Our return to Cedar Ridge yesterday was a success, I think everyone gained some confidence in their individual stamina and I believe that while we still need to work on our fitness, any lingering thoughts or fears are probably gone.
I can tell you that I wondered about the first day, all the blogs and the people that I’ve talked to that have done it said it was the toughest day for them, I think they talked me into believing that and it worked.
The upside to that type of fear for me is that I worked myself harder. Personally, I’ve been training for this for 18 months. Whether it’s just general fitness, my ‘walkouts’ or my almost daily distance walking, I feel that I’m prepared. I will continue to work harder for the next 2 months.
Yesterday at Cedar Ridge, we all pushed the assents/descents. I purposely worked very hard on my pace and climbing, leaving the group behind several time, the challenge was to beat my fear of Day 1. It’s obvious to me that my treadmill workouts were very beneficial.
We all went to Café Momentum last night, I wrote about their mission earlier, to a person, we all commented that we were in much better shape and, the stiffness and aches that we experienced 5 months ago were minimal this time.
We’re all carrying our packs at or near our Camino weights and getting the final tuning done. My pack feels great as do my boots. Leighton is still trying to get his boots right, his orthotic is still giving him problems. Renee has her new pack, it’s small but she seems to like it and, it forces you to go minimal.
Renee and I had a running conversation this week about the schedule and length of some of the days. After looking at the rough draft, it was clear that there were some long days that could be avoided with a little tweaking. There are however, 2-3 that are just going to be long. The best understanding that came out of the conversation was that we each walk our Camino. If you’re tired or hurting, stop. If you want to walk on, keep going. No obligations nor expectations. We’ll meet up along the way.
A little update. First time at Cedar Ridge, we did about 5 miles, this time my Garmin says that I did about 7 miles and a more brisk pace.
We’re 10 weeks out.