Training (For A Purpose)

We've had few rounds of miserable weather, making everything a muddy mess even days past the rain. I've also continued my trend of being slammed at work and so tightly scheduled that the best I can do is a short hike, supplemented with the usual (sigh) indoor workouts. Then there's also my annoying AF foot, which is getting better, slowly, s l o w l y, but still dictates that any extended cardio and endurance work needs to be rowing, biking, swimming, or elliptical. Short hikes only. Hopefully by fall I will be healed totally. 

Why am I doing all this? Other than the obvious--I don't sit still well--we are tentatively planning on a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this fall. Just typing it makes my heart sing. It also means that I need to get ready for altitude, to minimize the altitude sickness, and building up for hiking bigger elevation gains, which don't come naturally here. 

Cardio / endurance: This is for trying to make sure I can sustain longer amounts of heart pumping activity. This past week included: (1) 45 minutes of sprints (rowing); (2) 45 minutes of level, mild incline, medium incline (elliptical); (3) 45 minutes of alternating between no incline and medium-high incline. Once the weather gets nicer, I will start adding the swimming to build up my lungs. Could I start swimming now? Yes. It's an indoor pool. But I am a grown ass woman, I do as I please, and after almost 20 years as competitive swimmer, it pleases me to NOT be in a pool until late May/early June. 

Strength / weights / HIIT: These all get lumped together for me because I tend to use weights and strength training as my rest in HIIT circuits. On the menu lately has been: (1) landmine work; (2) weighted squats; (3) overhead presses and curls; (4) triceps; (5) lunges; (6) etc. You get the idea, just trying to work all the areas. HIIT has been focused on (1) burpees; (2) step ups and box jumps; (3) planks in all their various forms; (4) jumping--jacks, rope, etc. though I have to go easy on the jumps with my foot; (5) pushups; and (6) other move your body, heart pumping exercises. 

Yoga: I used to be SO FLEXIBLE. Very, very flexible. It had to do with my sport--it was critical to be flexible and I worked at it for hours. I've since lost most of it, and I'd like to gain some of it back, because it was cool and also made recovery A LOT easier. Yoga combines light core and strength and balance work into that flexibility, so it's been a great option. I am very much on the struggle bus, though. I signed up for a rally nice app and have been working my way through that, and I think it's making a difference. It's been a month and I am noticing I can reach farther and hold poses longer. 

So, that's the workout scoop around these rainy parts. 

Upcoming: Indiana Dunes National Park

I am EXCITED for spring break. I know we had a (rather glorious, if I say so myself) trip to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park planned that we had to abandon, but I am excited for our little trip sessions that we are taking. GSMNP, we'll see you soon.

On the menu instead is (1) Chicago (gonna hit some museums, eat some pizza, and stay in a fancy hotel with a pool); (2) Indiana Dunes National Park; (3) Gabis Arboretum (which as TRAILS and TRAINS, could this be more perfect for us? Probably not); (4) Shades State Park; and (5) Turkey Run State Park. The Chicago - Indiana Dunes - Gabis section is all on one loop, so we will take a few days do that. Shades and Turkey Run are going to be day trips, so we will leave early in the morning and return late afternoon. There's an off chance that we will also do a daytrip to Brown County, but I am betting that we actually do one of our beloved Fort Ben hikes instead. 

Indiana Dunes NP and Indiana Dunes SP are right next to each other, so we may go back and forth into both. I'd love to do the 3 dune challenge, which has an elevation gain of about 550 ft--hey, it's Indiana, we take what we can get for elevation gains. We are also hoping to do Cowles Bog Trail, Dune Succession Trail, and/or Tolleston Dunes Trail. Gabis has lots of 1-2 mile trails, but honestly, we are going to have a hard time pulling JD away from the trains. We may take turns with adults hiking while the other does the train thing. 

Shades and Turkey Run are within a stone's throw of each other. they've got similar topography--ravines, cliffs, waterfalls, etc. There are long span bridges, stairs cutting down ravines, and even ladders to climb alongside waterfalls. Depending on how good of a time we are having, we may do two separate day trips to them, or combine into one long day. We'd really like to do the 6 Ravine Challenge--really give the kids a challenge--but we will just have to make that call the day of. They can definitely do it, but it may depend on how well JD slept that night. That's a 650 elevation gain, so it would be a big one, and we might take almost half a day to do. JK and I could do it at a good clip, but our goal with kid hiking is get them to love and enjoy it, not march them along. 

