We're Halfway Through the Training!

TRAINING HIKE: Washington Monument State Park

Yesterday's training hike was at Washington Monument State Park; its on a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through Maryland. We had 3 potential mileage levels; 7 miles, 10.5 miles, and 12.5 miles. My goal was to try to make the 10.5 mile level, but I only needed to do 7 miles for the particular hike I want to do. However, since I don't get a lot of opporutunity to train for elevation and hills I wanted to do more of than the minimum. I am happy to say that I managed to make about 9 miles yesterday. I did 2 700 foot climbs.... I finished about the same time as those folks that did 12.5 miles, but I did finish and that's important. We started about 8 am and were back in cars and on the way home around 2 pm. Since all the hikes that I am considering are between 8 and 9 miles, I now have some confidence that I can finish the hike in Yosemite!

While we were out on the trail yesterday, we saw some park volunteers that were working on the trails. We saw the cub scouts out hiking the trail. We saw groups of friends out for a hike and we even saw some older folks out hiking the trail too!

I want to say a special thanks to Coach Kate who was my personal trainer yesterday! She was sweet enough to hike with me at my pace and give me lots of encouragement on the way. She helped me with some trail reading and helped me with the whole off-trail nature calls thing. Indeed Kate and Melissa did a great job with yesterday's hike and definitely help make a novice like me feel comfortable and wanting to get back out there the next week!

I also wanted to share some lessons I learned on the trail yesterday:

1. Do not put trail mix that has chocolate squares into your pocket. You just end up with a bag of gooey mess.
2. Bring moleskin to protect your feet from getting blisters... and then USE IT!
3. Yes you will in fact drink all your water... and your gatorade too!
4. Apparently I now need a belt for my hiking shorts. Its not cute to have to keep pulling your shorts up :-)
5. When nature calls, you are not necessarily walking in a straight line to find a bit of privacy :-)


Other cool things in the news:

I am now a card carrying member of the American Hiking Society -- that is one of the perks of signing up for the TNT Hiking program. I was very excited to get my card in the mail and am now anxiously awaing these magazines. I feel like I'm truly 'outdoorsy' now :-) Cause all it takes is a card and a magazine!! But seriously though, hiking out in different locations every week has given me more of an appreciation of the outdoors and the beauty that is right outside our front door!


DON'T FORGET THE CAUSE:

I want you all to know that I am having a blast doing the hiking and training, but the true focus is to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We need your help to raise funding to find a cure for blood cancers. I know that they can make it if we all pull together to support them. Please take the time to go out to my website and contribute today: http://pages.teamintraining.org/md/Yosemit110/WinForOthers. Then forward the website to anyone else that you think will want to contribute.