Monday, July 16, 2012
So I'm still holding onto the One Day Hike as a cool long term goal. But I realize that I need to make specific plans on short and medium term goals if I'm going to get there. In the spring, there will be a series of hikes that will help ODH hikers prep for the full day of hiking. One of the coolest sounding hikes is a slow marathon on 26 miles of trails around Mount Vernon. This is a lovely part of the Potomac that is surrounded by a couple nature preserves, so it should be very nice. And at 26 miles, it ought to give me a good feel for what 37 miles will demand.
At the moment I'm doing a 5k My Way challenge. This is a series of weekly training workouts, culminating in a 5k. You can choose walking, run/walk or running. I'm going with walking. So far, it's been going well. It has given me both time and low impact exercise to heal my legs and feet from the pounding they took in my April 5k. And it's forced me to start to add some longer mileage to my exercise, by putting the focus on distance and overall time, rather than time spent running. This morning I did a 2 mile walk on a new route because none of my old routes were long enough.
What I'd gotten stuck on was how to connect the 5k with the long hike distances. I was striking out on training plans for this until someone gave me a link to a page on about.com for marathon walking. Just the thing. A 19 week plan to move up to marathon distance.
Then I remembered someone on my team mentioning Volksmarching as a goal (thanks Jean). I looked into this and it sounds like so much fun. 5k and 10k walks, with log books, prizes and often food at the end. Sort of a party atmosphere. I can't wait until I can try my first one. And there are even Year Round Events that are available to walk at any time. I may even suck my children into this activity. And since one of my fitness goals is to be able to walk battlefields and historic sites with my history loving family, the Volksmarching sounds perfect.
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