All hiking shoes are not created equal

To continue from yesterday's post about the shoes, I can tell you that the sneakers did help and were better than my hiking shoes.  However, I asked the hiking guide for a recommendation on shoes, and he said that he went through 13 pairs of shoes before he found the right ones for hiking.  It turns out that most other hiking guides have the same brand and the shoes are sold on site in the store.  Therefore, I purchased a pair.

Right now I have 5 pairs of shoes total, and I use most of them every day.  Not only do we change clothes a few times per day, but we also change shoes.  I don't think that I have 5 pairs of shoes back home in my closet.

So, tomorrow I will use the new hiking shoes on the hike and report how they did.  After yesterday's hike, I requested to be on hikes that were a little more flat than yesterday's hike.  None of the hikes are totally flat, but some have steeper inclines that others.

Today's hike was the best so far.  The other hikes were alright, but the trails were narrow and had rocks sometimes.  The hike today was just perfect in my opinion.  There was enough incline and decline to get a good workout, and it was flat in parts.  The trail was wide and there weren't any rocks.  Oh ya, and then there was the scenery.  We were in the hills overlooking the ocean at some parts.  When we could't see the ocean, we were in a meadow part that was flat.  I'm kinda disappointed in the pictures because the sun created a glare.  Note that on the pictures below, replace the glare with the Pacific Ocean.

The rest of the day was all about intensity balance.  By that I mean that I've been asking the question of how hard should I push the intensity today in order to get a good workout, but also have some energy left in the tank to survive 8 weeks total?  If I was here for one week, it would be easy to give 110% all the time and not be able to move from soreness and tiredness at the end of the week.

Yes, we are off Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, but is that enough rest to recover from the week?  I suppose the answer will come from trial and error.  By the way, I was about 80% intensity all day, if I had to estimate.

There is a big verity of group classes in the afternoon, and the schedule for the classes is the same each week.  Therefore, I know what to expect schedule wise in future weeks.  Right now I am feeling good.  My feet are not as bad as yesterday and some of the soreness is starting to wear off just a little.  I am thinking about keeping the intensity the same at 80% for the rest of the week and then re-evaluate Monday morning.  Note that during the Cardio Disco class on Friday, I will be giving it 100%.  If I knew about this class in advance, I would have brought proper disco attire.  Oh wait, that means another pair of shoes, so maybe not.

Today is Wednesday and a lot of people made reference to hump day.  I have never thought of Wednesday at hump day, but alright.  I am looking forward to tomorrow's hike because I get to try out the new shoes.

So far, one of my accomplishments every day has been the soup.  They pretty much take a vegetable, boil it, add spices, then use the boat motor to puree it.  Monday was carrot soup, Tuesday was parnsnip soup, today was beet soup.

Closing thought for the day:  Even thought I did a lot of research before coming here, and I brought a lot of items with me, sometimes adjustments are needed on the fly.  My adjustment for today was new hiking shoes.  I will be constantly adjusting the intensity for the rest of the week so that I get a good workout and still have enough left in the tank to go the distance.