AGAIN!

Everyone together!

"Elaine is beginning her walking routine - AGAIN!"

The story of my life.

Pedometer Story

While I was sick I wasn't wearing my pedometer!  The battery was dead and I couldn't find the charger and I wasn't walking much - just from my lounge chair to the bedroom and back!  Looking for the charger was a low priority.

Now that I am feeling good, I decided that I didn't like the pedometer I had.  I got it at Christmas.  It wasn't that old and it worked just fine, but I really prefer a larger face with colorful icons and this was a slim line style - not as easily read as other styles.

Feeling healthy and eager to get my walking shoes back on I purchased a Fitbit Versa Lite - on sale for Mother's Day.  I am very very happy with it.  The time display is large, it includes the day of the week and the date (silly, but I like confirming what I 'think' I know, 😀) and it shows 3 basic tracking items: pulse rate, steps and calories burned.  Other screens track other things, but everything I usually want is right on the first screen.

So - the problem of the Fitbit was solved.


Tracking Story

Back in April I mentioned a website (Walk4Fun) that I began using to track my steps on.  What a fun site to visit.  I strongly encourage you to visit the link, Walk4Fun, and check it out.

Photo credit: Walk4Fun
This is a full size map of the trail, but additional maps of smaller
sections are available on the site showing the exact locations.

Briefly, it is a free website where you can log your steps - and apply them against one of many famous walking trails around the world - and see pictures of the chosen trail from your 'virtual' hike all along the way.  I chose the Appalachian Trail (AT) and I am thoroughly enjoying the 'trip.'  And to top it all off, if you have a Fitbit, you can link your Fitbit to your Walk4Fun account and your steps are automatically logged without any further effort on your part.  But if your pedometer is another brand, you can key in your step counts manually.  And then just periodically visit the site to see where you are on the map and visit some of the pictures of your travels.  Wonderful wonderful idea!

Photo credit: Walk4Fun
My position at approximately 76 miles on the AT.

Earlier this month, my Pennsylvania cousins were visiting me and I mentioned this website. They became interested.   We formed a team on the site, and we are all walking the AT together (well, we are at different points because our individual step counts are different), but we can keep track of individual our progress.  Then we broadened the team to other family members and friends.  Now we are 9 on a team called Cousins.

So now I not only enjoy seeing the pictures and my position on the maps, but I can see where I fall within the team!  My one niece is a runner and lives in Chicago.  She walks everywhere.  Her numbers are very high - very high without even trying.  Then there are team members who are inspired to get active again and fall somewhere below the leader.  But the leader inspires us to keep walking ...

Great fun.


Steps Story

I am one of those who is inspired to get active again and in trying to get my step numbers up - I discovered that it isn't as easy at 72 as it was at 52.  But not discouraging to me at all.  I have had to become creative in how I get those steps.  I park further away from my destination, I take walks outside, and there are inside opportunities to get steps in as part of my routine.  This morning I decided to walk around the condo while my coffee perked.  By the time it was ready, I had walked 1035 steps!  Wow.

Some days don't seem to allow time for walking during the day - so I have fallen back on my tried and true Leslie Sansone - indoor walking DVDS.

I have a few of her DVDS and they are really very good.  Steps movements are simple, repeated, and gradually increased in intensity as needed based on the DVD you choose.  It is a work out for sure - and it adds steps.  I even have one aimed at "older adults." The DVDs are ideal for when I can't get out for that walk, or I find myself at the end of the day and short of my goal number of 10,000 steps.

That's my walking update for today.

It is wonderful to feel energized and well again.  As hard as that flu virus was to get passed, it increased my appreciate of how important good health is.

The Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike - Becoming Odyssa

I have just finished reading a wonderful book by Jennifer Pharr Davis - Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail.  There was nothing virtual about this story.

It all starts with a simple premise.  When Jennifer graduated from college she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.  She decided to hike the Appalachian Trail by herself and take time to think about her future.  This is the story of her solo hike on the AT and I found it fascinating.  And believe me when I say ...  her journey wasn't simple.

I have read a few books about the experiences of those who hiked the trail - Becoming Odyssa is one of my favorites.

I found a YouTube video where Jennifer talks about her experiences on the trail that first trip (she has since walked the trail again and set the fastest time for a woman thru hiker on the AT).  You can find that link here.  It runs about 30 minutes, but you don't need to watch all 30 minutes to get a flavor of who she is and what her book Becoming Odyssa is about.

Even if you aren't into hiking or walking, I know you will enjoy this book.

The Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike - Disappearing Trails?

