Category: Journey Journal

Today is supposed to be a rest day for me. I am sure I sound crazy to many people when I say that rest days are really hard for me but they are. I have all kinds of guilt over not doing enough and like almost a weird workout FOMO. Alas rest is a necessity. So here I am feeling like quite a lump. I mean I worked all day at my regular job. I jumped in the pool for a little swimming. I did throw in some laundry. I hydrated. I even rolled out and did some stretching. I did stuff but not “the stuff”. I didn’t hike or run or walk or wod or lift or any of the things that have become the most fulfilling things for me. So yeah, rest days are hard.

I went ahead and register for the Marathon March in October at Waterloo Village. It is 20 miles of all my favorite trails but with a time cap of 8 hours. I felt super confident when I hit the register button. I had just finished reading “A Beautiful Work in Progress”, by Mirna Valerio and was feel all inspired and capable. That was 3 days ago. Today I am wondering what I am getting myself into.

I went out this morning to do a quick 5 miles as sort of a kick off for training in preparation. I took the Sussex branch trail, totally flat and easy, 2.5 miles out and back. My legs were quite sore from an especially leg heavy WOD Saturday morning so I knew I wasn’t going to fly through it but I have done it plenty of times before and had no worries. Well I ended up pacing almost exactly 3 miles an hour. That means I could finish the Marathon March in 7 hours assuming no breaks, no bathroom, and that I could sustain that pace the entire time with unknown weather conditions and a pack on. I’m clearly nuts. I realize now that I have a bit of work to do before I tackle this hike but it was a start. I still have 16 weeks to go to get my trail legs back.