Red and Yellow and Pink and Green ...

Anybody recognize where that's from? If I tell you you'll start humming it in your head and not be able to get rid of it. Kinda like me right now! LOL But it's a song that often comes to mind when I look at the trail map for Ridley Creek State Park. There is no Pink or Green trail and the Red trail is being abandoned but I did spend a lot of time on the Yellow trail today. Along with Blue and the Horse trail.

I met the MLC group at 8 am. There were 8 of us including Rajiv's wife Arti who hiked with me. We had not met before so we had a great time for just under 2 hours hiking and chatting. She said she had a good time and I really hope she comes back out next week. I hope others come out too. It'd be great to get a hiking group going alongside the trail runners.

After I returned Arti to Rajiv and chatted with Destrie and Randy for a bit I went back into the park to finish my time for the day. Here is a link to Garmin where you can see my map I covered a lot of the yellow trail more than once today since it was the best way to get across the park to and from the other trails I wanted to travel. Arti and I did a loop on the yellow, blue and white trails and then I followed the yellow back toward picnic area #9 where I cut across to walk the horse trail. RCSP has stables and therefore a horse trail.

The horse trail is not much different than the other trails. A few less tree roots (a few), about the same amount of rocks and - of course - horse sh**. Actually there was less of that than I expected and it really doesn't' get in the way of a good hike. I mean let's face it horses don't dump small. It's kind of hard to miss. The only thing the horse trail could use is bit more signage. There was one part where I crossed a driveway with all kinds of 'keep out' signs and while it kinda sorta looked like the trail went across it wasn't clear and the trail on that side was all overgrown with grass up to my elbows. There wasn't any where else to go though so I was fairly certain it was the right way. It was.

As I came around the horse trail alongside Gradyville Road I cut off the trail and followed a driveway out to the road to head toward the mansion/park office to pick up the yellow trail off Sandy Flash Road and back to my car. At this point I was at 4 hours and I wanted to 4.5 hours today. I didn't want to push it too far past that and finishing off the horse trail would have done that.

I didn't want to push to far past 4.5 because I missed last week. I should have done 4 last week and 4.5 this week. I debated briefly last night what to do since it's also been ten days since I last hiked at all. Stormy weather and not feeling good (mostly sinus issues) kept me off my feet all that time. I had done the 8 hours to Independence Hall on July 4th with no ill effects. And the pavement is harder than trails so I figured I'd go for it. If I had to stop and rest so be it.

As it is I finished 13.13 miles in 4 hours and 48 minutes. I stopped the watch after the first set when we stood around chatting for a bit. I left it running all of the rest of the time. Even on event day I will have to stop and stretch and pee and the 12 hour clock won't stop for any of that. I felt great the whole time. No hip or knee issues. My mind was in the game and I think I hydrated well too.

My camel-back has reached its limit though. I may have had about a half hour of hiking left in it. I'm going to need to go back to my car now to refill or carry a pack with more water in it. For now I can do routes that take me back to the car but at least for my 10 hour hike in October I'd like to do out and back (5 hours each way) or ideally point to point so I'll need to figure out how to carry more or arrange drops. Figuring out what works is what this training is all about. So far so good. I ate fig newtons at the 2 and 4 hour marks. That seemed to work well too. The aid stations on the Super Hike are approximately 6-7 miles apart so refueling every 2 hours is good spacing.

All in all it was an almost perfectly awesome day. The only downside was tweaking my ankle. After all the tree roots, rocks, climbing over downed trees and climbing and descending the hills in the park I was fine. When I went cut off the trail to the road I thought I'd walk on the grassy shoulder of the road to avoid cars and because it was softer. A few steps in I stepped in a hole and twisted my right ankle. I had no choice though to go back to my car. And the quickest way was cross country in the park. It was fine climbing but on the downhill every time I stepped on a rock or root (which are hard to miss) it twinged.

I iced it as soon as I got home and I've repeated that several times. I have it elevated and wrapped in an ankle compression sleeve between icing. It hurts like the crazy at the moment. I seriously want to cry. I can't find a position that it doesn't hurt. Even elevated. :( It didn't feel this bad when it happened. Then again, maybe it did but having no choice but to get back to the car my mind refused to feel it.

So I hiked the all the trail colors of the park and now I'm just hoping my ankle is not all sorts of colors tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back up and walking well again for next week at Warwick County Park for another hike.

I want to say keep smiling but it's hard at the moment. And moving....yeah well maybe later.

Rest Day(s)

I thought about going to hike at Smedley Park today. It was hard to resist the urge since it is yet another gorgeous day. I feel good. My right hip is a little buzzy but hiking doesn't bother it they way the bike does. Still, I know I need to rest, stretch and strengthen my glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors if I want to keep hiking, biking, smiling and moving. And I do.

I recalled the exercises the PT gave me last year and did a set this morning along with some yoga. the difference between my right and left legs is significant. I'm going to do two more sets today and aim for two a day on weekdays. Not so easy to do all of them at work but there a few stretches and yoga poses I can do at my desk that won't flash anyone. LOL There's always the handicap stall in the bathroom if there are any raised eyebrows (or bigwigs in the office) but I still won't do any lying on the ground exercises there!