I am making good progress in virtually walking the Appalachian Trail.  Since August 1 I have reached 200.7 miles which brings me to Mt. Collins, TN. Many of the pictures of the trails are beautiful - like this one, but I couldn't help be wonder - isn't there a chance that nature can reclaim the trail making it easy to lose one's way?  Doesn't this trail look like nature is trying to reclaim it.  There are white blazes on trees, but they aren't on every tree ... what if the trail "disappears."

Thoughts to ponder.

I am reading the book Walking Home: A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail by Kelly Winters.  It is very good, but almost all the trail books I have read about the Appalachian Trail have been really interesting.  I am beginning to think that it is the trial's story that is interesting rather than the individual experience.

Ms. Winters makes a number of interesting observations during the book.  Here is one that never occurred to me.

"All of us know everyone who's hiking within 100 miles of us--even if we've never met--either through reading their entries in the shelter logs or from gossip passed on by word of mouth from others who have been seen or heard of them.  We have a community, a culture, and a fellowship that grows stronger as we all walk farther and endure more.  It's a long, thin community, spread out over 2,000 miles, but like Gypsies, we keep track of our tribe."

It is this theme that permeates her story.

Talk the Walk - Update

Woke up today just plain tired - and for a change I slept really good.  

What gives??

I increased my walking in September.  Maybe I just need to take a rest day today.  Sometimes I wake up tired and then get a second wind.  Maybe when I get that second wind, I need to just use it for something else and let my body rest today.

Looking back I can see I am making progress.

May                         11,133 Average Steps (Partial Month - no real goals)
June                         10,306 Average Steps (Goal 10,000)
July                            9,849 Average Steps (Goal 10,500)
August                     10,782 Average Steps (Goal 10,500)
September (to date)  13,000+ Average Steps (Goal 10,750)

White blazes on the Appalachian Trail

Some of this progress is due to the mind games I like to use to keep me motivated.  Mind games are a useful tool in the walker's arsenal - especially when you are starting a walking program.  In August I started virtually walking the Appalachian Trail (walking north) on my blog.  And in September I started on the Appalachian Trail on Walker Tracker (walking south).  The Walker Tracker event is not a race, but I like to note my position with other participants.  I am in 4th out of 14 (as of this morning).  Some have not logged their steps for yesterday yet, so I am probably somewhere in the middle of the pack - which is my usual position in these events.  I like holding down the middle!!

At this point I should meet myself on the trail

 coming from the south

 and coming from the north

 maybe in January 2013.

  :-)

Anyway the double incentives of walking the trail in both directions have caught up with me today and I think I will lay low.  If I were really on the Appalachian Trail, this would be a rest day spent in one of those 3-sided shelters.  I imagine it would be a rainy day spent waiting for the skies to clear sharing walking stories with other hikers who are also waiting out the weather.  A rest day.

Walking the dogs this afternoon and evening will do for me.  I will share my "walking stories" with them.

So how are you doing on the trail?

The Virtual Appalachian Trail Walk - Mile 149.5

The Start.

 Typical Shelters.

(Continuing series of my virtual trail hike.  
Other posts found under the label The Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike)

Total August milage: 149.5

Springer Mountain, GA
0 Miles

So here starts my journey.  

The walking steps/miles in August have been applied to the Appalachian Trail.

Sweet Water Gap, Mile 149.5
Trail and Campsite

I think I did pretty good.

I virtually reached Sweet Water Gap, North Caroline after my first 31 days of walking on this trail.

I passed the Georgia-North Carolina border.  Nice they have a marker on the trail for that.

North Caroline - Georgia Border, Mile 76.4

The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2160 miles long.  Sometimes it is reported as 2150 miles and sometimes 2175 miles.  The distance changes because the trail is always under reconstruction somewhere and minor changes to the route are made.  The trail is cared for primarily by loving volunteers. A labor of love for sure.

Usually hikers start in Springer Mountain, Ga, in the spring and travel north to Maine to finish in the fall.  Traveling from south to North gives you the best weather at both ends of the trail while walking but there are thruhikers who start in the north (during the chilly spring) and go South (to the hot summer and fall).  Regardless of the direction traveled, hikers can experience all weather types from extreme heat with humidity and freezing temps with sleet and snow.

One of the biggest challenges from my perspective is where to sleep.  I am not big on sleeping in a tent. I have always said that "camping out" for me was staying a Days Inn, a simple and inexpensive hotel option found in most typical US states.

Mile 2

I would say these accommodations are a step down from Days Inn and a step up from pitching a tent.

I am not into bugs or rodents, and you can find these creatures as regular residents in these structures.  Other casual "residents/visitors" could include snakes, skunks and bears.  Yes, bears.  Days Inn doesn't have those!

