Week 13 of 26

A landmark week! Moved on to the mountain trails near my house (so still at 6-7000 feet). I did the Brown's Creek trail once last week, and again 3 times this week, but with a twist: on two days I did the 2.3 mile loop twice, and on the third day did a portion of the forest service trail instead of the loop. I can see there is a time coming soon where I won't be able to tell how many miles I have gone, but only how many hours. So I am going to start recording here the time as well as estimated miles.

Trails are much harder on the body parts than the streets. My hip, which hasn't bothered me much since about week 3, started complaining again, especially on the downhills. The knees were also unhappy for part of the week. I really can't do the trail two days in a row without things hurting. But I see how far I have come in three months, and hopefully in another three I will be able to string together several long days at elevation. Either that, or I won't make it up Kilimanjaro. I have days when I feel strong and think, ok, I can do this. And other days when I think I won't be able to make it two days, never mind making the summit.

I also have realized (through the pilates) that my left leg is really significantly weaker than my right (left side was the hip surgery). I am disgusted to look back on this week and find that I only did the pilates once. I know this is so important, and I can't seem to make myself do it!

This week:

June 7: 8.6 miles, Brown's Creek loop 2X. 4 hours, 15 minutes
June 8: Rest
June 9: 8.6 miles, Brown's Creek loop 2X. 4 hours, 10 minutes
June 10: Forced day of rest to thatch the lawn. 3 hours hard labor!
June 11: 8.1 miles, Brown Creek trail + forest service land
June 12: Pilates, 5.2 miles on streets at 6K feet. 1 hour 15 minutes
June 13: 6.5 miles on streets at 6K feet. Forgot to get the time.

Total this week: 37 miles