pretty feasible goal for the weekend. It's less than 1.5 miles more than my previous 2014 weekend record. The only thing that worries me about this is the forecast, which looks like it could turn rather stormy. Hopefully it will stay dry in the mornings, so I can get out early and knock this out on various trails within a couple hours or so of Schaumburg.