Most of the shelters have only 3 sides.  Most have water somewhere near by.  "Bathrooms" can be found behind the nearest tree.  Sleeping in one of these is a shared experience - sleeping bags side by side like sardines in a can if the hikers are abundant.    You really get quite a sampling of humanity at these shelters and for some this might be a big negative.  You know, some of humanity isn't so great!  I guess this beats sleeping in a tent on the cold ground. And you have very little to pack up in the morning before moving on.

***

I have decided to track my progress against a mileage chart found at SummitPost.org.  If you are tracking your steps/miles and "walking" with me, you can find your own location against this chart and let me know how far along the trail you are.

For those who are walkers using a pedometer, you might enjoy tracking your own progress on an actual map of the Appalachian Trail.  Walker Tracker is a free on line site that provides a place to log your steps each day.  There are many other features that make this a wonderful incentivizing tool, but the most appealing feature are the "competitions" that can be joined by just clicking the "join" button.  Then each day as you log your steps, the steps are applied to any competitions you have joined.  A "little" icon (that represents you) shows up on map with all the others in the competition and marks where each person is on the trail.  Very cool!

I have started a competition called The Appalachian Trail on Walker Tracker.  It isn't really a competition - mostly an opportunity to track your progress on a trail map and see if you can finish the trail by May 1, 2013.  At Walker Tracker my name is "esknitter".  If you decide to participate there, look me up and "friend" me - friends are called "comrades" on Walker Tracker.  Be sure to tell me you are coming from my blog.

I will post Appalachian Trail blog entries at a minimum of once a month - but I suspect I will drop in to report my progress a lot more frequently than that.

Hope to see you on the trail!  But if not at Walker Tracker, at least here on my blog.

Happy Trail Walking!

Talk the Walk - Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike

Some people have a "bucket list" ... stuff they want to see or do before they die.  I don't have that kind of list.

But over the last 10 years or so, I have had a small voice inside me that whispers a nagging message.

"Too bad you never hiked the Appalachian Trail."  

Yeah ... I know ... that sounds like sort of a mid-life crisis reaction ... something you do because you fear advancing age and you gotta squeeze in just one more thing ... hoping to slow down the march of time.  Some people buy a red sports car, some have an extra marital affairs, some take up running, some live in house boat and sail off to see the world.

Me? ... I would have loved to walk the Appalachian Trail.  

Well, I am past my mid-life now at 65.  But the AT hike idea did pop into my head around 50.  And although my husband and I discovered light hiking late in life (our 50's), our later years have been filled with family responsibilities for me and increasing visual impairment for him.  So even light hiking now is out unless you considered the walk from the kitchen to the living room a "light hike".  We weren't campers, or hikers, or outdoors enthusiasts earlier in life.  The preparation for so strenuous an adventure wasn't there. 

But it doesn't stop me from reading about people who have taken long hikes.  Currently I am reading Walking Home, A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail by Kelly Winters (publication 2001).

Does she look 65 years old to you?
hmm
Maybe in my next life.

It is one of many books I have read about people who have thru-hiked this 2160 mile trail on the eastern coast of the US.  I recommend it if you enjoy arm chair travel books that share an adventure you probably would never take.  I think it is out of print, but my library had it. 

Then I got to thinking.  I can't actually walk the AT trail, but wouldn't it be fun to virtually walk it.  This trail has a long shared documented history with many pictures.  Wouldn't it be fun to periodically apply my milage to the Appalachian Trail (AT) map and see where I wind up each time.  What are the sights I passed and the typical challenges of that trail, what can I expect going forward, and how long would it take for me to virtually walk the entire distance?  Yes, I am not making sterling progress on my current 1,000 miles a year goal - although I am picking up steam (and distance - with more on that later).  But, heck, it is a virtual walk and I am actually walking the steps anyway so why not see how they play out on the AT map.

This new posting series will be called The Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike.  And I will do my first post at the beginning of September.  It will give me time to get organized.  I will apply my total August mileage to the AT and report on what I passed with pictures.  (I will try to avoid waxing on about my virtual blisters!)

I am also looking for an online map of the AT that will allow me to post a little marker on it - sort of a visual that shows where I virtually am.  I haven't found anything yet.

I would welcome company - either with comments on my "adventures" or with reports on your own progress should you care to join me in this walk.  Hey, come on!  2160 miles sounds like a big number, but ... really ... it is just a walk in the woods!

Oh, you should also check out A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson! (My review here.) It is my favorite book of all time!  It is the story of the author walking the trail.  He is so unprepared at first that he makes me look like an AT veteran!  Great fun.

Cheers!