The last hike I did was in the beginning of June, and it was about a 6 mile round trip hike, and I was almost in tears by the end because of my foot pain. I got myself back out there again, this time to Red Pine Lake. This hike ended up being about 7 miles....and guess what? It felt awesome! Sure, by the end of the hike, I was pretty sore. But, I felt so much more confident with my foot! Especially with the descent. Going up the trail, it was so steep and rocky, I was dreading coming back down. It usually takes me a lot longer to go down on hikes than it is to go up! But, I tackled the descent like a boss, and I descended about 1000 feet in maybe 15 or 20 minutes. I definitely surprised the hubby. We had a blast on our hike and I was so happy with my improvement. It goes to show that I'm still making lots of progress.
There were also some demons tackled last weekend as well. The Spartan Super returned to Utah, and it just so happened to occur on our 13th anniversary on August 13th. I felt that the race was somehow doomed. I didn't run in the race, but my hubby ran with some of his friends. I cheered on from the sidelines, but this time I had my own group of friends. I think that helped for sure with the depression and remorse I was feeling not being out there running. I tried to bounce around the course, but this time there was lots of elevation gain so I wasn't able to hit as many obstacles as I would have liked. Everyone survived and finished the race! I was super proud of my hubby. And I felt genuinely happy. We are going to try doing a Spartan Race together next year in Phoenix. I won't do any obstacles that I am not comfortable doing. But I will be ready and it will be time.
I also managed to squeeze another hike in on Sunday. It was a bit of a shit show, but I survived :) We'd planned on doing a hike to Wasatch Mine. Each hike available in the valley is charted out on my spreadsheet, complete with ratings, which include things like total roundtrip miles, elevation gain, maximum ascent, and special considerations. I have been gradually increasing the difficulty week to week and trying not to do too much too fast. So, this hike was carefully selected as the next step in progression and I'd mentally prepared for it all week. We got all of the gear and food together that we would need the night before, and got up at the ass crack of dawn to head up the canyon. We drank our coffee and pre-workout on the way, so that when we arrived at the trailhead, we were ready to crush it! However, the US National Park Service had other plans. On the way up the canyon, we saw a ton of smoke and a raging fire. Upon arriving at the trailhead, we discovered that it was closed due to a "managed fire". Are you kidding me? We had to improvise and change plans. Another hike close to the area was Lake Blanche, so we decided to head there. It was a lot more difficulty and elevation than I had planned for. I've done the hike before, and I thought that by the beginning of fall, my foot might be ready to tackle it. But, those plans were thrust out the window and I plunged feet first (see what I did there?) onto the Lake Blanche trail. It ended up being at least half a mile more, 600 more feet of elevation gain (with a different of 600 feet per mile to 913 per mile!!), and a lot steeper and rockier than planned. I was scared. Nate even said "We don't have to go the whole way, don't worry!" Did he really ask that? Does he know who he is talking to? No. We were going the whole way.
By the end of the hike, I was sore. But not like OMG I need to ice and elevate and rest kind of sore. I took it fairly easy for the rest of the day. It was my other muscles like my quads and calves that were paying the price. So, needless to say, I was super pleased with how the day turned out, because I felt like it had the set up for a disastrous, tear-filled morning. We made it to a quiet, beautiful lake, except for the huge ass moose that was just hanging out...
I feel like I'm getting mostly back to my normal level of activity. Between my two hikes and my weekly walk/jog, I managed to clock about 18 miles this week. Yay!
I've got some serious training to do before a commitment I made in November! Stay tuned... Time to get my ass into gear!
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