Coming along with us this trip, other than humans: (1) EJ's new backpack; (2) JD using the Osprey Moki for the first time on a longer hike; (3) testing out new water filtration devices; (4) my new Hoka trail running shoes; (5) if weather permits, I am going to try my Chacos and see how they do for hiking; (6) JD's new hiking Keens; and (7) new hiking pants for JK. 

What's A Hike? Lee Road Nature Trail

Absurdly busy weeks at work means choices about priorities, and yo, if I am going to pick between writing here and hiking out there, you know what I am choosing. 

This past week was the last week of JK being gone; my MIL's surgery; robotics; and the piano recital rehearsal, not to mention a ton of work. So much work stuff. 

There's a new-ish trail by our house--we thought it was all done in mulch or other recycled materials, but it turned out, they had decided to pave it. We checked it out, hiked it, had a good time.

What makes a hike a hike? Is it no a longer a hike if the trail is paved? I don't think that's a good qualifier for a lot of reasons, but my biggest one is accessibility. If you're going to say that a hike can only be on dirt, or rigged terrain, you are ruling people out of being hikers (at least in your estimate, which is the wrong estimation). Having trails that are accessible--paved with different materials, boardwalks, even very packed dirt--opens up trails and hiking and experiencing the outdoors to so many more. 

Obviously, it's not possible for all trails to be like this. Terrain and nature have their own dictates about how a trail can be, and we also have to be careful with the land we live in--making trails can have huge impacts on the ecosystem. It's also critical that all can enjoy it, and I was glad to take a spin around these trails, cutting through the woods behind baseballs fields and firehouses. It had been raining and had been muddy, so you could see tracks from animals, footprints from people, and lines from wheels from strollers or chairs. 

If your definition of a hike has always involved dirt, tree roots, and rocks, I challenge you to open your perspective more. I know I always need to--it's a process of constant learning and evolution. I love the outdoors and hiking so much, why wouldn't I want that for all?

Lee Road Nature Trail
Varying lengths; we walked the entire trail, doubling back on ourselves repeatedly, for a total of 2 miles. 

Hike: Camp Creek Trail

It was a beautiful, sunny day, and Grams was scheduled to pick up both kids. By 2:00 pm, I'd already worked a full day and thought I had more to do, I decided to take a quick break, leave my downtown office, grab the dog, and do a solo hike. 

Park: Fort Harrison State Park
Trail: Camp Creek Trail
Distance: 3 miles (full trail is a bit less, but I added on some other areas)

Gosh, what a muddy mess. I knew it might be, given our hike over the weekend, but I had hoped that a few days with no rain and decent temperatures would make it tolerably muddy, not "sloppy wet mess that makes you fall on your ass" level of muddy. That's what hiking boots and dog towels are for, though, so on we went. There were a couple sections where I turned back or took a connecting trail because it was such a mess that I didn't want to do more damage to the trail than what was already done. 

Finn and I had a blast--the sun was shining, there were so many things to smell, the crowd was super light, and the birds were singing. Finn did a great job of sitting prettily and waiting for other hikers with dogs to pass. He didn't bark or try to play with them at all, and he hiked along with a slight amount of slack in the lead. He's becoming a good hiking dog, despite his lazy nature. 

It was much easier to settle into a few more hours of work with some peaceful time outdoors under my belt. It's also easier with an exhausted puppy.

Workouts for Hiking

As spring break and our trip approaches, my foot is really starting to feel better. Although we aren't planning any huge elevation hikes, I wanted to make sure I was in okay shape to hike some distance on uncertain terrain. Ideally, I would have another month of healing, but I will just have to pace myself and make sure I take care.

The work outs have really helped--they've kept in me in shape while reducing stress on my foot, helped me build up supporting muscles, and stretched out the muscles that need it most. 

This Week in Workouts
Saturday--2.5 mile hike; 30 minutes HIIT (rowing intervals, squat/curl/thrust combos, landmine work, speed skater lunges).
Sunday--30 minutes HIIT, plus extra 10 minutes of core work (rowing intervals, stair lunges, planks, push up, triceps, mountain climbers).
Monday--40 minutes on the elliptical, mimicking hiking inclines and declines. Yoga in the evening. 
Tuesday--3 mile hike for cardio; weights (legs, back).
Wednesday--30 minutes HIIT (rower intervals; burpees, lunges, squats, planks).
Thursday--40 minutes on the elliptical, mimicking hiking inclines and declines. Yoga in the evening. 
Friday--30 minutes HIIT (rowing intervals, planks, burpees, dips, landmines, pushups, stair steps)

Every one of these days also has stretching, especially for my legs and feet. 

