If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you know it's incredible beauty and size. My brother, brother-in-law and I will be doing the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike sometime in November 2026 and this is my training journal. For the past couple of years, I have been an avid pickleball player and so this training is requiring that I put that on the back burner for awhile. That also means, I'm not in particularly good cardio shape coming into this. My history is as a runner - I picked up running sometime around 2009-2010, innumerable 5Ks/10Ks, a bunch of half-marathons and two full marathons. I was a cyclist for a couple of years in there as well - so endurance sports aren't foreign to me, but I'm curious to how my body will respond to this challenge. Our goal is to complete the R2R2R hike in one day, 42-some miles and over 11,000 feet of elevation gain.
4/26 - Saturday was another travel day so another missed training day. I thought about running yesterday after we got back, but it was later in the day and I was tired. Today the weather was perfect (upper-50s and sunny) and so went for a longer ride. Was originally going to go 20 miles, but went a little farther than that because I explored some of the longer sections of trails from our house. Ended up going 22.5.
4/24 - Had a work trip to Tampa and well, I'm really not good at maintaining a schedule when I'm on the road...so I missed a few days. L came with me on the trip so we decided to make a weekend of it and spent the day at the beach on Friday. I'm not the type of person to sit at the beach, so I spent the day walking. 3 total walks, about 6.5 miles of walking. Legs felt good. My lower back is still bothering me, but it's mostly when I sit for a long time or in an uncomfortable chair.
4/20 - Got a late start (8:30p) because of kids activities but was a beautiful night for a run, cool temps and little to no breeze. Kept a pretty easy pace for 45 minutes.
4/19 - Hour long bike ride in perfect weather (sunny, about 50). Been massaging and keeping heat packs on my back which provides at least some relief, though the pain is nearly constant (low level). It didn't hurt during the ride though - I made a couple of adjustments to my bike before I left and it was about 200% more comfortable than last week's ride. Wind was right in my face the whole way out and then more of a side wind on the way home.
4/18 - Played my typical Saturday morning pickleball game and right in the first game, I managed to tweak my lower back pretty good - I think it's the Piriformis area and was perhaps an aggravation of mild piriformis syndrome. That seems to explain my symptoms pretty well. I finished out an hour and half of pickleball and then ran a couple of miles. Outside of my back hurting, I felt fine.
4/17 - Rest day outside of 'Dad's Gym Night' with the kiddos.
4/16 - Another 40-minute timed run; ran with C for most of it and she did pretty well. For whatever reason, this run felt hard, even though the pace wasn't up. I had eaten dinner about 30-minute prior so maybe that was part of it, but also my legs just feel heavy. Not sure if this is just part of getting back into it or what.
4/15 - 40-minute timed run - I was expecting to feel better having a had a day off, but legs felt heavy and what should have been an 'easy' effort didn't feel all that easy. Did an ice bath afterwards for about 7-8 minutes.
4/14 - Rest day but still got 10K steps in. My lower back has been bothering me the past week - its the worst in the morning, doesn't really hurt at all when I'm running or doing other activities.
4/13 - An hour and half of pickleball followed by a 30-minute run. My focus is more on the time spent on my feet rather than mileage/speed. Legs were very tired afterwards.
4/12 - Rest Day.
4/11 - Pickleball game Saturday morning for a couple of hours. My body is tired.
4/10 - Went home a little early from work to get a bike ride in. I got a new hybrid bike last Fall and had never really ridden it. Also got new shoes that had new pedal clips. So...it took a little bit to get everything ready to go. The seat -- very uncomfortable. Other than that - it was an enjoyable ride...it's always surprising to me how different cycling feels than running.
4/9 - Ran in the evening and definitely had too much pizza for dinner. Outside of that, I felt fine and completed another 30-minute run (3.15 miles), this time outside. Weather was pleasant. Charlotte ran with me for the first mile but a side ache took her out after that. Back has been feeling better/less tight but the new pain is right under the very center of my rib cage. Looking forward to when I don't feel doughy and weak.
4/8 - Took it easy yesterday and basically did nothing. My lower back was very tight yesterday and did some stretching in the evening. Still tight this morning, but it didn't hurt to run. Decided to do a timed run, 30 minutes (3.2 miles). Felt good, felt like I could have gone longer. I'm trying not to go crazy out of the gate and then just end up with some kind of injury, so this first month will be pretty light mileage, base-building, etc. Weighed in at 189.8.
4/6 - I guess this was the official start of training. Last night I played pickle for about 90 minutes (I have a regular Monday night game) and then afterwards I ran 2 miles at a relatively easy pace. Right at the beginning of the games there were a couple of points that tweaked my lower back and as I write this on 4/7, my lower back has been singing quite a bit this morning. Legs otherwise feel good - going to take it easy today and see if that doesn't help my back.
No comments:
Post a Comment