After a long winter of trails packed with ice and snow, I have been like a fat guy in a beer store since temperatures warmed, trying to gobble up miles and work on increasing my fitness. Sometimes that feels like pissing in the ocean, but sometimes, just sometimes, it feels pretty darn not bad.
In the past few weeks, the six-mile hike has become my “long” day hike, and I try to do that at least two times a week, and there have even been some instances of running. Yes, running.
After failed attempts in years past, I had no intention of ever running again, and that still may or may not come to be part of my routine, but it’s been done, and it wasn’t horrible.
A brief explanation…
Most readers know I am NOT a runner. Even in my fittest, skinniest days (roughly 25 years ago at this point), my body was not having it.
I have some theories about that, one being that I was a very overweight adolescent and young adult, and I went straight from losing 50 pounds through diet and walking (circa 1992) and then bought a cheap GT mountain bike (expensive for people like me making $5.25 an hour and working 12-hour night shifts slinging display ads), lost another 50 pounds, became obsessed with cycling, and the rest is ancient fucking history.
Running just never figured into the equation, and in turn, my body adapted for better or worse to cycling, and anytime I was called upon to run, including those stupid LeMans style starts at 24-hour races, I felt like a fish out of water, just floundering and gasping, with leg muscles not knowing what the fuck was up. And I was content.
Fast forward 20+ years, and I gained more than half of that weight back due to beer, slack, depression, self-loathing, and oddly losing interest in cycling. So, the idea of actual, non-treadmill running seemed ludicrous, and why “power hiking” through the woods has become more my thing and helped me put a dent in the weight I gained back.
Then I took out the recycling.
About three weeks ago, we had a couple days of heavy thunderstorms move through the area, and as I was taking the recycling to the curb one evening, it started pissing down on me.
I speedily walked the last of the beer-strewn containers down to the street when it REALLY started raining. I quickly sat the container down, and my mind said, “RUN!!”
That’s nothing new; I’m sure we all do that. It’s just that my mind said it this time, and my body did it. Like, ACTUALLY responded properly; I didn’t feel stupid, it didn’t hurt, and it shocked the hell out of me!
All I know is that I got into the house quickly and then just stood there for a second with a slight smile on my face. “Where did that come from??” I mumbled to myself. It was like having your first orgasm ever, the one you have before anyone tells you that shit can happen!
I know that 650+ miles of hiking have helped me lose 20+ pounds, but it seems it may have also helped my body adapt to running far easier than in the past. I could be wrong, but it needed testing. So I did.
As I prepped for Tuesday’s hike at the trailhead, I left my trekking poles in the car and just took my water (CamelBak Zephyr on closeout for the win) and, for some reason, my camera (I took no photos). I had no plan to run, but I thought if the mood struck me, I’d run the easier sections of the trail and see what would happen.
I was about half a mile in when I got the urge to pick up my lumber to a jog and soon found myself slowly running sections over the next 4.5 miles. It was more like interval training than an actual run, but my body reacted well, and it felt great to knock out 4.5 miles in just 1:06.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to, or even want to do, a full loop of running but mixing the two together scratched some fitness itches and proved to me that I am on the right track and that all those miles I stumbled over the ice and snow this winter are paying off. Hopefully, I can keep my body healthy, incorporate a trail lumber/run into my schedule at least once a week, and see what happens.
Later.
NOTE: All photos were taken during recent hikes and photo creeps at Deerfield Park and Meridian Park. The bald eagle was taken from distance and cropped so it’s pretty shit.