Matie

Alright-- I'm making some additions to this challenge and figured I might as well document my progress. It's day 17!! I have achieved 100% of my strength training goal! I'm in the groove. I've also seen some incredible skies at the park where I work out. I want to dial in on my hiking goal. An important focus of this challenge is to set goals that are realistic, so I want to add some training to my plan and assess the training I'm doing already to determine how it will help me reach my goal. I looked into some topics in other NF forums and identified some tips that I want to try to follow in preparation of the hike. Restructuring my plan to include those tips means that I will start to add distance to my walks, culminating in a 11.5 mile walk. The 11.5 mile walk will fall on day 24 of this challenge. Hopefully with equal time before and after, I will have gained enough experience before the challenge and have plenty of time to rest. The path that I've been taking climbs the hill from my house to the trailhead for most of the way and I take a route that starts to decline before I turn around, or I take an even steeper path toward the trail. I think the terrain of the walks is preparation enough for that aspect of the hike. If anyone seeing this has advice applying to my hiking training, please share it. I'm excited. Being thoughtful about my goals, plans, and objectives is giving way to the most positive exercise experience I've ever had. I'm having success with my walking goal and my boyfriend started joining me on some of my walks, which gives me even more fulfillment than meeting the objective does. I'm only stretching once a week, but at this time I'm choosing not to take it too seriously. I'll just keep trying to fit it in at least twice throughout the week.

Thanks KB Girl ☺️ I have not hiked the trail before, but I have completed very similar hikes in the past without the aid of weekly walks and workouts. I'm keeping up well on my goal, but I think I might look for a way to change my plan so that I can work up to the hike instead of springing it on myself one day. I haven't walked a distance longer than 2 miles since I started the challenge, so I hope there is a way to make the hike easier within the time frame.

You demonstrate so much strength with your ability to work 2 jobs and get as little sleep as you do! Props for looking after all aspects of your health while facing such a challenge. I imagine no one would want to talk with me if I'd only slept for 3 hours in a 24 hour period. It would be like talking with a troll. I felt personally connected with your desire to have more balance. I've been wanting the same. Intuition has been an important tool in my process of finding it. I struggled with caffeine withdrawals last week and I can pinpoint a moment before I quit when my intuition warned me that I was depending to heavily on my cup of coffee. I ignored that thought and regrets were had. But I'm learning to listen to that small voice to help me make decisions that will better serve me in the long run.

Being so close to the canyon is a huge advantage for me. I don't have a car, but hiking is so important to me.

My 2 fitness goals for the month: 1. Complete a 7.3 mile hike on a canyon trail near my house (0.9 miles away), starting from my house, at the end of the month. 2. Exercise weekly I put together the exercise program I'll follow to include strength training, stretching, and walking. I'll start strength training with a playground workout posted by Nerd Fitness and take it a day at a time, seeing how I feel, and adjusting my routine as needed. My objective for starting strength training is to do exercises for 15 minutes, 2x/week. I'll stretch for 20 minutes, 2-3 days/week after exercise. And, I'll choose a location one mile from my house and walk there or walk for 30 minutes 3 days/week. Oh! I'll warm up and cool down by choosing an exercise from a separate video I found on a Nerd Fitness post.