Exercise – A Year of Wonderland

Does Your Backpack Own a Boss Trail Name?

Meet Jonny Cache

I don’t know about you but, just about everyone I hike with has a trail name.

One year we decided to go with names from the American Gladiators. For those of you too young to know about this TV show. You can get up to speed on Wikipedia.

American Gladiators aired from September 1989 to May 1996. It matched gladiators against one another and other amateur athletes.

Our house went full-tilt testosterone when all my boys got a bit over-excited about watching them duel it out.

With my kids hands all over each other, I learned hearing the theme song, evoked the motion in the room to increase. In this way I know there has to be a similar parallel to a trail names.

My boss trail name became Turbo at that time with my friends, Blaze, Lace, and Red still owning their names like a boss as I write.

Recently, I decided Turbo needed a bit of a boost and thought Xena Warrior Princess was more fitting for me.

Xena has stuck for awhile.

I’ve always thought she was better at just simply being strong and beautiful then could muster up hidden strength when necessary from the gods. I’d kind of forgotten about her.

Screen Shot 2020-04-09 at 9.36.41 AM

This week I decided Xena needed to be called up again. I always work out better when I have this mindful and playful attitude about kicking ass. To prove my point Xena did some serious ass kicking this past week.

Double workouts in a day. Bike rides, long runs, charging hill sprints and backpacks loaded down with 20 pounds of cat litter on neighborhood hill hikes.

I was on fire!

Because I frequently hike around the neighborhood with a 20 pound bag of cat litter stuffed inside, at some point I was jokingly saying each time, ” I am taking my cat litter on a walk.”

Since we’ve been up-close and personal, like my new best friend this past month, I decided on a name for my backpack. It’s better than taking your cat litter on a walk.

That’s where Jonny Cache was created. Jonny Cat to Jonny Cache.

Now that one is going to stick around awhile.

I met my training and hiking friend Candace at Pt. Defiance in Tacoma for an urban trail hike for our first hike of the year.

This January, I set goals for two hikes per week in addition to my regular gym and and replacing my endurance running workout.

Since I recently trained and finished a 1/2 marathon in December, my body felt sore, tight and fatigued, so I took a well deserved running break. I also had some hamstring tightness that resulted in high hamstring tendonitis. It took about 6 weeks of recovery with no sprinting or high knee stepping at the gym. I also saw an acupuncturist for 3 non-invasive treatments to the area with the TENS unit hooked up to me.

Note: The best advice I can give you with any injury or before embarking on daily physical training is see a doctor. During your training make sure you have adequate rest and nutrition. Needing a nap at noon everyday, or having frequent injuries is a sign of overtraining, not enough calories or both.

Since my endurance training has now been mostly replaced with hikes, I will need to pay close attention to my weekly workout and calories. Some of my endurance training will count as endurance, while others days are simply beautiful urban hikes which refuel my recovery and add to my rest days and spirit.

I also continued to meet with my personal trainer who noticed my dietary intake had changed with poor eating habits over then holidays.. My potassium, calcium and iron percents were well below normal based on my nutrition tracker MyFitnessPal as well.

During January find a beautiful urban hike such as Pt Defiance Park. It has an abundance of nature trails. Garmin measured the loop at about 5 miles. Calories 400 at sea level and 420 ft at the highest point. Just breathing in the abundance of oxygen completely restores me. Washington Trails Association Trip Report