Here's hoping that my feet get many happy hikes in a few weeks!

Solo Hiking

It's a thing you'll hear a fair amount from women, especially those of us who became hikers later in life, and didn't grow up with outdoor adventures: we are afraid to hike alone. 

Some of it is practical-sense based: if I am solo hiking and I injure myself, well, that's going to suck, especially if the injury impacts my mobility. Probably not too big of a deal in my local state parks; might be a bigger deal if I am solo hiking in a mountain somewhere. There are ways to plan and prepare for this, though, and mitigate the risk in a way that should make us feel more comfortable. 

The other part, and honestly, the larger part for me, is fear based. Like many women, I've some had rather unfortunate experiences and close calls being a runner on a college campus, walking between college classes at night, heading into a parking garage, etc. Some of them were annoying and unpleasant and uncomfortable; others were downright scary. Between that, and a lifetime of having society drill into my brain that its my responsibility to not become a victim of something, rather than for someone else not to be a shithead of a human being, fear worked its way into my brain about being alone on a hiking trail. 

Well, that, and my fear of aggressive wild animals, but that's for another day.

The statistics don't really bear out that fear, though. Statistics are almost always more nuanced than "yes" or "no", so if you'd like deeper dive than just me talking about what I read, take yourself to google for some of the actual researched based articles that come up. Basically, it boils down to this: (1) you are safer in the great outdoors than, say, in a crowded city; (2) women are typically more at risk from people or partners they know or are in a relationship with than from strangers; and (3) women seem to have a different risk assessment strategy than men, and tend to be the subject of less search and rescues than men are. 

For a super interesting podcast on this, go check out National Park After Dark, the People of the Parks: Andrea Lankford episode. 

The first time I solo hiked, I think I hiked the fastest I've ever hiked in my life, because I was trying to do it and get it over with as quickly as possible. As I've gotten more comfortable, I find I still like bringing a dog along. If nothing else, having Finn by my side makes me rethink my decision to cross the creek via an icy log or jump from boulder to boulder after a rain. Not that I've ever engaged in such foolish decisions. Ahem. 

Anyway, I am now comfortable with 5 mile solo hikes, and am looking to go longer. That's part of my hope for my as-of-yet unplanned solo trip--some longer hikes in a location that I am not as familiar with. For example, I obviously feel pretty comfortable in my knowledge of parts of Rocky Mountain National Park, so I would try some longer solo hikes in those areas. I'd also do some shorter solo hikes in areas I am less familiar with. I'm also super interested in doing some big, day long guided hikes or shorter backpacking trips.

On the backpacking note, I've started taking classes here and there, learning more about tents, packs, what's needed and what isn't, food storage containers, and how to book and maintain campsites. I've been gearing up to try this little adventure since last year, so I am hopeful I can put it into action this summer. 

Hike: Lawrence Creek Trail

I've been spending a ton of time on my rowing machine and stretching and icing, and it's paid off. My foot was feeling like it might be ready for hike, so we hit the trail. 

Park: Fort Harrison State Park

Trail: Lawrence Creek

Distance: 2.5 miles (full trail is 4 miles)

We've had a constant stream of rain and snow the past month or more. It rains, then it all freezes and turns to ice, we get anywhere from a light dusting of snow to several inches, then it melts, and the process repeats. Even if my foot was fine, it would have made hiking difficult--you either get ice, or you get mud. There is no in between. 

When we started, the trial was ice. We did not have our microspikes, which probably would have been good to have, but it ended up being fine. We crunched along at pretty good speed despite the ice. Every minute we hiked, it got warmer--and it began to melt and expose the mud underneath. We had to stop at every creek crossing and carry JD across, then give Finn enough leeway to get a running start and jump over. 

We were all a happy, muddy mess by 2 miles in, which is when JD decided it was going to be a great idea to jump into the creek.

Since we were now in possession of a soaked 4 year old in 32 degrees Fahrenheit, we decided to call it quits and headed back. It was probably best for my foot to not test it too much--it was sore later but not too bad. JD was stripped down to skivies and bundled up, and medicinal hot chocolate was applied to both children.

The trees were really something to behold--they were all still coated in ice, so with the sun shining through them, it was like walking through a crystal forest. There was glinting and glistening everywhere, and tiny faint rainbows would dance fleetingly in and out of your line of vision.