Hard to believe it is only 28 days until our big endurance event, 29029. Steve and I had been doing great with our training, sticking to the schedule, until I was taken down by a groundhog. Yes, you heard that right a groundhog. Doing one of our short hikes close to home, I stepped in a groundhog hole as we walked across a field. I went down and quickly realized I could not walk. I had pulled my calf muscle. It’s been three weeks of icing, resting, and slowly taking short walks again. Finally I feel ready to go.

Yesterday I did my first actual hike on a trail since the injury. We took it relatively easy, hiking for just 1 1/2 hours at a slow steady pace. My calf felt good. I was on my way to training again.

Today was a bigger test for the leg. We headed to Poe Valley State Park (we’re staying in the RV in the area). Today was a 5 hour training hike. It also included many rests and refueling as part of the training. So we would hike for 45 minutes and then rest for 15. We did this 5 times for a total of 5 hours and covered just under 10 miles. The terrain varied with steep uphills and downhills, rocks, roots, roads, and even sand.

It was a beautiful day and the state park is a great place to hike. We didn’t see anybody on the trails and it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. We also didn’t see much wildlife, a toad, a couple caterpillars, and some geese by the lake.

My calf felt good and I was very happy to be training again.