I have a hike planned for Wednesday at Ridley Creek State Park. And my goal the next three days is to start a routine of stretching and strength work which will carry far beyond Wednesday.

So this morning I skipped the hike, did some PT and cleaned the bathroom. Oh joy!

Longest Bike Ride

Today I drove to and parked at the Heinz Wildlife Refuge parking lot just off route 420 and rode the East Coast Greenway into Delaware. An argument could be made that I should have ridden the bike all the way from home. But from home to the parking area is about 14 miles round trip. That would have taken a huge chunk out of my miles for the day. Maybe another day.

I hadn't planned any activity today. I figured I'd see how I felt after yesterday's Independence Day Walk and go from there. I slept until 8 this morning and my legs felt fine. We stopped frequently to stretch yesterday and I stretched again when I got home. Stretching matters. :)

Since I had no plan for today it took me the better part of an hour from decision to pulling away from home. Including coming back in the house twice (once after about a block away) to pick up things I had forgotten. This is why I make lists folks and why when I do have a plan or idea in mind I lay everything out the night before.

It was a gorgeous day for a bike ride. Once again another gorgeous summer weekend. Arthur has completely left the area so we had bright sunshine and low humidity and on top of that low temps as well.

The ECG portion that I was on more or less follows 291 in PA and Gov Printz Blvd in Delaware. The PA portion except for the part that goes onto the Chester Waterfront Trail is kind of boring. 291 is also known as the Industrial Highway and does live up to it's name. Still it was a pleasant ride on a such a beautiful day. The part along the waterfront was particularly stunning.

So who knew that Delaware has hills? Not big ones mind you. I've done bigger hills in and around Media. But when one is cruising along flat road for 12 miles and then has to climb out of seemingly nowhere....well it's a surprise. At the top of the 'hill' was a nice long descent back to the river level.

At 15 miles I looked for the next safe spot to cross over the 4 lane road and began the return trip. The return up the long slow hill was not all that much fun but I'm proud to say I made it without getting off the bike. Same for the rise over I-95 just before reaching the car.

For most of the ride my right quad was burning. It bothered me last weekend too. Last weekend I quit after 8 miles this weekend I figured I'd keep going since there was so much flat. The discomfort made those measly hills painful. Although the flats did not provide much relief. I'm pretty sure the pain is my quad muscle rebelling for having to work overtime because my hamstrings and hip flexors are weak/tight on that side. I stopped frequently to stretch everything with extra attention on hamstrings and hip flexors and while that helped it only provided short term relief. :( I need to pay attention to these more for the long haul.

And I will. But for now I'm excited to have reached a milestone on the bike. 30 miles! Yay me. It was slow. I'm slow. I'd love to get stronger and faster eventually. For now I'm happy to be able to ride comfortably and - bit by bit - a little longer.

Click here for more photos from today's ride

8 Hours to Independence Hall

Today I made my second trip in two years from Media to Independence Hall. Unlike last years' trip, this year I had company. Kathy, Maria, Maritza, Mike, Sara & I met at the Media Train Station and walked from there. 

When my kids were little the standard answer to "How long will it take to get there?" was 8 hours. So it was natural for me to say that when someone in the group asked how long it would take us to get there. In the end, it really did take 8 hours. We left the train station area about 8 am and arrived at Independence Hall just about 4 p.m. Considering the bathroom stops, water refill stops, stops to visit the Aldan 4th of July Parade and a leisurely lunch at City Tap Room we made pretty good time. According to Sara's fit-bit we traveled 17.88 miles, walked 43,534 steps and climbed the equivalent of 61 flights of stairs. 

And we had a really good time doing it. 

The before photo
at our first stop about a mile in at Wawa in Media 

The after photo
17+ miles later at Independence Hall

Wednesday Swim on Misery and Joy

Very humid tonight. Heat indexes during the day hovered around 105. I'm not sure what it was at 4:45 when we headed off. Three of the MLC gang were there to run I was hiking. Under the tree cover of Misery and Joy the air was thick but still better than the open desert conditions elsewhere in Valley Forge Park.

I set out first along the Valley Creek Trail to begin my climb on the Wolfinger Trail. This was much easier to climb than it was to descend last week. But I will master the descent eventually. I  climbed on Wolfinger, Misery and the Horseshoe Trail to the top of Misery before turning around and following the HST all the way down to route 23. From there I crossed 252 to go up and over Joy back to my car. This outing was measured in miles, time and sweat (felt like gallons).

I experimented with short running steps on the downhills today. In hiking mode I catch my toes on the rocks often. Short running steps keep my feet higher off the ground which seems to help. I felt more stable on the downhill this way too. There are portions of all these trails where the obstacles are too close together but I did what I could. On the few smooth downhills I let gravity take over and jogged down. I had to switch between jogging and high stepping a lot but it worked.

A day off tomorrow whether I planned to or not as it is supposed to be rainy and stormy all day. Friday a bunch of us are walking to Independence Hall. It will be fun to do that with company this time.