These Knees Were Made For Walking

I haven’t written in a while so this will be long. I am continuing to walk along the American Tobacco Trail for training. I am up to six miles 2x a week and once a week to increase speed. I am also doing yoga 2x a week and strength training 2x a week.

This schedule kicks my butt. I do rest on Saturdays and Sundays except for one of the gentle yoga classes. The heat influences how everything feels and makes it a lot harder. I am making sure that I drink enough water and I try not to do too much in the heat of the day. A couple of weeks ago, though, I took an extra day off. I found myself dragging through the schedule and could not push myself a little further on a regular basis to increase endurance and make progress toward my long term goals.

During this time I became a little discouraged and all of my doubts surfaced. (Not that they are ever far away, mind you) There are so many things that need to get in place and the process of training and the non-training things that need to be done is Enormous.

Here is a small example of what I worry about:

• Money
• transportation
• traveling companions

Worrying about money is about par for coarse. But one example of extra expenses for this trip is shoes. I will likely go through 5-7 pairs for this trip. I bought new shoes last week and they were $225. HOW in the world am I going to get new shoes every time I need them?

Will my car make it? I have confidence with my Prius but should I get a camper? That would also require a truck. I usually combine this worry with “where am going to sleep?” An ongoing conversation in my head. What can I say?

My current plan of “hub and spokes” means that I will need someone with me all of the time. Not necessarily the same person but someone. My hope is that folk will want to join me for a few days or week in areas of the country that they want to see. Lots of details for this to work out, too.

I have a lot more worries. It feels like thousands but that is an exaggeration. But I bet there are hundreds.

Here are some of the solutions to these thoughts:

One of the things on my “to do” list in the next couple of weeks is to put together a schedule. I have a dry erase calendar and a list of the trails I will be walking. When I reach my “full steam ahead” routine I will be able to predict where and when I will be this first year. The overall trip is 4000 miles. I plan to do a little more than 2000 this year the the rest next year. If all goes well I will finish late September of 2026, on the coast of Washington state.

When I think about the weather and what I will need to do for inclement weather days I like the idea of being able to be inside. Hence, thoughts of a camper. Wet tents suck. And sitting still can get boring. But that would be expensive and my brain circles back to money.

And around and around I go.