Saturday, March 30, 2013

Appalachian Trail Part 1 Week 1

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I think I've mentioned on here before that I have chronic pain not associated with endo. Oddly enough it started not long after my first lap but we have it mostly under control now. I actually take a low dose anti-depressant that is prescribed for chronic pain as an off label use. I have break through pain a few times a month but mostly I'm fine... unless I exercise. Yup, that's just what a fat girl with PCOS wants is to not be able to exercise. Back before we stopped TTC I had worked up to about 90 minutes of light yoga a week which was at least something. Since then I haven't felt like doing anything. What does this have to do with the Appalachian Trail? I promise I'm getting to that part. =)

I thought well maybe I can't work up the energy or will to do yoga but I can take the dog for a walk. We don't normally take Scotty for walks as we have a big (fenced in) backyard he shares with another dog. With me being in so much pain lately from endo there have been days weeks where I haven't gone outside at all. So taking the dog for a walk and being in the sun a bit might improve my spirits slightly and get in at least some physical activity other than walking to the kitchen. I needed something to keep me accountable though or else I knew I wouldn't do it more than a day or two. So I started searching for walking apps for my phone.

Enter Virtual Walk. It's an app that lets you experience different destinations by walking around your own neighborhood. Say you select the National Mall route, your house has just become the Washington Monument. You get a little bit of info about the monument and a picture. It tells you stuff like because the construction took over 35 years, different sources of marble were used. Due to this you will notice the lower 156 feet are a different color than the rest. It's kind of like a tour guide in your phone! The next destination is the World War II Memorial, but the info about that is locked until you walk the actual distance between it and the Washington Monument. You can set it on treadmill mode rather than GPS and just leave it on until you unlock everything, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

The walk I chose is the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. It is 70.6 miles long and most people complete it in about a week. I figure it's going to take me about six months. =D In order to keep myself even more accountable I thought I would update my progress here every week. Not sure which day yet, probably Friday or Saturday. So if you see a week go by without an update feel free to call me out on it! I know my time is pretty terrible, but please keep in mind I'm walking the dog and he likes to stop and sniff stuff and pee on all the mailbox posts.

Name of trail: AT Part 1 - Georgia
Distance this week: 2.6 miles
Total distance: 2.6 miles
Time this week: 1:05:11
Total Time: 1:05:11
Landmarks reached: AT Start, Spring Mountain Shelter, Stover Creek Shelter

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