This past summer, I visited my grandparents with my two cousins in Aspen, Colorado. We go on this trip almost every summer and spend the week hiking and exploring the town. I have gone on 10+ mile hikes and camping excursions and jumped into freezing cold glacier water at the top of mountains. It is a trip my cousins and I always look forward to.
This summer was a wake-up call. I had been taking it pretty easy back in Maryland; going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and certainly not exercising. When we began to embark on our first hike of the trip at the Thomas Lakes trailhead, I wasn’t even thinking of how I would be affected by this 7.8 mile “moderately difficult” trail. I had done it before the previous summer! What could go wrong?
Well, about five minutes into the hike, I was already out of breath. I was moving as fast as I could and I was still losing sight of my cousins far ahead of me. It was a little embarrassing when they would wait for me every once in a while and I approached them gasping for air. Now, let’s just get this straight, adapting to the high altitude definitely made it much more difficult for me, but still, I wasn’t expecting to feel like I was scaling Everest!
The trip made me realize that I need to build my endurance. My goal is to gradually improve my endurance over the course of the next three weeks by walking four times a week. The first week I will walk one mile every day, the second week I will walk three miles each day, and the third week I will walk five miles each day.
In addition to my walking next week, I will also be preparing myself for success by drinking enough water and researching tips on how to build endurance. I’d like to vary the routes I take so I do not get bored. I have a few parks and hiking trails near my house that I might explore if I need a change of scenery.
Through this experience, I hope to adopt a walking routine that I can stick with in order to be more fit, build my endurance, and become overall more healthy.
If you would like to join in on this journey with me, feel free to follow along! I will be posting weekly blog posts as I go through this process. This is something that anyone with any skill level can do and it is a great way to get in shape without being too strenuous!
Email me if you have any questions or comments, otherwise, I’ll see you all next week!