64 Days Left: How I Pushed Through and Trained/Hiked Longer

July 11th, 2017

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I can't believe I didn't think of this before as I was planning to walk the Camino de Santiago. Why did I pick September to go to Spain when it meant I would have to train for my hike in one of the hottest cities at its hottest time of year?  Summertime in San Bernardino is no joke! The temperature for both Saturday and Sunday was 108 F, and I don't have functioning air conditioner in my home.  Once it hits 104 and over, and I just want to lay down all afternoon...and not move...and pant.

PUSHING PAST EXCUSES

Beautiful drive up Waterman Canyon 

Fortunately it only got to about 100 F yesterday because I had to go out and train.  Weather cannot be an excuse for not getting out there and practicing because it could hold me back for the entire next 9 weeks that I have left to prepare.  When the excuses start flooding my mind and I begin to rationalize why I shouldn't train, it's actually time for me to get creative and find a solution instead of caving in.  So, if I'm going to train on schedule and for as many hours as I need to this summer, I need to get up early and go high.  Today I headed out for Crestline to hike at Lake Gregory.  At 4,500 ft. up the local mountains, it gave me some much needed altitude practice, a change of scenery, and some variety on the trail...all at cooler temps.

One loop directly around the lake is about 2.5 miles. There is a road that goes around the lake also, which is a little longer. I went twice directly around the lake and used the road path once.  I also walked to a little store, Goodwin's, across the street which brought my mileage total to 8.6m.  

For the entire hike the temperature stayed in the 70s. Lake Gregory is shaped like a butternut squash...and the hike around the north bump always has a fabulous breeze.  I felt cooler hiking there than I did lying down in my hot house down the hill. The best part was that the cooler temps allowed me to hike longer.  The MapMyWalk app on my phone recorded 8.6 miles, which is great because my neighborhood hike on Friday was only 5.71 miles. I needed to push my mileage and I did. Yay me!




EMBRACE THE SUCK!

There is some up and down to the Lake Gregory hike. It ISN'T intense by any means, but I found that by the final quarter of my workout I was feeling the climbs a little bit.  I let something I learned on a YouTube video by "Darwin onthetrail" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekP92ksyIP0&feature=share)  help me out when it started feeling kinda hard.  He had a video that gave tips about becoming a distance walker/hiker that I really liked.  One tip was called "embrace the suck."  He reminds everyone that there will be times you are hiking that will just suck, period.  It will be too cold, it will be too hot, it will be to hard, too painful, and you will be too tired.  But if you learn to embrace what sucks...and just get over it, you will make it through to the reward of your view, your peak, your terminus.  So yesterday I used this idea as my mantra.  As I huffed up a climb and felt my legs burning, I just mentally repeated "Embrace the suck, Patti, embrace the suck."  Other times I just reminded myself "this is what it feels like to get stronger."  Both of those really seemed to help. Thanks for the tip, Darwin!

I stopped at the market across from the lake after the second time around and bought some coconut water to fill my water flask with.  I also bought a piece of fruit.  I felt like this might be how it will be when I'm actually hiking the camino...stopping after a few miles to possibly get some fruit or coffee.








THE NEXT BREAKTHROUGH THAT HAS TO HAPPEN

Today I will do my weight lifting routine, a sketchy set of arm exercises I found on YouTube the other day.  I want to refine that workout and add some core work to it.  Tomorrow's post should let you know if that went as planned. I will be so proud of myself if I get that figured out because I have put off this kind of exercising for years because I was never quite happy with...or sure about...a workout plan, and I let that be why I didn't follow through with that workout goal.  I know it was weak, weak, weak excuses...I'm not gonna lie. If I make that breakthrough, I am going to be so jazzed.  

PEACE!