The REAL training has begun!!! – The walk

More traditional training?

(02/21/2026)

If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll have seen that I took a job about 18 months ago under the pretext that I should do a pretty decent job of getting into «hiker shape.» And although that work was planned to continue in February, it was finished at the end of January. In theory, there was enough money saved to meet my goal of starting the journey. Plus a little more to get through the two months of preparation before the hike (P-Day 03/31/26). I was about to accept another short-term assignment as a nomadic package delivery pirate, but since there is an upcoming Memorial Service for my mother on 03/01, it was decided that my sister and I needed to spend some time together to coordinate certain aspects of it. So, unlike more work in tropical Rockford, IL, training camp has opened in the Metropolitan Mecca of Griffin, GA! FYI! For hiking, Georgia in February beats northern Illinois by a few miles!

For the haters!

There has been no shortage of skeptics willing to very openly and freely discuss their disagreement with the opinion that working as a package delivery person could get one in shape for this trek. To those people I simply say, «I don’t think you’ve ever held the same position as me!» For fear of crashing early in the hike attempt, there will be no bragging in claiming that it WAS a good/excellent choice and that it actually led to an adequate level of fitness at this time. But it DID serve its purpose by providing considerable physical and mental challenges during that period of time. And I assure you, IF I manage to complete a good portion of the course, THERE WILL BE a lot of “I told you so!” messages. to go around for everyone!

But for the sake of all those critics, I now announce that since work for me has stopped, a more traditional training plan has come into play.

YOGA:

(IgramTO for a ohld W.white GRAMoops!) Taking a job several years ago as a bartender at a “hot new place,” and being by far the oldest bartender hired, I quickly realized that while I could still get the job done and keep up with “the kids,” the next morning was often a “stretch in bed so you could even GET OUT of bed.” type of challenge. So at that point, some additional work needed to be done. Combining personal knowledge of spinal and skeletal anatomy, years of seminars focused on Sports Nutrition and Sports Medicine, and what could be found on YouTube for “Yoga Practice for Beginners,” a morning routine was formulated. This has proven to be increasingly beneficial in recent years. It’s gotten me through a couple more stints as a waiter, several stints of delivery work, a job running the Parks and Recreation Department in my hometown of Rushville, IN, and even the somewhat arduous task of rehabilitating myself after a 21-day hospital stay for an aortic dissection in July and August 2022. So, with a few minor modifications and additions to this routine, it’s started my day about 6 of 7 days in the past. A year and a half while I recovered to get in shape for this attempt!

“REAL STEPS!”

Many of the aforementioned “Haters” seemed to like this term. The masses criticized my theory that jumping in and out of the bed of a fairly tall pickup truck while carrying 5 separate 148.7-pound boxes of the new Pole Barn-sized shed or an Olympic-sized swimming pool-sized diving board, and then carrying it, hauling it, dragging it, or rolling it 50 yards down a gravel road to your front door would equate to being in shape. They would expose me to theories and enlightening statements such as: «Does nothing equal REAL STEPS?» or «Yes, but those aren’t REAL STEPS!»

To them I say: «BALDERDASH!»

But I also tell them, «Okay, okay, NOW I have time to go for a walk once in a while. I’m REALLY taking REAL STEPS!»

And I am. Lihat rfv8 untuk info lebih lanjut. I don’t have any strict routine, but I try to walk consciously and in a manner trained for this Path every day.

Some rough idea

Every morning when I wake up and before I get too distracted, whether mentally, physically or emotionally, I try to do my Yowga. This usually lasts between 27 and 45 minutes, depending on the overall stiffness/tension of the body and the daily schedule. After finishing this, depending on what time it is (remember, no work, no alarm!), comes the blood pressure test or walking the dog.

