Fun Exercise: Hiking Five Miles

Since I finished the LiveFit workouts I haven’t been in the gym.

I haven’t wanted to be! I needed a break for a few days at least and I found the perfect activity to replace those hours spent in the gym: hiking! Lucky for me JuJu and Kepa also were into the idea.

Easter weekend we went to Totara Park together for the first time for a longer hike. We just ambled about for an hour or so that day and mostly let JuJu run around us in the off leash areas. It was so nice to be out walking and enjoying nature that we decided to go back the next day for an even longer walk.

We are both on Fitocracy (post on this coming soon) and decided to make our second hike long enough to complete a Fitocracy  quest. That meant we had to make sure we went 5 miles while carrying a pack, 25 lbs for Kepa and 10 lbs for me. We had our goal in mind so we set off in the park with little JuJu in tow!

The park is lovely. I went there before with Rachel and Lily but this is the first time I’ve gone all over the park and checked out the majority of the trails. Instead of sticking to the flat areas we went into the forest parts and climbed up and over the hills. The prettiest trail runs along a stream and also involves a lot of climbing vertically with plenty of stairs built into the trail. Parts of it felt like a decent challenge and my heart rate jumped itself up after climbing to the top (on average though it stayed around 140).

JuJu did great despite my worries that 5 miles was pretty far for her. She has almost endless amounts of energy so she only started to tire out toward the end. We did take a break midway for her to rest and for us to eat lunch, since picnics are the best!

Our hike ended with an easy stroll through the Botanic Gardens. Since we had to make sure we went the full five miles and the park and gardens are connected we decided an easy end looking at pretty flowers would be nice. Okay, I totally decided that part  but they went with it.

Here are the stats for the hike which we ended up breaking into two sections with a break for food/water/JuJu rest.

1:06:26 || 5.3 km || 12:28 min/km || 143 bpm || moderate hills || 10 lb(+458 pts)0:38:24 || 3.2 km || 12:06 min/km || 143 bpm || moderate hills || 10 lb(+237 pts)

After five miles I was tired but so happy. Some sun and time outside did great things to my mind and though I was tired I felt that lovely post exercise feeling of contentment. I definitely think we will be hiking more in the future since a couple of my fitness goals involve hiking (Rangitoto Island and Tongariro Crossing here in NZ). Plus it’s just really fun to exercise in nature.

As far as what I’ll be doing next I’m not 100% set on that. I definitely want to get back in the gym and lift but I might not be able to for a couple months. Things are a bit up in the air. We will see but no matter what I will keep active!

Related posts:

Hiking in Vermont!!Busy & Awesome WeekendBad JuJuExercise Slow Down + My Workout OptionsMeet JuJu

View the original article here