Basically, training...

In my last post I mentioned how hard it was for me to walk in the door for the first time, since returning, without going straight to the fridge or pantry. I also mentioned that may have had something to do with muscle memory, or in my case, "I'm home and so now I want to eat memory", as I like to call it. So, I decided I would fight fire with fire, as it were, by going back to the place I grew up running all over the hills and mountain sides. Fortunately, I only live 10 miles or so from there now. I recruited a new hiking partner. It really wasn't hard because she seems to like me a bunch for some reason. She doesn't know CPR and stands to collect a fair amount if I suddenly drop dead on a hike so, if I don't return...I'm just saying.

Both yesterday and today we started bright and early at the Elk Ridge city park and walked up and over the hill and down into Loafer Canyon, where I grew up. We walked up the canyon to the gate and yesterday, walked the left fork up into Woodland Hills and this morning, took a trail to the right that went up the hill to the base of Tithing mountain and then down the foothills and through town all the way back to the park. There is just something about walking up the roads and through the hills in the same places I have since I was five...although I'm a touch bigger now. I passed trees in which we had built forts and trees that I had fallen from...sometimes one in the same. The town has changed a lot, but the memories are as fresh as ever. Having had spent so much time walking in the same places for years. Years prior I had a sense of safety, familiarity and confidence that having done this so many times in the past...I could surely do it again today!

At one point on the hike yesterday, the trail started getting very muddy. I had a thought that went something like, "I have to quit for the morning and get back on the road so as to not get my new shoes dirty." Now, on the surface there is nothing wrong with that statement and it sounds completely reasonable, right? My wife, who is infinitely smarter than I, pointed out that this was the very reason I had bought trail shoes...to protect my road shoes and be subjected to a harsher terrain. I was prepared right then and there to rob my shoes of the opportunity of fulfilling their one duty...to get a little dirty while protecting my feet so I can focus on getting in better shape. It caused me to think, what fun is a 4X4 without a scratch, a clean house without 4 little kids to mess it up, a bank account without a purchase (or two), and running shoes in mint condition for 3 or so years? And how ironic that I would work to keep so many things in pristine condition, and let myself get in such disrepair! This reminds me of a time I sold our elliptical on ksl.com. The add I posted simply said--3 year old elliptical for sale, extremely low miles, must remove clothes off machine to use!

T- 5 1/2 days until I leave my sweet wife with our 4 crazy kids to head back to Fitness Ridge. In the mean time, I am enjoying my new hiking partner very much, asking myself the tough questions and implementing all that I can remember before I go back and have it hammered into my noggin once again!