Taking and recording blood pressure every morning is an attempt to reduce pre-hike prescriptions. Walking the dog is in an attempt to avoid cleaning a two of a 120 pound Pitty mix! The dog’s walk is usually quite leisurely, since the aforementioned hippopotamus is about 13 years old, very independent, very slow (except when he is NOT) and very curious. But it’s usually a walk of at least a mile and can be up to a mile and a half. Some days the backpack is used for this hike, other days it is not.

Once Buck the Wonder Dog is coaxed back home, if I’m feeling good and have a bigger training day to do, I usually try to walk early, before I get distracted by the day again. Some days I’ll wear my entire backpack (it’s currently about 17 pounds, just for training purposes, NOT an official base weight or anticipated trail weight or anything), some days a «backpack» sized backpack with a water bottle or two in it, and some days, no backpack at all. These hikes at this point will almost always be a minimum of 4 miles, and sometimes 7-8, mostly on rolling hills, partially on pavement, partially on grass and dirt. I have a good 5 mile loop with a couple better hills, but every day I try to double it for a 10 mile ride, life gets in the way.

Throughout the day there will almost always be at least 2 more Buck Strolls, usually at least a mile, sometimes a little more. And also, as I said before, any of these hikes can be done or not with some type of backpack, to get used to the weight and get used to the movement of loading and unloading it.

Other than that, Sis and BIL have a very good distribution in the country and there is usually a lot to do around here. So I usually climb above the famous 10,000 step plateau even on a day without walking/intentional walking, and the steps tend to add up even on days with intentional training. Between occasional projects to help them with the place or grounds, or working on a couple of old clunkers I parked in the “back 40,” there is usually a lot of general physical activity interspersed throughout the day and these training activities. Again, it’s not as accurate as I know some people’s training logs are, but it keeps me moving, busy, and often sore, so it MUST be doing SOMETHING!

STRETCHED HOME!

At the time of writing this article, start day is 38 days away. So the time is coming! At an earlier time, when I was expecting a more intensive and focused training plan, there were plans to invoke a strict break from training, probably 3 weeks before start day. Having gone through this entire process in possibly a very unorthodox manner, but ultimately feeling that I am not in danger of OVERtraining, I no longer believe I need to abandon the training tray completely before the hike. Listening to my body will prevail over pushing more kilometers. Fewer days of pushing harder will be interspersed with more days of maintaining high activity, but perhaps not loading the knees. Starting to REALLY look at what gear (of EVERYTHING that has been purchased) will ultimately go in the pack and how to fit it in will help me better position the pack on my frame (and vice versa). Eating trail mixes and nutrition bars while doing training walks has started a little and will continue more, as well as starting to drink from the inner lake (by collecting the water and filtering it, NOT getting on all fours and lapping it up with my tongue!). These are all parts of the training that are being instituted at this time.

To close,

These are my training secrets from September 2024 until now. I’m sure there are many more haters reading this and saying, «Dude HAS NO CLUE!» and they could be right. But my friends, who are all “people of a certain age” along with me, all agree that even though they have trained more traditionally and more extensively, we NEED to take it easy to get started NO MATTER WHAT. We hope to start by just doing 8-12 mile days to see how we feel. Based on a 2 MPH pace, which is incredibly slow, that’s really only walking a maximum of 6 hours a day. That should be an achievable goal to reach from the start as we get our legs back and build some muscle, endurance, and probably most importantly, CONFIDENCE. Typically, even with a 17-19 pound backpack, 4 miles feels pretty good! Some days 6-8 miles will start at some points of soreness and fatigue, but it doesn’t seem like there will be too many times where more than 6-8 miles is required without some type or level of rest. Whether it’s just resting, mixing water bottles, eating, socializing, enjoying a view, waiting for a rattlesnake crossing to pass, etc., occasional breaks will likely be a solid part of our plan. So obviously I hope this training plan is enough.

I certainly encourage, appreciate, and will listen to any comments or feedback anyone wants to leave. And we’ll see where this training routine takes me. In closing, let me say:

YEAH! Of course it “started” was on purpose! But did it catch your attention?