Hiking Training Plan Week #14 Recap

Week: September 17 - 23
Miles Hiked (Week): 8.51
Miles Hiked (September): 24.00
Miles Hiked, (September Goal): 20
Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 64.44
Pounds Gained (Week): 4.8
Pounds Lost (Total):  (16.2)
Nights Camped (Week): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 4
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 0

I know I ate poorly over the weekend, but good lord I didn't think I did THAT bad. After all I did hike 8.5 miles, some of which was consistently going uphill and down. I'm hoping that this an anomaly, that for some reason the scale was off by a couple pounds, and it will be back to normal the next time I get on it.

However, anomalous readings can't account for everything. There is little doubt I got off my plan this past week. I've yet to figure out how to get myself up to exercise before I go to work, which makes it much easier for me to hit my daily exercise goals. Also, I got off schedule on the nutrition side, in part because of a messed up schedule and stresses from work.

Still, those are all excuses. A plan isn't worth much when it is easy to keep to it. No, the problems start when things start making it hard to fit your plan into it. Obviously you have to be flexible, but that flexibility means sometimes making other things flexible to fit to the rigidity of your plan.

There really isn't anything I can do other than continue to improve and do better. It's not all bad, as I passed my September hiking goal with a weekend to go. This weekend I should tack a few more miles on, and perhaps I'll be able to right things. I've done it before, so I'm confident I can do it again.

Hiking Training Plan: Week #13 Recap

Week: September 9 - 16 (8 days)
Miles Hiked (Week): 7
Miles Hiked (September): 15.49
Miles Hiked, (September Goal): 20
Miles Hiked (Yearly Total): 55.93
Pounds Gained (Week): 1.0
Pounds Lost (Total): 21.0
Nights Camped (Week): 0
Nights Camped (Total): 4
Nights Camped (Backpacking): 0

Well, looks like I didn't have to worry about getting some hiking in this past weekend. Turns out I was able to get two separate hikes along the North Country trail at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, as well as two short hikes on boardwalks on Friday. All in all, I ended up walking more this weekend than last weekend, although it was over two days as opposed to one day. Save for a steep downhill from the rock escarpment to the lower land around Au Sable lighthouse, a few tricky places where trees blocked the way, and about 150 steps to the base of Sable Falls, it was mostly easy walking. Although I walked about 2 miles by myself from Logslide to Au Sable Lighthouse on the North Country Trail, they made it from Hurricane River to the lighthouse (over three miles round trip), and both traveled the stairs with me as well. In addition, my dad walked with me from the Visitors Center near Sable Falls to the Falls parking lot, about 1.2 miles. This, coupled with 1.5 miles of hiking on boardwalks (and a very short walk in the woods at Horicon N.W.R.) on Friday meant we all walked at least five miles.

As for the other part of the equation, well, let's just say it was good we got all that walking in. I suppose we didn't do that bad, particularly when it came to snacks and breakfast. Still, it's hard to get back into the swing of things with so many weekends centered around travel.

This upcoming weekend I'll be out of town again, but once again it will be a weekend chock full of hiking. I plan to check off at least two more trails on my Wisconsin sixty, and maybe a third (depending on how long and arduous the other two are). Between the preparations for the trip to the UP and a crazy week at work, I kind of fell out of my walking routine. This week's challenge is getting back into it, as well as trying to get a handle on my eating so I can really take this to the next level.

* The shipwrecks were covered by the waters of Lake Superior, which was much higher than the last time I visited.