Getting fit is a pain… literally. I pretty much ache all over today. I did a lot of pushups yesterday which is the main culprit, but I’ve also been walking & hiking a lot lately too, from the 2.2-mile uphill walk home from work to the weekend hours-long team hikes. My cavs and butt could care less if you call it a walk or a hike – if all feels the same.

Hike training as part of Team in Training is structured, but relies a lot of self motivation too. We have once-a-week team hikes, bright and early on Saturday mornings; then the rest of the week we have guidelines to follow but we’re on our own. So today, for example, was an “Incline Day.” I walked/jogged the Lyon street stairs for a good 50 minutes to fulfill that goal. Yesterday a walk + strength/weights day — so I walked home (40 minutes) and then did more pushups than my chest muscles care to know about today. It’s pretty intense actually, but I like the “homework” aspect of it. I know if I don’t do the midweek training, I won’t be able to summit Longs Peak in September, so that’s my motivation right now. If you follow that link to the Longs Peak site you’ll see why it’s scared me into to working my booty off.

As for the team hikes so far, the first one was pretty easy (2 hours along the coastal trail in San Francisco, above the Sutro Baths). It was a “bring a guest” hike, which worked out well because mom and dad were in town so it became a family outing. I think my parents had fun, though they were a bit bored during our morning clinic on proper attire before the hike.

That’s Markkus, mom and dad in the distance…

Here are a few more snapshots from the hike (more can be found on my Facebook page for those of you who are my FB friends:-)

Our hike this past Saturday followed a clinic on balance and core exercises and was about 2.5 hours in Redwood Regional Park (Oakland). You can see the trend — each week they’re a little longer. Unlike the coastal views the week before, Redwood offered nice serpentine rocky hillsides (did you know serpentine is the state rock?), plenty of steep hills and lots of wildflowers.

Up next for this Saturday: San Bruno Mountain state park.